Last year, some madman fretted that our children may be physically blighted or mentally scarred through the violent exchange of stringy conkers. This week a council is cordoning off a copse of malignant trees and their fruity ammunition. Last month, we had Mad Ken sound biting policy initiatives to license plate cycles and imprison non bell ringers. How much of this is feeding a slow news day and how much is rampant political posturing is hard to say. But it’s clearly silly and yet there is something a little darker emerging.
Firstly, however, anything like this should be wrapped in neon-signed handle with extreme care�? warning as it’s essentially the Daily Flail gone global. We’re always looking for politically correct gibberish to first ridicule and then shape as a stick to beat the hand wringing, lentil eaters who defend such nonsense. For every ˜Pear Tree Could Be a Killer” and Conkers “ the new Weapons Of Mass Destruction” screaming taglines are mitigating scenarios where badly supervised kids die in rivers and un-maintained tracks derail trains.
A sense of perspective should act as a prism to divine the lay lines of truth buried under the headline selling static. But there is no doubt that, as a society, we’re dealing with far more restrictive regulation reinforcing a culture of personal irresponsibility. No one is to blame, so everyone is to blame. It’s hard to see how this can work both ways, either we learn to take responsibility for our actions and those in our care, or we submit meekly to a state who feels they must do it for us, however crassly.
Less than a lifespan ago, kids of 19 and 20 were battling for their lives and the freedom of all civilisation over the skies of Southern Britain. Since those times, successive governments, of all colours, have stealthily eroded our ability to take our own chances and live or die by the consequences. If those young men had the attitude of a similar sample today, I wonder would they have risked anything to save everything.
It’s probably a specious argument, but whole generations will soon be lost to the power of individual choice if we aren’t allowed to walk the line between social responsibility and freedom of the non mandated option. We’re not sheep, there is more than one path to take, many sides to an argument, infinite outlets for expression. More baring of teeth and less toothless baa-ing would be an alternate approach.
Do you know how many Health and Safely officers there are in France? None, that’s right, if you want to dice with death under a swollen pear tree, c’est la vie. We could do much worse than adopt such a carefree attitude.
God, I’m turning into my Dad.
Your paraghraph refering to The Few is somewhat misconstrued I feel. There was far less litigation in those days for one. Understand your point however. Oh, and some people are sheep, that is a a sad fact of evolution. Not all brains develop equally. Crusha on the other hand has no equal :oD
I told you it was a specious argument 😉 But I’d argue that there’s alot if individualism today without any individual or collective responsibility.
The idea of a “cause” is now treated with derision (with the exception of some charities maybe) and the initial response to any situation seems to be “what’s in it for me”.
Maybe I’ve worked in London for too long or, as expected, I really am turning into my Dad.
With you on Crusha.. 😉
Yeah, tough one. Most people are average and that is the first step to mediocrity. Is it their fault, the goverments or just the brownian motion of society? I think the low expectation of teachers and other “inspirational sources” are partly to blame. Of course, there are other less obvious influences on our perception of how life should be. TGIF.
Sadly, warning everyone about restrictive government and knocking out 500 words on how Britain used to be better in the old days is likely to end only in an interview with Paul Dacre and the inevitable contract with The Daily Mail.
Not a pleasant thought.
Oh, and there are a large number of Health & Safety officers in France – don’t believe the Mail, eh?
I’ve never read the daily mail, instead waiting for a bowel movement or extreme hunger to instill a sense or urgency to find a copy.
I’m so wishy washy liberal, I feel the urge to get all mung-bean on your arse 😉 You’re right about the H&S thing but early on I submitted “poorly researched” and “pointlessly argumentative” as ground states.
I still maintain that we’re allowing civil liberties to be eroded through a combination of ambulance chasing and, basically, not giving a shit.
That may be naive but it has no political party backdrop. The last time I got round to voting it was the “no increase in dental charges party”.