kirchzep27 Posted July 30, 2008 Share Posted July 30, 2008 Well I do try The sheer amount of people I meet at uni who are certainly academically talented but are just plain shit at life and lack any kind of reasoned, grounded and...well, correct thought scares me. These people are in line for top jobs and they aint got a clue. Thats just in the 13th grade, wait till you see the world after that... and the same immature and idiotic behavior still exists and even worse sometimes. Prepare for disappointment is all i'll say, or just more of the same for yrs on end. Although, you actually should network with some of those folks now. They may help you out with a job ten yrs from now, or whatever, thats how things work in world from what i've seen. Its good to be an individual, but its smart to realize how the system works. I never had a clue about it all when i was in college. On the environment, i side with the scientists on that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllisonAdler Posted July 30, 2008 Share Posted July 30, 2008 I do think the British media have been playing upon people's fears unnecessarily by focusing so much lately on knife crime and by sensationalizing it. A prime example was about a week ago when the main headline in the Mail was something like "Watch out for the latest knife craze coming to our streets" about mail order hunting/diving knives that have some silly gas thing to freeze bears' and sharks' insides instantly. The police interviewed said no one had used these in any UK knife incident, and the whole article was just trying to create anxiety. Totally stupid and irresponsible. On the green issue, I agree, no amount of personal green behavior is really going to do anything. The world population needs drastically to go down if we want any hope of not being disastrously corrected by nature herself in the near future. However, I do love my M&S Twiggy bag... Logic isn't a big feature of most people's psyches, I'm afraid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gainsbarre Posted July 30, 2008 Share Posted July 30, 2008 And then H L Menken chimed in, "A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin." And I love you too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gainsbarre Posted July 30, 2008 Share Posted July 30, 2008 Spending my summer back home away from college, the dividing line between sensible and stupid is even more apparent than before... it's so sad how people allow themselves to be consumed by their own ignorance rather than educating themselves. Self-sought education is always the most rewarding, eh? When I was at Uni, people would always be saying to you "What are you studying? Oh yeah. What sort of job will that get you?" they always wanted to know what job you were going to get with the degree or how much money I was going to be earning. It was always about the material things. And when I would reply that I probably wouldn't earn more money doing my degree, people were always mystified as to why I was doing it. Education for the sake of education is not enough. It's only useful if it means more money at the end of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bustle In My Hedgerow Posted July 30, 2008 Share Posted July 30, 2008 When I was at Uni, people would always be saying to you "What are you studying? Oh yeah. What sort of job will that get you?" they always wanted to know what job you were going to get with the degree or how much money I was going to be earning. It was always about the material things. And when I would reply that I probably wouldn't earn more money doing my degree, people were always mystified as to why I was doing it. Education for the sake of education is not enough. It's only useful if it means more money at the end of it. True. No one really gives a fuck if you studied something meaningful... I'm shit out of luck with a sociology degree in the works. Am I interested? Yes. Will a dumbass ex classmate who stayed at a local college studying business probably get a higher paying job than I? Probably. I hate being cynical, but I suppose it's true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speed Racer Posted July 30, 2008 Share Posted July 30, 2008 Anyone else absolutely fucking sick of do-gooding, interferring moralising twits preaching to us about what is the current trend in the 'Good Life'. Recycling and all that hypocritical eco-friendly consumer crap, anti-smoking brigade, knife crime, binge drinking...yadda yadda yadda. Now I'm not gonna deny that the world is warming up.... but listen. My friend who is studing climate change says that could just have easily been caused by sun spots. That, and re-using plastic bags, or carrying round those sanctamonious hemp ones will do sod bloody all - the damage is done, this is just another way sharp business people are tapping into the market - this market comprising of do-gooding people who want to appear to be living the good life by buying expensive, eco-friendly namby pamby shit. Oh please wake up. Fucking look at the USA's and China's emissions - seriously is ANYthing 'green' folks doing over here doing ANY good when 2 of the world's largest nations' governments don't really give a crap? But that's not what this is about, I don't really want this to be a big environment debate (although I'm pretty sure I just provoked a few would-be or former hippies). Smoking I've spoken about before. Knife crime - big hoo-har in England about this lately. Yes, it's horrid. Yes, it seems every week teenagers are dying from knife attacks. horrible horrible. BUT. KNIFE CRIME ISN'T NEW. It isn't even on the fucking rise - youth knife crime is just far more visible at the moment because the media are fucking obsessed with it, makes for a nice juicy line of stories. Thing is, it's being talked about like it's a nationwide problem...like we are ALL frightened to go out on the streets. It is a problem in SOME areas of some cities - parts of London, Birmingham, Manchester etc. Not to belittle it but I'm fucking sick of this hyperbolic obsession. Is anyone else in England thinking the same? Or am I a lone voice in these parts... I have to say don't worry so much about what other peoples advice is when it's wrong or unjust. Use common sense and your brain to avoid the weirdos and their sick obsessions and crimes. I like the way you express yourself. Very clever.