PC Pantomime madness

[jumpy]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/7196104.stm




We're doomed I tells ya, DOOOOOMED!



What a world we live in.... where teenagers charged and released on police bail kick people to death in the street
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/7176471.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/m...de/7130871.stm

She said: "I asked him why did he do it, and he told me he tried walking away but the man was ranting and raving and 'so I punched him in the face'.

Where politicians endlessly and needlessly debate the need to ban everything, where rigorous enforcement of existing laws to the fullest extent possible for those who break them, would more than suffice:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7193075.stm

Where the social climate I grew up in with its values and common sense decency seem to have flown out of the window in a frenzy of limp wristed do-goodery, to leave behind something that resembles nothing less than a steaming pile of ****e that I would happily cross the road in order to avoid soiling my boot in...

And now we have to HSE register props for a pantomime?!
Has this country gone totally insane?
Where all the things that truely matter are ignored and trifling nonsense matters are poured over with a fine tooth comb in order to 'make them safe'?

Originally Posted by HSE idiot

"We do not want to stop people putting on pantos or having fun as long as the risks are sensible managed."

What is that guy smoking? Every iota of that statement casts a lasting and indelible shadow on what we used to call 'fun'. Come on! Can you think of anything less threatening than pantomime? (well ok, there's men wearing dresses...) Yet someone seems to have spent a great deal of time and effort to bring these clearly hazardous practices and items to our immediate notice.
How one can sleep at night knowing that there are real people out there who have to put up with the very worst that life can throw at them and yet they still roll out this utter nonsense with aplomb and gravitas more suited to a genuine issue, is beyond my reckoning.

What has happened to us?



Those were the days...

Late 70's school versus the school of the new millennia.



Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school.

1970's - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and remain mates.
2007 - Police are called, Armed Response Unit arrives and arrests Johnny and Mark. Mobiles with video of fight
confiscated as evidence.
They are charged with assault, ASBOs are taken out and both are suspended even though Johnny started it.
Diversionary conferences and parent meetings conducted. Video shown on 6 internet sites.



Scenario: Jeffrey won't sit still in class, disrupts other students.

1970's - Jeffrey is sent to the principal's office and given 6 of the best.
Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2007 - Jeffrey is given huge doses of Ritalin. Counselled to death.
Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School gets extra funding because Jeffrey has a disability.
Drops out of school.

Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his neighbour's car and his dad gives him the slipper.

1970's- Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2007 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy is removed to foster care and joins a gang.
Psychologist tells Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison.
Billy's mum has an affair with the psychologist. Psychologist gets a promotion.


Scenario: Mark, a college student, brings cigarettes to school.

1970's - Mark shares a smoke with the school principal out on the smoking area.
2007 - Police are called and Mark is expelled from School for drug possession. His car is searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario: Mohammed fails high school English.

1970's - Mohammed retakes his exam, passes and goes to college.
2007 - Mohammed's cause is taken up by local human rights group.
Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that making English a requirement for graduation is racist.
Civil Liberties Association files class action lawsuit against state school system and his English teacher.
English is banned from core curriculum.
Mohammed is given his qualification anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

Scenario: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers, puts them in a model plane paint bottle and blows up an anthill.

1970's - Ants die.
2007 - MI5 and police are called and Johnny is charged with perpetrating acts of terrorism.
Teams investigate parents, siblings are removed from the home, computers are confiscated, and Johnny's dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario: Johnny falls during break and scrapes his knee. His teacher, Mary, finds him crying, and gives him a hug to comfort him.

1970's - Johnny soon feels better and goes back to playing.
2007 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job.
She faces three years in prison. Johnny undergoes five years of therapy…Becomes gay.

I seriously dread to think how some of you older guys feel about the changing world around you and its steady decline into the mire. It's bad enough now, what's it going to be like when I hit 40, or 50?
If things continue as they are doing it doesn't bear thinking about.

/rant

[nikimcbee]

I'd laugh at you, but we have enough of that over here!

