Children and young people are getting a strange social landscape laid before them for the future. And to be honest, the present is looking pretty busted up, too. For all of us, but young people have less perspective and experience generally to understand it, so how are they going to cope with it all? How are they coping now? How is anyone I guess, because while some may have both experience and perspective in their arsenal, this is a new situation we appear to face, individually and as a collective.

There are so many concerning things occurring, but being given their own rights to make life altering decisions, is a big one. And it may seem silly to link them together, but it all started with trainers. Yes, the shoes. Quite a strange leap if you aren’t sure why. But you may remember in the 90’s, a story from the states hit the UK, about a child who successfully sued his parents for not buying him trendy expensive trainers. The court upheld that claim I believe. And the slippery slope began, in my view. As with most things that have a rather large impact on society they are often a while in the making. The First Fad covers that a little more.

That slope was already well in place though, with social services and authorities already poised to be able to remove children from people’s care if they saw fit to do so. But mostly there had to be a bloody good reason, and if they didn’t have one? They made one up in some cases. But there was a line, which seemed to fall on the side of the parents, allowing them to believe they were in charge of and responsible for their own offspring. Over the years though, little things showing that’s not entirely the case. Compulsory things crept in, where you had to comply to take part or face monetary or legal consequences. Sound familiar? Fines for not making your children go to school, fines if you wanted to take them away in term time. Exclusion if you didn’t play the game. Back in the day when they tried to make school the system of indoctrination it is today, they also had to bully and force people to take part. Then they pushed the ‘social divide’ created by those who attended, and those who did not. Bringing in more rules of attendance, standards, exams, grades and what they considered social achievement.

And it does rather now seem, as though it is becoming obvious that the previous industrial society we had is on the way out. They don’t want motivated, skilled people to take part in society and just go about their lives as before. They appear to want distracted, confused people to be an integral part of the new society. Without the choice to take part, at all. And that choice I speak of has been limited for a while now, and was the happy illusion to make us all think it was just ticking over and chugging along. Well now it’s changing course and speed. Hoping to throw anyone off the train if they are in the way or looking to pull the stop chord. And equally, to plough through anyone who tried to derail it, or remove it from the tracks. A juggernaut now, heading towards either a wall of total destruction, or into a dark narrow tunnel. For the foreseeable future. So, how do we get off that train, or as I said before, derail it or deconstruct it. Letting it lose steam and just rot away.

There have been so many tricks and traps of society, going back some time. Various hoops to jump through, incentives and punishments, intruding into every part of our lives eventually. Until we find ourselves here, where the illusionary incentives and rewards just went down, and the perceived punishments just went up. And for adults perhaps, who have seen through the charade, the levels of compliance isn’t quite what was expected and they are harder to push now, or to threaten, or to control. So, the attention turns very much to the younger generations, and to try and separate them from anyone who might actually have their best interests at heart. For real, not for profit. If all the older lot had fallen in line, then the expectation of pressure would come from parents first, authorities second, as it used to when the old system worked on a basic level. Peer pressure has worked wonders in the past for there to be social pressure heaped on people, by their own. And don’t get me wrong, I actually believe a bit of peer pressure can be used for good and as a helpful lesson to people while they grow and gather experience throughout their life. But not when that pressure really isn’t from your peers or anyone who you respect. It comes from a far more detached motive and isn’t about teaching you any kind of life lesson, it’s more about making you get in line.

And this is what I would like young people of today to consider. Motive. To really think through and try to understand the reasoning behind someone or something showing an interest, whether it be an interest in your mind, body or soul. Even if that interested party is the government or branches of it. Because while it might seem nice in the short-term, to have someone appear interested in your inner most thoughts and future happiness, or to have someone try and tell you what is good for you. It is important to look behind that, go behind that nice feeling or validation for a moment and analyse it. Because as harsh as it is, the reality is that most authorative departments don’t actually care. You are a target and a statistic, so they can be given money. That’s it. Giving a young person independence is great, but they aren’t really doing that are they? They are trying to sever an attachment of responsibility between parent and child (which I accept isn’t there for all in the first place). And appear to place that responsibility solely with the child or young person but while creating a chord of attachment between the young person and the government. Knowing in many cases the pressure is actually too great and will go wrong as they don’t understand the implications and won’t for some time. Set up to fail, like lots of people have been. And it takes us just a little bit further down that slippery slope…

(c) K Wicks

You hear talk of previous times gone by, of catastrophe and disaster bringing people together to help each other and thy neighbour in times of need. It seems a long-lost fairy tale given how people treat each other on the street on a day-to-day basis.

The ‘war like spirit’ they talk off in this country at least. During and after. But did it last? Clearly not, because it seems that once the event or drama has passed, people just drift away from each other again and back to their own lives. Changed in a way, but not enough to change the way we are. It has even been mentioned after a hurricane in the states that everyone did come together in the aftermath, but it quickly dissipates away and that feeling of being able to help each other and achieve something is lost. Some people have even said ‘we need a good revolution to bring everyone together’, which I found odd that we would need tragedy or disaster to sit up and take note. It always takes a tragedy they say.

Because even though lots of people may have seen it coming, and even talked about the likelihood or probability of it occurring, it’s not until it happens that people act. Or talk about it further, to say how they saw it coming and wasn’t it obvious? So not really odd after all then, quite predictable in fact. That people are more inclined to recognise a developing hazard or threat, will then discuss it at length and identify how it will occur, and how it could actually be averted. And then? They sit back and allow the situation or event to unfold, watching it, almost saying as it happens ‘I knew that was going to happen’, with a strange sense of smugness about being able to see it coming. Infuriating. The whole point and purpose of being able to plan ahead and be able to strategise and understand sequences of actions and events, is to use it to avert such things, in my opinion. Not be entranced by the process, and sit waiting for a result to prove our ego correct. That’s what children do, to learn and understand if their thought processes are correct, try and test the theory. Sometimes with painful consequences, both physically and emotionally. But some it seems do like to see the full drama unfold, or play out, and have no intention of avoiding anything.

So, what of that spirit they talk of? The one after the shit has hit the fan, and recovery is in process. Yes, it seems as a collective we have that one. But I wonder if we have the capacity for another type of spirit, the one that also gets talked of now and again, more as myth though, and with the spirit always being crushed conveniently or thwarted so the catastrophe plays out. However, could it be that we are also able to pull together before the dam bursts, or before the bridge collapses? I wonder…

(c) K Wicks