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chef free Posted July 30, 2008 Share Posted July 30, 2008 Scratch the surface of a cynic and you will find an idealist underneath! Me, I've perfected the art of cynical sentimentality. Yes, most people lack common sense despite education but they can learn, grow and change (they don't usually, but they could). So nurture your cynicism and remember perfect paranoia is perfect consciousness. PS So we've exported all our manufacturing jobs to China and India so we can have lots of cheap consumer items and they can become middle class and compete with us for limited resources (fuel, steel, etc.) and pollute like Americams (except on a MUCH larger scale). Imagine 1,500,000,000 Chinese driving cars! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gainsbarre Posted July 30, 2008 Share Posted July 30, 2008 Use common sense and your brain to avoid the weirdos and their sick obsessions and crimes. In my rich and varied experience in life, weirdos are fine, it's normal people you have to be careful of... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redrum Posted July 30, 2008 Share Posted July 30, 2008 Well I do try The sheer amount of people I meet at uni who are certainly academically talented but are just plain shit at life and lack any kind of reasoned, grounded and...well, correct thought scares me. These people are in line for top jobs and they aint got a clue. The scarier part is that acting and being a stupid fool is now considered 'cool' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chef free Posted July 30, 2008 Share Posted July 30, 2008 The scarier part is that acting and being a stupid fool is now considered 'cool' Ow! So true, it's "uncool" to be smart or nice or politically aware, I hate this dumb thug culture thing! Thank God I grew up in the sixties and seventies!!!!!! (Better music too!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunChild Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 And I love you too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neutral Posted August 3, 2008 Share Posted August 3, 2008 Anyone else absolutely fucking sick of do-gooding, interferring moralising twits preaching to us about what is the current trend in the 'Good Life'. Recycling and all that hypocritical eco-friendly consumer crap, anti-smoking brigade, knife crime, binge drinking...yadda yadda yadda. Now I'm not gonna deny that the world is warming up.... but listen. My friend who is studing climate change says that could just have easily been caused by sun spots. That, and re-using plastic bags, or carrying round those sanctamonious hemp ones will do sod bloody all - the damage is done, this is just another way sharp business people are tapping into the market - this market comprising of do-gooding people who want to appear to be living the good life by buying expensive, eco-friendly namby pamby shit. Oh please wake up. Fucking look at the USA's and China's emissions - seriously is ANYthing 'green' folks doing over here doing ANY good when 2 of the world's largest nations' governments don't really give a crap? So if you can't change something by yourself, no sense caring about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neutral Posted August 3, 2008 Share Posted August 3, 2008 Ow! So true, it's "uncool" to be smart or nice or politically aware, I hate this dumb thug culture thing! Thank God I grew up in the sixties and seventies!!!!!! (Better music too!) I hate these generalizations about today's youth. Sure there may be some groups that think the 'thug culture' is cool and its uncool to be 'smart, nice or politically aware' but its really just a percentage of today's youth, and from my experience, a fairly small one. You cant just lump all youths into that category just because you respect the time you grew up in more than now. It's unfair and pretty disrespectful to today's youth who value intelligence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chef free Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 True I do enjoy most of the students in my jr. highschool classes but they just laugh when I suggest that it was once cool to be nice or friendly or intellegent or politically aware. They aren't all that way but they do agree that it is the dominant culture now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gainsbarre Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 I hate these generalizations about today's youth. Sure there may be some groups that think the 'thug culture' is cool and its uncool to be 'smart, nice or politically aware' but its really just a percentage of today's youth, and from my experience, a fairly small one. You cant just lump all youths into that category just because you respect the time you grew up in more than now. It's unfair and pretty disrespectful to today's youth who value intelligence. Well yes you are right that people or groups shouldn't