spart

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/de...ern-life-study


Millions of Britons unable to cope with modern life, says study

• Britain portrayed as a psychologically fragile society
• Increased wealth accompanied by added stress

Oh dear..

"a psychologically fragile society"
"parts of British society are brittle"
"appears to have declined"

Someone needs to harden up bit.

Jeeper

I'm sure for those at the tail-end of the rat race life would be very grim....especially in the UK which is grim enough anyway.

Meow

The report that this flimsy article is based on states:

"...argues that unemployed teenagers and refugees should be given a mobile phone and internet access as part of their benefits package because these are vital modern necessities that enable them to engage in society, not luxuries"

Really? I doubt anyone here would agree.


The article goes nowhere and the report is daft. UK society has never been close to perfect and cuddly, but it seems to me that we have a couple of gernerations where so many people are unable to do anything for themselves and blame others when their lives aren't easy.

What happened to the stiff upper lip and Blitz attitude?

-

Bijilo123

It is a crap newspaper article but I guess that the researchers must have some credibility.

The article starts:

Millions of people are unhappy, lonely and unable to cope with profound changes in the workplace, relationships and family life, according to a major study.

I think that it should end there because it goes into speculation. The structures of society which my parents and grandparents and those generations before them have truly dissapeared and I suspect that it is the underlying cause for 'millions of people being...' - or at least a significant contributor.

On the contrary since my antecedants there have been a huge number of people who have adapted and can function through being on their own and winning against hostile environments. I suspect that everyone on this forum is of that ilk. It takes someone special to up sticks and go. The rest - which is a majority may not have the capacity to cope because the social structures have gone and because they just incapable of getting up and there is nowhere to go for them. They are the majority.

The Guardian is being provocative about mobile phones but the underlying point that people need to engage with society is axiomatic. This is not about the people who can adapt to the changes in society it is about those who can't - the ones we are snarling about - and if nothing is done about it then look to history for what happens next.

seven seas

Mobile phones and the internet ARE necessitites and not luxuries.But to give them to people? Phones are dead cheap. In fact if you are not an active part of the capitalist system of production, why would you even have a good phone? Just a basic model , probably 19.99 should be good enough to make you contactable and socially present.Make access to the internet more widely available (this mysterious place called a library has them).

Life in the UK is changing quickly. Added to the national NIMBY syndrome, this has left a lot of people behind with nothing but contrariness and isolation as a refuge from a world they can't cope with.

seven seas

Bijilo I don't think the masses of chavs and Daily Express readers can ever come together, let alone force radical changes like in revolutionary France or Russia.

TGFKASE

Nope...

Food and water are necessities...

Having a mobile phone and access to the internet are not....

Case closed..

Bijilo123

..I was hoping that no one would read my mind. I think the chavs and Daily Express readers are probably not at the seat of the issue but the unemployed ignorant and desparate are looking more likely - and from what I can see some of these are going to coe from the disposessed middle classes.

Perhaps not that extreme immediately but eventually we will go beyond passively isolating them and just **** them off completely. Eventually there wil be a reaction poll tax, flying pickets,BNP, electoral processes, overthrow by the masses are all within the bounds of possibility.

Anyway, enough blx from me.

TGFKASE

God, I hated them...

All that ba-da-da-da...pow-pow bollox...

MacScot

Yeah, never liked pop a-cappella groups like the Flying Pickets either..

http://www.singers.com/contemp/flyingpickets.html

TGFKASE

Even The Housemartins tried to get in on the act at the time...

Remember Caravan Of Love? Not particularly anti-establishment, was it Mr Heaton!!!

seven seas

How do you suggest chavs get into the employment market?
Employers knocking on their doors?

How can social workers (more likely probation officers) get in touch with them?

"I applied for six jobs over the internet - which I can use at the local CCC (chav containment centre) and one of them called me back with an offer."

I would love to have chavs saying this to each other.

Victor Meldrew

I somehow feel that the OP (a Kiwi) was posting a 'baiting' thread just to watch the GB guys and girls go into a feeding frenzy.

He doesnt seem to have contributed to the thread since.

NorthernLad

We just watched the film Harry Brown. Pity it's fiction.

spart

No - was at the Killers last night. Saw the article in an Aussie newspaper, and looked it up to reference for the boards information.

We always get a giggle out of things like this. I didn't think it was a particularly strong article, and didn't make many particularly interesting points. But was something different to start a discussion.