In the midst of preparing a presentation, simultaneously writing two essays, (4,000 and 6,000 words) remembering I had a tutorial with the Head of School, and reading my butt off, I managed to fit in time to chill out and watch some trashy TV with Dan. The sort of TV in which there only ever appear to be 3 types of adverts - the insurance kind, the compensation kind, and the "we-can-give-you-a-six-pack-in-three-weeks" kind.
Today's rant, then, is about compensation culture, a term so widely used that you'd think it would connote disparagement about the state of today's society. These adverts, with their 'no win no fee' promises, lure people into thinking, "Hm, John Smith tripped over and got 5 grand out of it, I wonder if I could try the same thing." The result is a dangerous cocktail of all kinds of people trying to do anything to make a quick buck, whilst simultaneously making "more dangerous" the most innocuous of pastimes. (cycling in the countryside, children playing with conkers) This is not, I would imagine, modern living, in the truest sense. It is living dictated by an appallingly quasi-totalitarian Government, which strangles the various freedoms of the public with ridiculous levels of bureaucracy. It is fallacious to argue that we are progressing as a race because we are outlawing innocent pursuits that have preoccupied the young and old alike for centuries. So we have a paradoxical situation in which we are informed by nanny-state Labour government that our children should "get more exercise", but with all the usual political fluff attached. Healthy, safe, responsible, mature, exercise. You can almost hear the Health Department slipping on their Pied Piper clothes. Repeat after me. Dangerous activities such as conker fights are bad for your health. The alternative is, of course, the couch-potato lifestyle which so many children adopt and turn into obese illiterate next-generation brats.
Nobody ever wins in Britain anymore.
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