Have we, in the UK, become selfish, lawless and irresponsible?

[Commencethe]

This Bank Holiday seems to have descended into chaos and honestly I am starting to wonder what is happening to people generally.

This weekend alone there have been reports, tragically, of teenagers drowning in rivers and reservoirs, emergency services unable to reach one incident because of illegal parking, beauty spots gridlocked with abandoned cars, beaches overwhelmed with people drinking and taking drugs to excess, fights, weapons, rubbish left everywhere, police being called because a pair of teenagers were apparently having sex openly in a park, and racist outrage because a tourist attraction acknowledged Eid and invited people to celebrate it.

What strikes me is that this feels much wider than just young people behaving badly. Adults blocking roads and verges because they cannot be bothered to park properly. Families leaving litter behind. People ignoring safety warnings around open water. Whole communities unwilling to challenge awful behaviour because someone else should deal with it.

And every time there is discussion afterwards, the blame immediately goes to lack of education, the police, the council, schools, anyone except the individuals involved, their parents, or society more broadly.

I also wonder whether increasingly populist politics and public discourse have plays a role. Constant anger, division and disrespect towards other people, experts, authority and even basic rules seems to have filtered into everyday behaviour. More entitlement, less responsibility, less thought for anyone else.

At what point did personal responsibility disappear? When did we stop caring about our impact on other people or lose any sense of community?

It all feels increasingly selfish, lawless and entitled. Less consideration, less accountability, less self discipline.

Have standards genuinely collapsed or am I overreacting and being unreasonable?

Think it's just rage bait news. Ignore and carry on.

It’s nothing new.

People are miserable and poorer than ever before so they need to get their bit of sun and they are raging. All a bit miserable I agree.

Really?
Four tragic teen deaths in water is not click bait. A by stander shot dead in Sheffield city centre is not clickbait.

BBC News reporting.

I am witness to smaller but serious acts of blocked roads through selfish parking, racist comments about the celebration of EID.

My vote of one so far means 100% of people agree agree with you 😁

I think it started in covid tbh. That was the first time i really noticed that when people started gong out again in our town (a cornish tourist spot) they were noticeably less considerate, polite and respectful. I think that while a low-mid percentage of people agreed with the covid restrictions a LOT of people resented the boundaries and infringements of their personal libities, and from there developed an exaggerated sense of entitlement and absolutely a sense of sod everyone else...! We saw it very clearly locally.

And you know what they say, once barriers have been broken 🤷‍♀️

I also think prior to that a lot of people were Very pissed off about Brexit and that caused a Huge loss of faith and resentment in the system which hasn't helped!

Edited for typos!

I agree with every point you make, op. And I don’t subscribe to it being any kind of rage bait. I think people in general have become less caring and more “selfish, lawless, entitled”. Is this the UK or everywhere? I don’t know but YANBU.

The four deaths in the water are solely down to the parents not teaching their children water safety.

Ha took me so long to write that I'm no longer a sole voter!

Also, obviously, this is the first decent whether in ages - people have gone a bit loopy i think!

If we keep getting nice weather it will hopefully tone down.

Too many people, significantly increased ability to travel (rise in personal cars), a disposable economy which generates lots of rubbish at the best of times, and a rise in the expectation that you must go somewhere and do something (rather than stay at home or in your local area and just enjoy some downtime) all mean that what used to be pleasant natural areas now turn into little more than overcrowded cesspits on any weekend with reasonable weather.

I've grown up near somewhere that about 15 years ago was unheard of. It's not particularly special, it's nice with open space and trees and there's a good couple of walks but that's about all I can say.

Now it is - quite literally - covered in shit after the bank holiday. Not all of it dog either.

If I was the owner I'd introduce a strict quota on how many people can come in, charge for entry, and use those fees to pay for a warden to make sure people behave like civilised people and not apes.

It's another place ruined by too many people trying to cram into it.

I don't know what the answer is sadly.

It's nothing new. People have drowned in ponds and the like since time immemorial. We got to watch public safety videos when I was at school.

Parking has probably got worse but only because there are far more cars then ever before and the country roads haven't changed in decades.

The difference is social media whicheans you read about every single event rather than finding out about the odd one via a newspaper the following day.

But that should not make people unaccountable. There is not a link between being poor and losing respect and accountability.

If yours is an acceptable attitude, isn’t that part of the problem?

I agree people have become more selfish and lack community spirit and consideration. I also think we’ve become more insular and less tolerant of life outside our own bubble. Not a great combination.

Unfortunately there have regularly been incidents of people drowning in hot weather, probably since the dawn of humans. The hot weather makes people carry out higher risk activities around water that they may not have the safety awareness for.

Parking is increasingly inconsiderate but I think this goes alongside the large number of cars on the roads now coupled with the increase of prices in most car parks. Add to that a rare hot Bank Holiday and popular tourist spots were probably inundated with visitors that they couldn't cope with. A lot of these places have inadequate public parking considering they usually benefit from the income from tourism. When I visit a popular beach in France in the summer, for example, there is always ample parking.

