There is a Japanese word, hikkikomori, which refers to a generation of neo-hermits. They are the people who’ve withdrawn from most, if not all, public contact and generally content themselves with staying at home. Most, if not all, their contact with others takes place online.
I can’t help but feel sympathy for this position. Over the years, I’ve gone to be increasingly misanthropic. I avoid the classic Western argument concerning human nature. That is, is man in his natural state inherently good or inherently evil. Thus spake Zoroaster, etc. Rather, I accept the argument of my favourite philosopher, Xunzi, that man is inherently selfish. It is only through proper teaching that man becomes humane.
Today, as I do every month, I helped at a lunch for elderly people in the community. They come for a simple, freshly-cooked, healthy meal. It only costs £4. This includes a glass of juice or sherry, a hot meal, a dessert and a cup of tea or coffee afterwards. Unusually, two weddings were held today. That meant that the car park, always a bit on the small side, was utterly packed. One can live with that.
What becomes less tolerable is when people show no respect or consideration to others. One of the most prominent members is a very fit, sharp 90-year-old woman who can still drive and run circles around people a third her age. Some wanker parked his Alfa-Romeo in front of her car so she couldn’t get out. We had to move some signs for her to be able to drive into the cemetery and turn around there in order to be able to get out. I humbly offered to key “twat” on his bonnet, but everyone was utterly horrified and they squashed that idea.
It is that arrogance, that sense of entitlement that bothers me more than anything else. This middle-class attitude that the world revolves around them, that the world must bend to their whims. The same woman had a bit of a moment with a woman who married a few weeks ago. She turned up well late but demanded that she play the entire score for her again. She refused to, rightfully so. The bride wanted a refund which was refused.
Boadicea's Chariot 
“It is that arrogance, that sense of entitlement that bothers me more than anything else. This middle-class attitude that the world revolves around them, that the world must bend to their whims”
I do not think that this is a middle class attitude, much more likely to be a jumped up peasant who has aggregated sufficient loot to have impressed himself! A Trumpian type style.
I must agree that most people these days are absolutely ghastly and to be avoided like the plague. Fortunately it seems that most gardeners are, as yet, exempted from this entitled style. One actually really couldn’t be bothered to talk to them long enough to ascertain their predilection for good or evil! They are all so tedious, undereducated and plain bloody boring.
I’m not a gardener, just an “angry loner” who agrees with the “jumped up peasant” theory.
I may have recounted this story before – if so, my apologies.
Roughly 60 years ago there was a pub in Epsom at the end of the High Street near the roundabout. Actually there were 71 pubs in the Borough of Epsom and Ewell at the time, so it wasn’t hard to find somewhere for a swift pint. But this pub was different because it appealed to three social groups – normal adults from working class to old-money toffs, young blokes with motorcycles (“rockers”) and their birds, or with Lambrettas (“mods”) and their girl-friends. and horror-of-horrors, Hooray-Henries with expensive cars (probably, almost certainly, Daddy’s) with loud braying voices and their equally obnoxious totty.
The Publican was becoming distressed by the extent of the damage that was occurring every Sunday lunchtime, so he had a quiet word with the local police – the local cop shop was a short walk up the street – and they promised to keep an eye out. This was meant to be a secret, but in those days in that environment, secret was a joke, ‘cos everyone knew everybody, indirectly of course.
Now, everyone knew who was responsible for the casual damage, but most people were reluctant to speak out for fear of not being believed, or even possible reprisals. So a few swift meetings were held in private, and the next Sunday morning the Mods and the Rockers (without female attachments) waylaid the rich bastards as they entered the car park and “sorted them out”. There was unavoidable collateral damage to the car park, several cars and the interior of one of the bars. After a prudent delay (“after all had become quiet again”) the rozzers arrived and questioned all and sundry, irrespective of “class”. Nobody had seen anything, nothing had happened. The interviewed group was rumoured to include a magistrate and the assistant Chief Constable, but they all told the same story. “No, we didn’t see anything, Officer.”
The pub never suffered damage at the weekend again, and any young rich “entitled” youth that ventured in remained remarkably polite and well-mannered. Things were different in those days! 😎
I’m inclined to agree with Christina here. In the past, I have found those born to wealth pretty well mannered and those who have accumulated it to be pushy… but the world has changed and so might that.
I’ve just come back from four weeks ‘holiday’. A tour in Russia and another in Poland. What struck me about both was just how incredibly insensitive some people were to those around them. Within two days of each trip we all knew who would march straight in front of anyone taking a photo and who would look around or wait and who would be late, etc, etc.
All I will say is that prejudice is a funny thing.
CO: You are, of course, correct. I’m acquainted with the youngest spawn of one of Dorset’s wealthier families. He’s a bit daft and dopey, but he’s pleasant, possesses a keen wit and a self-deprecating sense of humour. My issue is with people who think that because they have an above average income and can afford to drive an overpriced Italian heap of junk that they can behave any way they bloody well please.
I generally despise crowds and gatherings. I’m on good terms with a retired vicar. She’s a lovely lady. As so often happens with age, her hand isn’t as steady as it used to be and her hands tend to tremble a bit. I agreed to help her with an occasional baptism as she didn’t want to handle lighted candles. I agreed to help “her” with an “occasional” baptism. Suddenly, I found myself volunteered to help with every bleeding baptism. As if I have the time or desire. The last one I did was in May. I was thoroughly disgusted. It was a half-hour long ceremony. I had to spend nearly that long cleaning up the church and gathering up orders of service and rubbish. As if it wasn’t bad enough having to watch a bunch of obese oikettes waddle in wearing dresses 2-3 sizes too small for them with their tattoos oozing out. Others moan about having to spend half an hour at one of those interminable gatherings. I was sorely tempted to ask them if they think I couldn’t find at least a million things more enjoyable than spending a half hour in their company, be it oral surgery, having finger nails ripped out or having a prostate exam.
Mr Bear: Oh, the good ol’ days! Brilliant story.
Boadicea: In general standards of behaviour have dropped. Behaviours that would not have been accepted 20 years ago, attitudes that would have not been tolerated 20 years ago, are almost considered normal now. There is an ever-increasing lack of self-awareness, thought or consideration for others. Sometimes even buying groceries is an ordeal as people will push past you just to stop and start chatting away about nothing. People are increasingly less likely to walking in a file or even gather together, they’ll make sure you have to walk in traffic. How were Russia and Poland?
Rather than blaming Salmond, for once, I blame a) a child centric, blame and responsibility free upbringing and b) social media which allows anonymous and therefore unpunished behaviour which should gain the perpetrator ostracism, derision and/or a well deserved hoofing in the real world.
OZ
OZ: The problem with social media behaviour is that it’s spilling into the real world. I work in a number of online classes. More and more of the students aren’t able to differentiate between social media and a classroom. As a result, they fail to realise that their attitudes will cause them huge amounts of problems as attacking me will result in their failing assignments, the course or even being expelled.