It’s a fair comment if you say I’m a reactionary. A lot of what I write has that implication. I constantly compare our lifestyles today with those, of the even and relaxed 30s. While acceding to the fact that some of the aspects of our lives have been improved by progress, I believe that that same progress has come at a very dear cost. It was the rehash of a crazy, totally dotty film, ‘The girls of St Trinnions’ that prompted my thoughts. If you have read my blog, I believe you will see that I have led quite a tough life, on the lower deck in the Navy, in one of the hardest professions, heavy engineering, and so do not consider myself to be a powderpuff. But when a film, shows one girl head-butting another and considers this funny, at a time when aggressive interaction is considered a serious problem, it gives me more than pause for thought, and so I fear I will be going over old ground again. To my regular readers I apologise.
Today we are being sold short in so many aspects of our lives. The quality of our leaders leaves so much to be desired, because it is now a job, with all that implies, not a vocation, and those with the real ability are no longer going into politics. The serious, and wrong decisions made over the last few years, and the gross mismanagement which has affected us all, in so many departments, such as banking, going to war, child support, the health service, public transport, serious crime, road maintenance, and now air traffic control, just to mention a few, cause one to question how this could come about in such huge proportions, with hard-working people being disadvantaged because they made the right decisions at the wrong time through no-fault of their own, savers losing their capital and the taxpayer being forced to pick up the bill, whether he thinks it’s fair or not. Greed and lack of probity are the root cause. Throughout the world, not only in this nation, has the shortcut to wealth by any means, been to the advantage of a few at the expense of the majority. It would seem that the throwaway ethos has crept into every aspect, where respected and once responsible organisations such as the BBC, stoop to sharp practice. Where the government in its lack of wisdom, and our money, provides for and encourages spending with a view to helping the small traders and manufacturers with their cash flow, then discovers that only the major players with their periodic one-off sales are gleaning the cash and pandering to the natural innate greed of the individual.
Responsibility and consideration for others, is still the standard of some, but is no longer the general yardstick, people no longer put their names and addresses on advertisements for services, they merely use a word that gives a reference to their offer and a mobile telephone number. This in itself is an indication that trust has gone out the window. The person offering the services, for some reason is not using his own name and address, and the person wishing to employ them will be questioning the level of trust he can equate when he is inviting them into his house. Everyone knows of cases where, when receiving a handful of change which includes a bill and notes as well as silver and copper, there are occasions when ‘mistakes’ can be made and the purchaser is short-changed. I’m not saying that this did not occur in the 30s, but then people had not the same opportunities for advancement. Parental control was both harsher and sterner. School discipline was rigid and in some cases excessive. Workers accepted their position equably, and their ordained future as generations before them had done. The woman’s place was in the home, the man was the breadwinner, and to some extent their roles were maintained. Now everything has changed, there is a greater increase in single parents, people expect the state to provide more, and the desire for aggrandisement in every walk of life is now commonplace. This has resulted in the buy now pay later or never, ethos, criminal activity to a level where people have the shred their own mail from fear of theft, where people don’t integrate as they used to and the whole scene of entertainment would appear to be based on impossible thuggery, razzmatazz for its own sake, and cheaper and poorer quality productions as the norm.
The problem is, the choice of parties seems much of the same quality, with rughly the same political backgrounds and experience, so the outcome may be little better.