WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE WORLD OF MY YOUTH ?

Watching an old episode of 'Midsomer Murders', I've had thoughts about the extent to which our society has become increasingly obsessed with political correctness, equality, management speak and a whole load of other modern bollocks.

In Sweden, they've recently decided to abolish the use of masculine terms when referring to God; heaven, appropriately, knows how they'll now deal with 'Father, Son and Holy Ghost'. In France, they're grappling with introducing female terms for a raft of jobs which have traditionally been referred to using the male pronoun only. In this country, we are assailed with the nonsense of 'chairperson', marriage between homosexuals, and so many anti-social rules and regulations that the world is very different from the one I knew 40 years ago. Socialising at work, which I used to do almost every day, is now frowned upon, as the slightest whiff of alcohol on the breath is greeted with horror, offers of referral to counsellors or, even, dismissal. In my day, it was a mark of camaraderie and led to much greater cohesion and productivity than is ever achieved now.

While all of this is lauded as 'progress' to me it appears as regression, suppression and downright lunacy. Every left wing proposition, if voiced loudly enough, is pandered to, and 'sod the consequences'. Everyone and everything has to be controlled and made to conform to the latest idiotic notion peddled by whatever crazy fringe idea is the current 'flavour of the month'. We are controlled by the latest 'Twitter Storm', initiated by who-knows-whom and based on who-knows-what evidence.

Not very long ago, there was variety and spice in life, now we are all 'encouraged' to follow a path of common mediocrity on which we are all the same, of equal ability and of equal value; the notion that some may actually be 'better' than, or simply different from, others is a modern heresy, worthy of the greatest condemnation. At the same time, we elevate certain 'celebrities', most of whom have the talent of a mouldy piece of cheese, to a status of which the rest of us can only dream. Sports 'stars', pop singers, 'models' and various others are paid vast sums for enjoying themselves at our expense. How stupid are we ?

The awful truth is that most of the human population are, if not actually stupid, then at the very least, ill-educated. They are ill-educated and with a ridiculous emphasis on supposed 'social skills' and 'social issues', quite deliberately, so as to keep them under control, to act like sheep, or Pavlov's dogs, going where they're told and responding to whatever stimulus to which they've been found to be susceptible. The latest theories of supposed experts in management, economics, psychology, or other 'specialist' areas are embraced without question; there is a culture that accepts that anything which 'experts' say can be done, must be done, as long as it's 'socially acceptable', resulting in all manner of questionable decisions, particularly in the fields of  medicine, health and welfare and all things 'social'. Health and Safety has come to trump all common sense and many erstwhile popular activities have been effectively outlawed or seriously curtailed for no better reason than that some busybody thinks they should be.

I despair. People have come as far as they have by being free to explore and manage their own lives; some have proved better at this than others, which is a simple proof of Darwin's theory of evolution. However, what is now happening is a rejection of this theory in a way that will almost certainly result in the virtual extinction of the thinking part of the human race in favour of the vast ill-educated masses. This is all about the current elite looking to its own continued predominance regardless of the effects of the policies which it espouses. Effectively, that elite will promote any policy which it believes will maintain it in its position, regardless of the long term efficacy of that policy.

The world I knew as a child and young man is going to hell in a hand basket. Thank the Lord that I won't be around when the chickens finally come home to roost.