Archie Bunkers of the world-unite!

[STEED]

Originally Posted by jumpy

I seriously dread to think how some of you older guys feel about the changing world around you and its steady decline into the mire. It's bad enough now, what's it going to be like when I hit 40, or 50?
If things continue as they are doing it doesn't bear thinking about.

/rant

This country has gone liberal, and let's the EU walk over this country. But, we can not blame the EU or our own politicians outright. The voters have become slobs and will not get off his/hers arse.

As long as the voters got sport & soap to entertain them, along with a bottle of alcohol to suck they will gladly sit in sh*t for the rest of there lives and that is a fact.

PS: I'm not one of them and I'm pretty sure some of you lot here are not.

[CCIP]

Personally, I think this "good old days" thing is really misplaced. Let's face it, the world has always sucked. I think it's best not to be stuck with "old-timer's syndrome" - yup, it's worth recognizing the problems that are new and unusual today, but is that a reason to look back? I don't think so.

Plus a lot of those examples are actually somewhere between somewhat inaccurate to downright manipulative. The first one offended me especially. Ever been in a fight like that? Ever been around kids who've been left to live with their own brushes and bruises? Well, I grew up in a non-PC society (early 90's Russia), and lemme tell you... as stupid as some of this PC crap I see around me now, I certainly don't miss those "good old days". I literally knew people who were beaten to death that way. For years I also sat next to a really rough guy who'd live between being left to his own means and being disciplined by the teachers every once in a while. Noone got him any professional help or really tried to intervene, and it seemed like he was sort of getting along... until he was convicted of violent rape that he committed at age 13 and permanenty expelled from the school system. And last I saw him, the drugs he was taking weren't the anti-psychotic kind (not that I support the former of course!).

So again, I see the problems with the society today, but can I really look back to a non-PC society and say "look how great that was!"? Nope. So let's recognize today's problems, and work to change the stupidities surrounding them - but not with yesterday's methods.

[CCIP]

Also, funny how just after posting, I saw this article on BBC

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3519662.stm

[jumpy]

^^

hehe obviously I quoted the 'good old days' with a touch of nostalgic humour, but you cannot deny that some means of tackling 'todays problems' have gone way off the other end of the scale... ie someone burgles your house, so you put them in hospital and then you are the one punished by the state, whilst poor 'society made me do it' burglar gets compensation.
You know the sort of thing I mean. It just doesn't make any sense to me that justice and social morality (such as it is these days) appears to have been turned upside-down.
Rose tinted spectacles of history not withstanding, there's a lot less 'community' in britain today than when I grew up. And whilst unruly teenagers were up to no good, it was by the standard of the time - they didn't go about kicking people to death outside their homes for telling the kids to get lost and stop causing trouble.

The standards keep slipping further and further whilst people keep making excuses for those who refuse to take responsibility for their actions and behaviour towards others. No-one has any respect for anyone else anymore.
I'll admit life is more complex these days, but this is more of a burden on life than a boon, for the most part.

[The Munster]

I left School in 77 and I had my fair share of the cane. I've never forgotten those cane strokes and the reasons why I had them.

[CCIP]

Sure, as I said - we got problems, and lots of em. I'm hoping more people wake up to this.

It's always a problem when we lose pragmatism towards what's really going on in society. And I think a tendency to cover one's eyes and pretend nothing is happening or it's not their fault or that professionals should handle all the problems is a perennial issue that manifests itself in different ways but essentially always comes down to the same thing.

You're right, a lot of these things really are killing the individual generally and any single individual's ability to take control of what's going on around them. While I'd be last to scream "conspiracy!!", I think it's also true that in a lot of cases what's producing it is an overbearing bureaucracy of so-called experts who know better than the average person about everything. Got a problem? Don't you even try to move, we'll do everything for you! And if you do move, you're in serious trouble - that's really the key here I think. All that professional effort would be so much better-spent teaching people to help themselves, but that'd take away jobs from the professional "helpers", wouldn't it? And that's the real reason for it, I think.