It feels enjoyment of life has become socially unacceptable

[inuet]

Firstly I am.not against the current nor previous restrictions. I am aware of the sacrifices and difficulties faced by frontline NHS workers. I am also aware of the sacrifices made by those who were killed in the 2 world wars. But it is beginning to feel as if there is a nationwide perhaps even worldwide competition to see who can out misery the other. The utter utter drivel posted here during the Spring restrictions about how everyone's neighbours were having parties and how someone buying a chocolate bar would lead to bodies bursting out of hospitals, the sick sick air of Hyacinth Bucket meets Margaret Thatcher sanctimoniousness that seems to be everywhere, the compulsory addition of "the fuck" to the imperative "stay at home", the way young and poorer people have been thrown under a bus socially and economically, the "close pubs open schools" mantra. I'm just sick to death of it, & genuinely cannot ever see how a quality of life, friends, bars, concerts, trips away will ever return. It feels like everyone has turned into a curtain twitching moralist, it is illegal not to have a frontline NHS NHS worker in your family and we should never ever ever utter any words of sadness for the old life because people died in the Second World War. I hate what life has become.

inuet "Firstly I am.not against the current nor previous restrictions"

"the way young and poorer people have been thrown under a bus socially and economically, the "close pubs open schools" mantra."

So you are against the restrictions really. I thought as much.

You can buy alcohol to drink at home if 4 weeks is too long.

There have been so many of these. All variations on "well I don't think i should have to do that and people saying I do are being mean/miserable"

'ring fence the care homes

What does this actually mean?

Aren't they already ring fenced in every possible way?

But some of these patients need cancer treatment, therapy, to see the GP regularly, other amenities and provisions, access to a range of services. How do you propose to ring fence them in a covid ridden society without depriving them of everything you're staking a claim to?

Currently dancing around the kitchen to music. So you still can have snippets of normality.
Obviously would prefer to be at a concert.

@LastTrainEast

inuet "Firstly I am.not against the current nor previous restrictions"

"the way young and poorer people have been thrown under a bus socially and economically, the "close pubs open schools" mantra."

So you are against the restrictions really. I thought as much.

You can buy alcohol to drink at home if 4 weeks is too long.

There have been so many of these. All variations on "well I don't think i should have to do that and people saying I do are being mean/miserable"

No, I am not against the restrictions. It is possible to object to the way there has been no proper discussion about young people's futures, about how society might make their futures less bleak, and about how people leapt on the words "close pubs open schools" due to pure virtue signalling, and still support the restrictions, in fact wish they had been brought in earlier. By the way, I do not drink alcohol, this does not mean that I see no value in pubs-it is perfectly possible to enjoy pubs as a non-drinker. I live in a rural area and there are people here who are long-term single, live alone and their local pub is their only chance to meet people all week. Some of them drink alcohol some don't. I did NOT say and am not saying that I think pubs be kept open, but there are people I know whose quality of life has been so reduced, and exacerbated by the anti-enjoyment mentality of the New Puritans, that I can see them fading away and losing all enthusiasm for life. Once again, I support the restrictions but I also feel great sadness for what has been lost and for the sick pleasure certain others are taking in patronising people who are unhappy.

The only place I see that attitude is on Mumsnet.

The whining about masks and how fireworks are dangerous and why should I have to do this or that and I wouldn't accept the vaccine anyway...

I mostly think if everyone could shut the fuck up for a bit things would feel a bit nicer.

This thread is so dramatic

@Bickles

Re WW2 comparisons I had a 93 year old in my dental chair today- she was lovely. She was evacuated in 1939 and thinks 2020 is worse than the war was!

Well of course she would if she was evacuated. The evacuees were taken right away from the action to safe areas where they hardly experienced the war in most cases. Ask my parents, who spent their war years in London and Middlesex, whether 2020 is worse than the war was and they'd laugh in your face.

