Indeed. And unlike when a baby or grandmother is killed here, there was little outrage directed at the suspect in this case. (Though I'm sure the Prime Minister recognized the irony in banning spraycans and not knives.)
I remember you quoting someone somewhere about the difference between 'freedom to' and 'freedom from'. I think mine's a country where the balance has tipped too far in the 'freedom from' direction.
But it's not only that, in that I think there's now a sort of separation between the generations here and in the West generally, or at least the English speaking West. Family ties seem very broken, which I think is partly the result of suburbia and the nuclear family.
Life now is supposed to go like this: Birth, life in a house of just siblings and parents till 18, then off to university or some place of higher education a long way from home, then moving around the country or world chasing the right jobs, with some settled time if you can fit it in to raise your own children, followed by retirement in first a house of your own (with partner, if you have one), followed by your final days in a retirement home surrounded by other old people. At no point in that do all the generations ever live together, and often they're not even close by.
There's plenty who go against this trend, either accidentally or deliberately, but it's the pattern the West's designed to run on. And it's not very human.
no subject
I remember you quoting someone somewhere about the difference between 'freedom to' and 'freedom from'. I think mine's a country where the balance has tipped too far in the 'freedom from' direction.
But it's not only that, in that I think there's now a sort of separation between the generations here and in the West generally, or at least the English speaking West. Family ties seem very broken, which I think is partly the result of suburbia and the nuclear family.
Life now is supposed to go like this: Birth, life in a house of just siblings and parents till 18, then off to university or some place of higher education a long way from home, then moving around the country or world chasing the right jobs, with some settled time if you can fit it in to raise your own children, followed by retirement in first a house of your own (with partner, if you have one), followed by your final days in a retirement home surrounded by other old people. At no point in that do all the generations ever live together, and often they're not even close by.
There's plenty who go against this trend, either accidentally or deliberately, but it's the pattern the West's designed to run on. And it's not very human.