I do agree there is an increase in dog poo. There are so many more dogs than there used to be and clearly a proportion of their owners couldn't care less. I remember a very successful public health campaign against dog poo in the 80s - should have something like that again.

I don't think people are poorer compared to years ago. I think the Internet causes a lot of misery for people. Although it can be great it also means that we know more of the bad antisocial behaviour that people would have been oblivious to years ago.

I do think people don't want to take responsibility anymore and it's easier to blame the system/other people for their shit lives.

On my local Facebook site a member of the public posted a photo of two boys (teen and pre-teen) warning the community that they were running into shops stealing, throwing food and passers by and just been generally abusive. The mother posted in the comments and was just awful. We have a Victorian paddling pool in our community and the police were called as two families had a fight. This was in the afternoon! I think the hot weather just highlights the issues we have in society, that behaviour is there but usually locked away behind closed doors.

I agree. I was watching the news and they were explaining that it was the shock of cold water that kills people who jump into reservoirs and yes that's true but there are always signs dotted about that tell you not to do it.
People just think the rules don't apply to them unfortunately that's had fatal consequences for 4 young people.

I agree personal responsibility and resilience have all but diminished.

instinct agreebthagncontrobutedntinthe deaths of the young people near water - they have decreased over the decades due to education but accidents will always happen and people will always get caught out.

actually I think using those as part of your point is damn off tbh.

People parking where they want isnt new either but SM has made people far more relaxed about breaking the law/rules because there’s always someone who can tell them how to avoid the fine - which mostly works!

People leaving litter disgraceful and I still take a bin bag and take mine home now but people don’t do that very much anymore. Perhaps because they use public transport more? Or maybe we need better public services and people can leave bin bags to be collected daily?
I’d say more council officers patrolling is needed but unfortunately you’re right about people not having the respect so they’d just make threats or record it for SM so no one challenges it anymore.

Overall I agree with your point and do think people care less nowadays. But I also think that’s a direct result of disenfranchisement of the country that they don’t feel cares about them anymore.

Sadly I don’t have the answer.

Yes, really. These things happen all the time. They're put under a selective lens via the media during certain times. As I said, carry on.

We are massively overcrowded. Our population density is really high in comparison with other countries.

Our ratio of accessible leisure spaces to people, means they are always overrun. Massive queues at organised places, full car parks so parking on verges everywhere else. If half of Derby and Nottingham want a cheap day out, they are all going to land in the same places which then get trashed.

People are getting hot and bothered because everything is so, fucking, hard. Need to go to the hospital? Can’t guarantee being able to park so have to arrive an hour early. Use the space longer than you need, perpetuate the problem. No busses, busses all full, have to let them pass until there’s space.
Often only going to the hospital because the GP couldn’t see you, you waited at the walk in centre for so long by the time you were seen you were sent straight to A&E. Get to A&E and have to sit on the floor for hours.

It’s a freaking nightmare.

Something like 98% of our land isn’t built on.

This.

In answer to your question, no.

I do think that many of the social conventions that ruled society have broken down. You see it in all spheres, time was a politician wiuld of resigned if they were caught out in wrongdoing now they shrug and carry on.

There’s a lack of shame / embarrassment in society in some ways that’s a good thing as it’s given people freedom to be themselves. In some ways it’s a bad thing as lots of people are apparently selfish and / or lazy.

I do wonder if that’s what will bring reform into power; the people who crave conformity like a comfort blanket and are willing to accept the murky underneath in exchange for artificial niceties on the surface.

If the car park is full, acceptable options are:

• Find a car park further away and walk.
• Go to a different attraction.
• Go home.

Acceptable options do not include parking on verges or wherever the hell else you like.

We had a spring that was, on the whole, colder and wetter than average, then we had a heatwave over the Bank Holiday Weekend. That's a recipe for people going mad - desperate to 'make the most' of the fine weather in case it disappears again.

Social media has raised expectations about 'making the most of the weather' - people think they have to be in a beauty spot or on the beach or it doesn't count.

The current cost of living means that the above has to be done on a budget - avoiding paying for parking, taking your own alcoholic drinks rather than going to a pub.

People are, on the whole, more entitled and less considerate than they were even a decade ago, let alone twenty or thirty years ago. It used to be that you'd get the odd entitled person or family making a nuisance of themselves while everyone else watched in annoyance or embarrassment. Now what we are seeing is entitlement meeting entitlement - these people are meeting and clashing with others like them.

We'll see more and more of this in the years to come. I'm glad I'm middle aged and not a young person who will have to live in this world for 70 or more years.

Exactly. I remember two people being shot in a bar I regularly went to in Manchester in the mid 1990s. These things are reported because they are unusual, unless you are in the US. We went back to the bar a couple of weeks later.