AIBU to think we are edging worryingly close to anarchy?

[Noras]

Am I unreasonable to believe that we are 2 or 3 steps away from anarchy?

Just that really. We see endless footage of quite aggressive and in the open. Shop lifting. People seem to have no shame eg driving over parkland or chucking rubbish out of car windows. Kids ran amok in Cornwall. People decide to live in caravans anywhere and just poo in parkland. Fly tipping is rife.
People freely wal: around the streets under the influence of drugs. People go to upmarket gyms with ankle tags and no sense of shame. People are more abusive and rude.

This ^

Serious question- has the uk (or England, wales, Scotland) ever been in anarchy? Hundreds of years of class discrimination, forced labour, slavery, death of the rural population, dangerous working, gin alley, slum housing- has there ever been anarchy?!

you should watch shifty on iPlayer. It’s a brilliant social commentary of the end of the last century.

one thing to consider is the burden of surveillance which didn’t exist 40 years ago, meaning that everyone knows when criminal behaviour happens, and people have started surveying each other, Ala 1984. There is the impact of technology. We’re largely cashless now- remember many armed robberies of post offices there used to be? Banks even?

Nah. Honestly we are way too idle to actually do anything. We just complain.

Thanks for this … I definitely feel as inequality has got worse but useful to see the data

And if we were more likely to collectively survive by working together? If self interest was best served by cooperation? 🤔

Are you sure your "experience" is 100% objective, or could you be suffering from confirmation bias? "He looked at me funny in the Post Office...well that proves that everyone's a wanker and out for themselves"?

Interesting.

When did that shop introduce self checkouts?

I think that the nature of some crime has changed. No more old school bank robbery - now we have online fraud etc …
Re CCTV - I don’t think it has been a deterrent at all. There is CCTV in all the supermarkets and they still get robbed . CCTV everywhere but streets aren’t safer .
The Guardian article posted earlier about the police response to low level crime partly explains it

• More screen time for all of us - there is a thread about how people feel changed by it.
• Cost of living rising faster than wages. Everyone feels worse off. Some people are struggling to get the basics. Taxes don’t seem to cover the upkeep of society (cleaning, support, repairs etc)
• Young people priced out of housing and degrees no longer worth as much in the job market.
• Children spending more time in care than with their families - society disconnecting from human relationships.
• Immigrants and culture clashes/expectations.

There is a whole host of reasons why things are feeling less good than they once were.

It’s not about cctv being a deterrent, it’s about whether or not it was happening anyway when there was no cctv to capture it.

the documentary talks about the amount of tax evasion when people were paid cash in the 70/80/90s- before technology could track and integrate pay, basically no one paid tax if they could get away with it. Of course that happens now, but in nothing like the same numbers because technology has made it so much harder.

The Swing Riots of the 1830s, leading to the Great Reform Act. All the usual suspects, low wages, hardship, unemployment.

Where do you live!!?? I’ve seen none of this.

Collectively - again, depends on everyone playing nicely, people leading and following etc. If you honestly believe in that then great.

It is rather patronising to trivialise my experience by using such a pathetic example. I’m not talking about people looking at me funny FFS. And “experience” in inverted commas? Nice.

There are a handful of people (six or seven) that I trust in the world and I have good reason to do that.

If you are naive enough to put your faith in society to in
general then that’s up to you. it doesn’t bother me.

But you don’t get to dismiss other people’s lived experience just because you don’t agree with them.

So nearly 200 years ago? Sounds about right.

Nearly 2,000 people were tried; 19 were hanged, over 600 were imprisoned, and around 500 were transported to penal colonies in Australia, including Tasmania

I mean, being sent to Australia would put me off rioting

its a good point: penalties for rioting, even now, are deliberately excessive and swift to shut down disorder quickly.

Yeah, good point - if only because of the spiders

I was in outer London when I was seeing it, working and socialising in several different locations in central

I've moved now!

Honestly I would have thought centuries of fighting fueled by the desire to conquer others is pretty good evidence.

Well that’s a can of worms isn’t it? No one knows what British is anymore.

We remember it as being a kind of war time spirit and everyone being in it together, but then we were told Churchill was a war criminal and a load of statues got dumped in the river. Then we thought it might be flying the flag and celebrating Girl Power until we realised that flags were racist and no one knew what a girl was. We’re kind of floundering about now thinking that being British is a far right term and instead we should be globalist or something. Borders are bad. Flags are bad. Heritage is bad. The royal family is bad. What’s left? Pie and mash maybe, but carbs are poison.

Where do you live?

Chester. It’s obviously nicer than I thought.

Sounds awful 🤦🏻‍♀️

So, what is your lived experience then?

You still haven't answered whether this is corroborated by any further research/ reading.

Isn't calling other people naive, the same as dismissing their lived experience?

You seem to have a very jaded view of life, and my experience of life and yours are at complete odds. Community is still very much alive and well where I live, thank goodness.