What is going wrong?

[AliasAggers]

What on earth is going wrong with society?

I must confess that I can't help comparing things today with what was the norm when I was younger.
Admittingly there are many things better now, but I cannot understand some of the glaring examples of things that are now going so wrong in society.

Take for example the littering of public places that is so blatantly wrong. I am not referring to the dumping of loads of rubbish from vehicles, (that is a
matter for the police) but to the enormous amount of litter left around by members of the public in public parks and beaches, and on roadsides. I just
cannot understand why people behave in this way. When I was a child. my parents would not allow me to drop even a toffee wrapping. Why have things
changed in this regard? Is it because of the fact that police are conspicuous by their absence nowadays, or are some parents disinclined to bring up their
children properly, preferring instead the attractions of modern technology?

Then there are the complaints from schools regarding the number of pupils starting at primary schools who don't know how to hold a pencil or even
how to go to the loo. is this because parents don't care? Or because the people in charge of the affairs of this country do not care, but prefer other
pursuits ? Personally, I can't understand why teachers don't do something positive about it.

Just what is going wrong - and doesn't anyone care?

[Workingman]

A saying I heard often was : "Look after the pennies...." and it refers to life as well as money. The little things are the bedrock upon which all else is built.

Littering is one. Each incident is no big crime on its own but collectively they impact on us all, aesthetically and health wise.

A simple "please" and "thank you", a smile, holding a door open, giving up a seat, they all make the world go round.

And yes, teaching your child how to hold a pencil, a knife, fork and spoon, and using a toilet are all up there as very important "little things".

I do not ever remember anybody making the speech: "Right everyone, we are done with the little things, from now on we will only deal with the mega big gigantic things. The little things are not worth worrying about, now get out there and give those big deals a good bashing!"

It has all crept up on us and it will be near on impossible to turn the tide.

[Suff]

Aggers, we have children bringing up children. We have schools focusing on "expression" rather than discipline and society seems to focus more on individuality than conformation to a norm.

The result is chaos and that manifests itself in litter, damage and, in extreme cases, murder.

I see no end in sight. All I can hope is that these people who believe their "right" to do whatever the hell they want, target those who champion their right to be antisocial.....

Well I can live in hope.

[Workingman]

There was an article the other day about the deatrh of politeness. See if you can guess the cause.

"Alexa, tun the heating on"
"The heating is turned on"

"Siri, order bread and butter."
"Bread and butter is ordered, do you need jam?"
"No"

"Cortana, what is the shortest route between London and Leeds?"
"The shortest route between London and Leeds is the M1, would you like to see a map?"
"Yes"

[TheOstrich]

Very true, WM

What on earth is going wrong with society?

Without a doubt, the systamatic drive to eradicate the boundaries of society as you and I would define them, Aggers, by the increasingly hedonistic generations that followed the 1970's.

[Workingman]

Alexa, Siri and Cortana are assistants, but not human.

We interact with them differently with no need for "please" or "thank you". We are increasingly interacting with our fellow humans in the same way.

We are doing a similar thing on our smartphones, tablets and PCs. Many of the "people" and "friends" we now share our lives with are no more than usernames out there somewhere. There is no need to be polite, and not much fear in being nasty to them.

This is now life.

[Suff]

There was an article the other day about the deatrh of politeness. See if you can guess the cause.

"Yes"

About right. Pretty soon we'll have two generations who think Please and Thank You are things that old people insist on because they are OLD.

Although there is a movement to make AI's less co-operative if you are not polite to them. I read this article from the verge and the final statement is quite correct.

But my argument is that we shouldn’t be polite to our voice activated assistants for their benefit, but for ours.

[cromwell]

I don't know Aggers, but perhaps one reason is the fixation with people's "rights" and the increasing loss of free speech.

The Police don't seem to want to enforce the law on certain groups of society, and the main reason that they are reluctant imo is the power of an accusation of racism, or Islamophobia etc.

Because that sort of accusation can wreck a career, whether it is truthful or not. So you end up with the spectacle of "travellers" being allowed to break the law at will and rape gangs getting away with the most vile crimes for years because the authorities (and that means more than the police) don't want to confront the problem.

Main problem is that we are ruled by an elite who are not very much like us. Their concerns are not our concerns. So the police vanish from the streets but are prowling the internet looking for "hate speech" which is basically any speech that politicians don't like.

There is a breakdown in trust and respect between people and the authorities, mainly because the authourites deserve neither trust nor respect.

[AliasAggers]

Main problem is that we are ruled by an elite who are not very much like us. Their concerns are not our concerns.
So the police vanish from the streets but are prowling the internet looking for "hate speech" which is basically any speech that politicians don't like.

There is a breakdown in trust and respect between people and the authorities, mainly because the authourites deserve neither trust nor respect.

I guess that sums it up very well, Cromwell. Makes one wonder what the future holds.