[quote SylviasMotherSaid]@TibetanTerrier that’s typical of what OP is talking about and not helpful at all .[/quote]
It's about time someone slapped people like the OP and told them to stop feeling sorry for themselves. To claim that most of us in the West are in any way hard done by compared to millions of others around the world is ridiculous. Nobody is suggesting that this has been a good year, of course it hasn't, but for god's sake, we're not dealing with this virus through earthquakes and hurricanes, we don't have bombs dropping on our heads, people don't disappear overnight and then turn up dead if they criticise the government. We have a superb quality of life compared to millions and millions of people, even with the damn virus. Life is inconvenient at the moment and is having financial consequences for some, but all these people whinging that they can't go to the pub, can't go on foreign holidays, can't go to the gym etc are weak and pathetic and need to get a grip. This is life. Life is hard. And for most generations it's usually a great deal harder than this is. This will go through whatever processes it has to go through before it ends, and there's nothing we can do to change that. The least people can do is find some backbone and stop whinging about how deprived they are when they're not. Just get a grip and get on with it FGS.

@TibetanTerrier Wow, you are so full of empathy. Just because it is a slight inconvenience for you, it does not mean that other people are also only slightly affected. I don’t think that people who are grieving, worried about how they are going to pay their bills, women who are trapped with violent partners, people who are experiencing mental health issues should just get a grip. How about just be kinder. Try it, you may even enjoy it.

It's about time someone slapped people like the OP and told them to stop feeling sorry for themselves

Ah yes, that'll work. Get on the phone to your GP and tell them you've solved the mental health crisis. We'll save a fortune in anti depressants.

We've got no hope if people think like this, none at all.

@AtrociousCircumstance

So what’s your suggestion? What’s your great plan for controlling this virus, reducing all the deaths?

What’s your brilliant overview other than moaning you want to go back to the pub?

Everything revolves around the bloody pub in this country.

IT’S NOT ABOUT THE FUCKING PUB. No one on this thread has said they want to go to the pub. Change the bloody record.

I do quite like going to the pub though

the way young and poorer people have been thrown under a bus socially and economically, the "close pubs open schools" mantra."

Quite. Glad to hear someone point this out. I'm now on UC. Something I have strived hard to avoid because being in the welfare system ruins my mental health. I cannot pay my bills and buy food with what I will receive so I will be in debt. In fact I had to apply for an advance and am already now in debt to the the govt. I feel sick. If one more MP says "we're all on this together" I will scream. In fact I have been screaming.

It's about time someone slapped people like the OP and told them to stop feeling sorry for themselves

Oh yeah TibetanTerrier I'd like to see you try. What a nasty shitty comment. This sums up what this little social experiment is doing to people.

What I see is a lot of the relatively well off (those who can most challenge the govt) being kept passive, accepting, and quiet through furlough, while many of the self employed, 'one man and his van types' and those in unskilled work are thrown under the bus. The vast majority are poor. Apparently Sainsbury's getting rid of nearly 4000 workers now. For the first time it really is an 'us' and 'them' scenario and there isn't anyone speaking up in the so called 'opposition' - what a joke - or in the media, another joke.

We have a strange situation in this country where people will march, disobey rules and get into an uproar over trendy 'causes' but when their actual liberties are taken away to an unprecedented level never before seen, will go along with it, even facilitate it by becoming informal rule enforcers with the nasty covidstasi attitude I've seen on here. Yesterday it was people taking a break from covering their noses with the mask: these disgusting, selfish, almost murderers, who only give a shit about themselves, how fucking dare they take a break to try and catch a breath!

I don't imagine what people think will happen, but even if things eventually relax, I cannot see the govt giving up these new intrusive powers they have gained, neither can I see people voting as they did before. I will never vote for any of these parties again. Prepared to vote for almost any other party if it puts an end to this awful draconian situation that is destroying peoples lives more effectively than Covid and has effectively transformed the country into a giant classroom where those not obeying the rules in it's minute are ostracised by their classmates and punished by the teacher.

Nope. You are right to be concerned OP because things will not be the same afterwards. However I say take your enjoyment where you can because the reality for now at least is that you have no control over it. Don't let other people ruin it for you.