be generalized, but generally-speaking there is a cultural shift in our society of moving away from certain expectations for the sake of consumerism. In that 50's, 60's 70's time period, we saw the birth of the 'teenager' as a social movement, and the hierarchical power structures of society challenged such as civil rights movement, the 2nd wave of feminism, reassessment of sexual politics. People in that period were coming out from under the thumb of class/social structure and power. Different groups were challenging authority and this made people politically aware and active, because they wanted to take a leading role with regards to the direction of their social needs. But that generation were also born and brought up under the old system, if you like, of class structure, and that system came with social expectations. If you wanted to aspire to any sort of elevated level in society, you were expected to show a certain type of behaviour, a certain level of education, etc etc. There were strong expectations on what men and women should be and what qualities they should exhibit. The BBC news wouldn't dumb itself down for you, you had to smarten yourself up for the BBC... Then, of course after the 60's, when these expected roles and behaviours broke down due to counter culture, pop culture, feminism etc etc things started to go the other way, which was now there were no expectations. Nowdays all you need to be is rich, beautiful and young. You can be as trashy as you want, or as dumb as you want, which is all perfectly fine, but it does set a template for behaviour and presentation that younger people will interpret as being the key to attention. And with this lowering of expectation, so too is there a 'dumbing down' in our society, as people feel no reason to 'better' themselves except if it makes them more money. News media, books, films, music, product, advertising all gets dumbed down now because of the fear that if they print or produce something that people may not understand, then it won't sell and they won't make money. If there's a slight chance that the intellect of some of the public might be challanged, then the idea is immediately scrapped. Look at television news for example. It's being commoditised. It's moving from being 'the news' to 'infotainment' because TV stations are worried that the news is dropping in ratings and losing money. So it's being scandalized, or jazzed up with jokes and chatty hosts, or the news is turning into 'opinion' because opinion either gets people agreeing or angry, which means they're watching. It's sad that the only no-bullshit TV news you can get these days is on public or state television, where ratings don't concern them. Respectability and intellectualism don't make money, that's why they're a dying breed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Del Zeppnile Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 The very idea that children are dying at the hands of knife crime chills me. It may not be on the rise, but the children who are dying, I believe, are. What is it with you Brits and your facination with knives, swords and other medieval instruments of killing? I will never understand this "knife culture" that you have. And what a shame that your young people have access to these instruments of death. You need stronger laws to prevent this from happening. My point was simply that, as already mentioned, it [knife crime] is not a new thing. People have always been murdered. This frenzy in the media is making the problem appear like it is a recent development. It's also making the problem sound more widespread than it is - it is largely (obviously not completely) isolated in inner-city areas that have always been crime ridden, it is not nationwide. The UK's streets are not all unsafe. So you are saying that the media is playing this 'knife crime' thing up because it makes for a good story? Imagine that -- the media distorting the perspective of crime! Who would have thought that could happen! But at least it's good to hear that the situation is not widespread, and that the vast majority of British knife owners are not criminals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longdistancewinner Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 What is it with you Brits and your facination with knives, swords and other medieval instruments of killing? I will never understand this "knife culture" that you have. And what a shame that your young people have access to these instruments of death. You need stronger laws to prevent this from happening. Us 'Brits' don't have any fascination with knife crime, it just so happens that we have gangs who use them and knives are accessible to get, plenty of kids use them as protection when they feel the police aren't doing enough for them. There's always the fear of gang reprisals and retribution and knives are a lot easier to carry and hide than, say, a gun. 50/40 years ago razor's were the weapon of choice in areas such as Glasgow and Chelsea, so it's nothing new. I don't think I've ever come across any instance of any incident in Britain that involved swords or medieval instruments...so, yeah But, then again, I don't understand your country's 'gun culture', you can buy them in fucking Walmart for fucks sake. What's that all about? So, I guess we're even. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Electrophile Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 I don't think this country has a "gun culture" anymore than your country has a "knife culture". