To think the social contract has completely broken down?

[KenAdams]

It seems as though everything if affected, from parking in disabled spaces when you don't need them to talking loudly in train quiet carriages to not tolerating people that are different or have different views to you or caring if they are drowned or tortured.

I'm not sure if it was COVID that ramped up the every man for himself mentality but everywhere just seems like a cesspit at the moment.

Of course it could just be the places I frequent but I travel a lot and I don't even think its a UK thing, it seems to be everywhere.

I don't think I'm alone in feeling this way.

I watched a grown man yesterday just chuck rubbish on the street in front of his kids. Teaching his children that they don’t have to care. I picked it up in front of them all and put it in the bin. People have no shame!

I've noticed that people:

Have stopped staying thank you/engaging/replying at work. There's a real lack of collaboration really.

A lot of people seem self centered and entitled.

Also, people fail to see/ do not want to see how their actions negatively affect others.

For example, I offered to pick my son's friend and take him somewhere.

We got to his house, child wasn't there. The mother I told us he was at another child's house down the road.

So we had to go to the other child's house, explain who were were, get the friend, explain to the other child that, no, sorry he couldn't come with us and we were taking him friend away. Who then began crying.

Ds friend was inappropriately dressed for the event, so we had to go back to his house to get suitable clothing!!

All because the mother couldn't be bothered making sure her son was at home, when someone has arranged to pick him up and take him out for the afternoon!!

I give up

I think there has been a big rise in main character energy. Tbh it's always existed and some people can get away with it, problem is most people can't and social media has encouraged it.

The sheer number of cars that drive through just gone red lights. It’s astounding.

The country needs to raise money first. They should put cameras at lights and fine the red light runners. It was raise millions I reckon.

People have less so there is more fighting over it.

Sometimes people can only see the social contract around themselves, parking spaces, bus journeys, but rarely look at the social contract that we have to try and continue to pass on a better world to the young. We are not doing that. No wonder they don't really care what the older ones think.

Yeah, we fucked over the young

This is it. We all wanted liberalism, the freedom from any and all unchosen bonds and obligations so we can do whatever we want. That's what this looks like.

We can't agree on what a better world is, let alone how to achieve it if we did.

Cinema..... aaaarrrggggggghhh. We just don't go any more.
Bus, Train, cafes, restaurants , parks, beaches - everyone seems to add their own electronically produced soundtrack. Bikes, scooters, runners - CARS - on the pavement, all expecting me to move.

I'm just getting old, but it is shrinking my world.

I agree. This is what people wanted. Enjoy it 😄

The ‘ why shouldn’t I, I will if I want’ mental passive aggressive stance has undermined social happiness enormously.

I fully agree with this 👆🏻

Bollocks it did. You couldn't have got that more wrong!

Here is the original quote:

I think we have gone through a period when too many children and people have been given to understand ‘I have a problem, it is the Government’s job to cope with it!’ or ‘I have a problem, I will go and get a grant to cope with it!’ ‘I am homeless, the Government must house me!’ and so they are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first.
… [It] is, I think, one of the tragedies in which many of the benefits we give, which were meant to reassure people that if they were sick or ill there was a safety net and there was help, that many of the benefits which were meant to help people who were unfortunate … [t]hat was the objective, but somehow there are some people who have been manipulating the system … when people come and say: ‘But what is the point of working? I can get as much on the dole!

This is more or less exactly where we are today, this is what she was warning against.

Absolutely this. Previous generations used to have a strong sense of doing things because they were 'the right thing to do' and everybody was concerned to some degree about what people would think if they didn't conform. This led to high standards of behaviour and expectations but also a lot of constraints on people, it must be said.

Nowadays all the emphasis has swung very far towards not judging anyone for anything in any circumstances; everyone's choices must be seen as equally valuable as everyone else's. This has led to a universal feeling that 'anything goes' and there's no need to do anything if it doesn't directly suit you.

I have made a very conscious decision not to wax lyrical about “previous generations” to my children. It just creates division. Oh and ignores all the tremendous ways things are better than in previous generations l

As far as public transport and loud conversations/music on speaker is concerned, there is already a railway bylaw to cover that. The problem is it isn't enforced because staff do not want to be involved in a potentially violent confrontation, so the law doesn't really exist.

The problem is there are no consequences to actions, so an ever larger subset of people have licence to do what the hell they like with no comeback. Once poor behaviour goes without consequence, it becomes an entitlement some will defend to almost the death and that entitlement is impossible to shift. Welcome to modern Americanised Britain, all we are lacking now is a Trump-like government and widespread gun ownership.

It's nothing to do with America. People just don't have any sense of decorum or shame anymore.

You are are so, so right.

It's three things for me.

1. Brexit

1. Covid

1. 14 years of Conservative leadership with 2 of the most lazy, incompetent, self serving Prime Ministers we have ever had in Johnson and Truss.

You can tell how far we have fallen by the number of people that intend to vote 'Reform'

Now, I accept people want an alternative to Labour, but to vote for a party that IS inherently racist in its message, is led by a grifting, lying, charlatan and has no workable policies is madness. Saying there's no alternative is nonsense..just don't vote!.

The only reason Reform has become mainstream is because of the entitled selfishnessof our population.

Not so long ago people had their deep seated prejudices, but the social contract kept them hidden .

Now the gloves are off.

She wasn't a stupid woman, how did she not know that neoliberalism was the solvent to dissolve all social bonds. How did she not know?

The only reason Reform has become mainstream is because of the entitled selfishnessof our population.

people don't want to face up to the reality, that we are in serious economic strife & after years of kicking the can down the road we've run out of road. They want low taxes but excellent public services and are blaming illegal immigrants for the fact this is no longer possible.

Brexit? It was already well underway, Brexit was a response to the loss of community in those areas left behind by post industrialism

Yes, this.

Removing shame from the vocabulary of people is a big problem. Of course, people who don’t want to ever have to feel shame are fine with its opposite, pride, but you can’t have the one without the other. There absolutely are things people should be ashamed of. Of course, that can be subjective but simply stripping shame out of society has, I believe, led to a lot of the destruction of society.

Also the conflation of “reason” with “excuse”. That someone comes from a chaotic home may be a reason for their bad behaviour (for example) but that shouldn’t be an excuse for it.

Main character syndrome is a thing.
When I went away this summer, I cannot tell you how many groups of people just walked 3, 4 sometimes 5 or 6 abreast. They all expected me to move, even when I was on stairs etc. So it isn’t just in the UK.
Then the dickhead throwing his kids into the middle of people trying to do aqua aerobics, despite there being 3 other pools for him to use. Again he wasn’t British so it’s definitely a thing in other nations.