With you OP.
And why is everything so binary? It must be exhausting to be so rudely and incessantly sanctimonious, yet the " 'just [insert possibly made up rule with the words' the fuck' added for good measure] ' brigade" never seem to lose their mojo.
If we could harvest the nastiness and aggression for energy, we could abandon fossil fuels for ever.

@TrustTheGeneGenie

It's about time someone slapped people like the OP and told them to stop feeling sorry for themselves

Ah yes, that'll work. Get on the phone to your GP and tell them you've solved the mental health crisis. We'll save a fortune in anti depressants.

We've got no hope if people think like this, none at all.

Totally agree.

Nasty, nasty post.

@inuet I agree with everything you say .

I know that my ability to put a positive spin on life comes from a position of relative comfort but that doesn't mean I don't have empathy for others who are in a different and far worse position to me.

@TibetanTerrier that's a very simplistic view of being evacuated if you think it was all 'honey for tea' for the evacuees. Can you imagine as a small child being taken away from your family and not knowing if you would ever see them again ? Sounds similar as to what some people are facing today with elderly relatives , but at a time with no internet and most people didn't even have a phone .

HitchhikersGuide And why is everything so binary?

Exactly! See also: Brexit. And politics in general.
Really tired of people who can't see it's a situation where we have to figure out the least worse way forward. None of the options are great, why must we pretend they are?

The thing that is really getting to people I know, aside from job losses and careers snuffed out in an instant, is the separation from everyone. Normally when the shit hits the fan we'd at least have each other for comfort. We know from vast amounts of evidence that isolation causes mental and physical health to deteriorate, why is it a surprise that people are losing their minds a bit during this? It's so clearly NOT about drinking in a pub or being able to shop for frivolous things. The thing that's actually been pretty constantly shit for a lot of the country since March (varying depending on local restrictions) is not being able to spend time with others like normal. Whether that's in a pub or at home or wherever. I suppose it shouldn't really be a surprise that those who don't have a fundamental need for these social connections are also unable to relate to others enough to have empathy for their distress.

Far be it from me to praise China but the only way to deal with it is to do what they've done which is mass testing. I can't understand the logic behind repeated lockdowns. Half the people who have itvare asymptomatic usually the young. Make testing in schools, universities and workplaces compulsory.

I agree, OP. I do not disagree with the measures, I'm just sick of the attitude they have brought out in many people. Plenty of evidence of that on this thread - people who have wilfully misread your OP and answered with an unpleasant, snarky "Well what's your great idea for controlling the virus then? *

I haven't broken any rules and have no intention of doing so. Like any sane person with a modicum of intelligence, I understand that there are arguments to be made for and against any of the measures. But I loathe the gleeful curtain twitchers, thought police and armchair moralists.

I support the measures and have (mostly) stuck to the rules. But I am allowed to feel down about the misery being visited on so many people I am allowed to find my own situation hard at times, I am allowed to miss life as it was.

It's about time someone slapped people like the OP and told them to stop feeling sorry for themselves is just goady trolling.

@hamstersarse

I do quite like going to the pub though

We like going to the pub too!

What frustrates me is the double meaning of your post, OP.

'Enjoyment of life has become socially unacceptable'

I find enjoyment in simple things but apparent saying that is socially unacceptable because it's smug and annoys the people who miss shops and excitement and mixing with lots of people.

I know it's crap that lots of the good stuff can't happen at the moment, but there are still lots of things to enjoy that don't involve people and being out and about. Best to try them out rather than wear ourselves out wishing things were different.

People have always had periods of hardship and restrictions. Children used to be sent away to outdoor boarding schools to treat TB. Households would be quarantined because of an illness. People only travelled beyond their town or village on high days and holidays.

It's not nice and it's not what anyone wants, but it will be ok.

Not loving right now. But attempting to use it as a chance to slow down and hibernate a bit. Always been guilty of doing too much. Have a year full of fun booked from spring going forward. Will come out of hibernation and go on holiday, go to concerts, shows etc. But with a bit more discernment than before. Can’t wait. That’s the only way to see it!