Chekhov had a point. It might be argued that in contemporary Britain, and in North America, there is at least no “premature old age“, but maybe there is: true, people are living longer in years, but at the same time a strange double-aspect is seen.
The young today are careful, cautious, scared of what they are indoctrinated into being scared of, meaning “the virus”, “racism”, “sexism” etc; even taking any risk at all. In short, they often seem to exhibit traits of caution and even fearfulness, traditionally the preserve of the middleaged and, indeed, the elderly.
The other aspect seen would be a kind of juvenile attitude to life, seen in the adult, even in the middleaged. The obsessive interest in (in the UK) soccer football and (in the USA) American football. The playing of video games, computer games by those aged 30, 40, even 50+.
Other symptoms? The whole “dating app” culture. The middleaged women, often divorced, who feverishly pretend to a lifestyle more appropriate (if at all) to girls of 18 or 20. The male equivalent, as well. Also, the lack of interest in anything of a serious nature, even in those who (via entitlement more than via merit, often) are in the highest positions.
Examples? It became notorious, during the disastrous years of the David Cameron-Levita governments of 2010-2015, that the Prime Minister of the UK spent what his own civil servants called “a frightening amount of time” playing games on his mobile telephone. If I recall aright, his favourite was one called Angry Birds.
Others in that evil yet stupid 2010-2015 government had similar tastes. One was the useless Ed Vaizey (like David Cameron-Levita, a part-Jew).
Now we have “Boris” Johnson, another part-Jew, and another with puerile tastes and behavioural patterns. Someone just posing as Prime Minister, as did Cameron-Levita.
The above may explain why it is hard to form a serious non-System political party worth anything. The young are more interested in complying with whatever they are told by the msm , or in whatever is said about them or their friends on various social media platforms. The older (25+) people are not much better, and the middleaged are mainly engaged in pursuits which are extensions of juvenalia.
Politics, especially radical/revolutionary politics, requires other traits: risk-taking, commitment to ideals and to a cause, a certain selflessness, a willingness by the individual to join with others for a noble cause, as well as anger at the way things are, and a determination to struggle to a better future.
The National Socialists of 1919-1945 had that; the Bolsheviks and other Communists had that; the milder socialists and social-democrats too. Without that drive and belief, everything just trundles on as it is, or perhaps gradually getting worse.
Tweets seen
Ha. When living in Kazakhstan (1996-97), I used to travel up to the mountains with friends in their Lada Niva. I even drove it for short distances once or twice myself. In the UK, a few years ago, I thought of buying a secondhand one, but few were available and, crucially, the Niva only comes in standard shift, not automatic, and my present (UK) driving licence only allows me to drive automatics. Quite a good budget option for off-road, though.
I generally disapprove of capital punishment, as such (for spiritual-religious reasons, and because justice must be tempered with mercy), but there may be situations where a public hanging might do much to repress those who should be repressed.
Tweeting, blogging, vlogging, putting up no-hope election candidates, can only take you so far in the present and developing climate…
Ha ha! That reminds me when a Soviet citizen visiting London in the late 1980s saw the BBC TV News, presented by Moira Stuart [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moira_Stuart], and said to me, “not only a black woman, but one with a speech impediment!“…
What would he have thought of Britain in 2021?
G.K. Chesterton and M.R. James would have been interested, I expect.
Typical ahistorical nonsense
The tweets below are typical of the ahistorical nonsense that abounds today:
Tweeted by a barrister, one of them, so I suppose that younger people reading think it “must be right”. In fact, while it is true that women (and others) could be refused service in a pub, that almost never happened simply because a woman wanted a drink. The same was true of blacks. As for “being gay was imprisonable“…no, it never was, not in the UK, though there were offences committed if actual gay sex was indulged in.
As ever, the devil is in the detail, and in the words “legal right“…
Those tweets give a false picture.
I myself was once refused service in a bar, for having entered the saloon bar of a country pub, in Surrey, while wearing muddy Wellingtons. I, and the young lady accompanying me, had to move to the (equally empty) public bar, where the floor consisted of stone flags instead of carpet. That was in 1984.
Ian Robert Millard 