● It seems a trifle uncharitable to condemn the young for celebrating the death of a person who was – according to their elders – the most legitimate hate figure since Hitler.
Young people have so little these days from which to derive joy. Their parents are irresponsible. Their schools are awful. They will probably fail to secure a decent college place. If they do get to study something worthwhile, they will have to endure decades of debt. The job they get as reward may well be ‘demised’ after a brief interval. No wonder they are tetchy and need an outlet. Providing a convenient scapegoat is simply conducive to good mental health.
“You got a problem? Why don’t you #!@. Cheers mate!”
● Am pleased to note that someone has launched a deconstructionist attack on the hell that is open-plan offices – an innovation which started to take hold in the late 80s and quickly became all the rage. The author of Quiet relates the phenomenon to the conflict between extraverts and introverts, but it could equally be seen as an expression of collectivism.
Corporate collectivisation does not quite fit with the supposedly rising ‘individualism’ trumpeted by sociologists. If there was a resurgence of the genuine article in the early years of the Thatcher era, as is sometimes claimed, it doesn’t seem to have lasted long.