Why Is It Now Wrong To Cherish The Way Of Life, That We Once Held Dear?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2337702/SIMON-HEFFER-Coronation-dream-politicians-betrayed.html

Is it now wrong to still cherish our way of life?

/// But steadily over the past six decades — particularly in the past 15 years or so — those aspects of Britishness and key institutions have all too often been insulted, rebuffed, ridiculed, despised, attacked and, to all intents and purposes, destroyed. ///

How very true, but not just by politicians.

[Kromovaracun]

I'm not entirely convinced that AOG is as old as he says he is.

Not that he's ever told us, mind.

[jno]

personally, I suspect he grew up with punk in the 70s and still has the earring... but I could be hallucinating.

[emmie]

i reckon he is, but does it really matter. He believes what he believes, same as anyone.

[FredPuli43]

We can deduce that he must have been 21 by 1953; I assume that an adult then is the only person qualified, in your judgment on 1953 and now.

As we get old, our mind goes the same way as our joints; gradually stiffer and more set until totally inflexible and unbending,

[emmie]

not for everyone it doesn't, some remain active in mind and body as they age, some young people have closed minds, and are not remotely active, so one cannot just generalise that way.

[ummmm]

He said in a previous post that 'his day' was the 30's, 40's, 50's.

[Kromovaracun]

It does matter if you're going to use your age in political arguments, yes.

[emmie]

no one really knows anything about the people on AB, in so far as opinions are expressed, you either agree or disagree, or simply don't care. If AOG's believes in his day things were better, then perhaps to him they were.

[Sqad]

\\\\As we get old, our mind goes the same way as our joints; gradually stiffer and more set until totally inflexible and unbending, \\\

LOl..Fred, you may well be correct.....however, your memory for 50yeaers or more remains quite acute (cute) but it is your memory for recent events that become suspect.

[andres]

How can we still cherish the way of life that we used to have in the 50s/60s. I wish we could but those times are never going to come back. We can't blame the politicians for everything that has gone wrong though .
There was an unwritten code years ago that the young showed respect to older people, teachers, policemen .You didn't use foul language in public or mug anyone.(mind you ,if the police had heard you they would have carted you away to the cells for the night). Now what have we got. A lot of young people think the world owes them a living ;have no respect for themselves, let alone anyone else. Politicians don't force binge-drinking, foul language , paedophilia, pornography , burglary, drugs or prostitution on people.Nor are they responsible for marriage breakdowns. You can't blame politicians for the churches closing ;that's down to us.In a few years time the UK will probably be full of mosques and synagogues etc. I wish that the world and in particular the UK could be a better place but I get the feeling that we are on a slippery slope and sinking fast. Finally ,to those Abers who are too young to remember how life was in the 50s ,I would ask you to show a bit more respect to those who can. I have no doubt that in years to come you will be defending what life was like in 2013 to your grandchildren.I don't think that you will have much to 'spout about '.Do you ?

[emmie]

andres, one or two of your points i totally agree with, you never dared be rude or swear at anyone in authority, certainly not a policeman. If they took you home in disgrace as it were, the parents wouldn't be best pleased, some would give you what for.

[emmie]

if you could afford chicken you were well off.

[Kromovaracun]

"There was an unwritten code years ago that the young showed respect to older people, teachers, policemen "

The problem is that these people are sometimes undeserving of respect. Police forces in particular have frequently been found to be corrupt and violent without good cause. Nobody deserves respect unconditionally - it should be earned by actions.

Also, what exactly is the problem with pornography? Aside from a few Daily Mail articles (including a few from "mothers" which I strongly suspect are forged) which make ludicrous claims about it turning children into drooling sexual predators, its impact is largely benign.

"I would ask you to show a bit more respect to those who can. I have no doubt that in years to come you will be defending what life was like in 2013 to your grandchildren.I don't think that you will have much to 'spout about '.Do you ?"

I object to this. I would never be so arrogant as to claim that I have a comprehensive and total understanding of what life was like in 2013 - I can only speak for myself, my family and the communities I've lived in. Likewise, you are not the only person who was around in the 1950s - and not all of them describe the idyllic scene that you do. I have never asserted that I knew what it was like to live in the 1950s - but I do know what people say about it, including my own relatives. And the picture is much more mixed than the one you're suggesting.

[FredPuli43]

I hope, andres, that in years to come I'll will not be saying that the first decades of this century were better than the then present one. History shows that, on balance, the world and this country have become better places over time. If that progression ever stops, I shall be most dismayed.

History and literature, and human experience, has been that we remember the sunny days and forget the rainy ones; as we get older we imagine the past, when we were younger, was better, and free of the day to day worries that presently beset us. And, of course, young people have been getting worse than their elders were since the beginning of recorded history!

[emmie]

our local police did, by dint of their appearance and demeanour. Maybe there were some corrupt and dishonest coppers, but generally children didn't cheek them, it was unheard of to be rude to a teacher, and if you were the ramifications were dire. Good manners were instilled in us, my gran wouldn't have stood for any child being rude or bad mannered.

[Gromit]

For most people, there best time in their lives will be their late teens / early twenties. At this time, we fall in love for the first time. We get jobs and have money for the first time. We may marry and have children. Make our own nests, and still have youth and health to enjoy it all.

So this will be nearly everyone's best time. As we get older, this is what we compare to. I can quite easily look back to that period, which for me were the late 70s, early 80s and remember what a great time I had. Obviously there were ructions at home and abroad during that period, but they didn't really burst my bubble of happiness.

I suspect that for AOG, the 1950s was his particular bubble of happiness. Yes, there were problems for the country at home and abroad then, but AOG would largely be oblivious. This was the period of our loss of Empire, and the country virtually bankrupted by the recent war. Things were not idylic, but in AOG personal bubble, they were.

I can remember my youth and have wonderful memories. But I still do things that make me happy now, and I see things around me that are great.

Perhaps AOG is not having a nice time now. Or perhaps, for some, they are saddened that their best time is long behind them, and that spoils their present and future.

[Kromovaracun]

I agree with Gromit.

[FredPuli43]

trigger, I thought chicken tasted more like rabbit back then :)