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Del Zeppnile Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 Us 'Brits' don't have any fascination with knife crime, it just so happens that we have gangs who use them and knives are accessible to get, plenty of kids use them as protection when they feel the police aren't doing enough for them. There's always the fear of gang reprisals and retribution and knives are a lot easier to carry and hide than, say, a gun. 50/40 years ago razor's were the weapon of choice in areas such as Glasgow and Chelsea, so it's nothing new. I don't think I've ever come across any instance of any incident in Britain that involved swords or medieval instruments...so, yeah First of all, thank you for your response. Seems that I baited the hook well... and you took it. My point is that, CRIME is all about criminals, it has nothing to do with the availability of knives in your country any more than the availability of guns in my country. As another Brit already pointed out, the knife crime in your country is being over exagerated by the media, and is not as widespread a problem as the reaction to it seems to be. We get the same types of reactions to news reports of gun crimes in this country. Obviously for a nation of over 300 million people we are going to have our share of crime too. But that being said, the vast majority of gun owners are good citizens who have never used their guns in a crime. In fact, it is estimated that there probably a million incidents each year where legal gun owners use their guns to protect themselves from criminals. But, then again, I don't understand your country's 'gun culture', you can buy them in fucking Walmart for fucks sake. What's that all about? So, I guess we're even. But you see, this is a very hypocritical statement. What is it that you mean by "gun culture?" Are you talking about hunters and sportsmen? Last I checked, the U.K. has plenty hunters and sportsmen too. Are you talking about military collectors? Yep, you all have lots of collectors of military regalia and historical weapons l-- you Brits seem to love that as much as we do. Would that be the same kind of "culture" you are speaking of? And what about the reenactors of historic battles? The ones who dress up as Knights and Vikings with swords, crossbows, spears and those fantastic trebuchets that can throw a pumpkin 1000 yards. Would you consider that "military culture" to be similar to the so called "gun culture" we have here? Or shouldn't we be talking about 'criminal culture' and not where you seem to assume legal gun ownership takes us. "Gun culture" is a term used far too much in the British media as some simple explanation for a crime problem, just as your media is doing with the 'knife crime' scare. I'm suprised that so many of you seem to buy into that hype to the extent that you do. I would really love someone from your country to explain to me how I as an American am part of a so called 'gun culture' just because I legally own guns... no matter where I purchased them from. I would like you to explain to me how our inner city crime situation is any different than yours? It's all about criminals and nothing more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGDAN Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 What is it with you Brits and your facination with knives, swords and other medieval instruments of killing? I will never understand this "knife culture" that you have. And what a shame that your young people have access to these instruments of death. You need stronger laws to prevent this from happening. So you are saying that the media is playing this 'knife crime' thing up because it makes for a good story? Imagine that -- the media distorting the perspective of crime! Who would have thought that could happen! But at least it's good to hear that the situation is not widespread, and that the vast majority of British knife owners are not criminals. Hi Del, I only speak for the Decent-White-Law abiding people of Woolwich/Greenwich in London. The Media are not scare mongering, for once they tell the truth. We don't have a fascination for knives swords and other medieval instruments of killing. Most people on here don't have a clue what has happened to our innercities over the last thirty years because they haven't lived in them or haven't travel to them to see the problem. I could write you an essay about the area of South East London where I have lived since 1980, and my three sons could also tell you their story as well, and it would be the same as mine. Thirty years ago it was a HARD area where you could have a fight with someone without getting stabbed or shot, FACT. Now, with thirty years of immigration, and all the problems that brings, it is a NASTY VILE AREA where you cant even look at some people without being chased, beaten and stabbed, if you are lucky. For those of you who know where I am coming from, please leave your comments. For those of you with your heads stuck so far up your own arse's, how's your dinner taste? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Bill Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 I don't think I've ever come across any instance of any incident in Britain that involved swords or medieval instruments How about the The Battle of Hastings? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longdistancewinner Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 How about the The Battle of Hastings? I meant now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGDAN Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 How about the The Battle of Hastings? Hastings was before the medieval era mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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