Wednesday, 02 June 2010

Make yourself comfortable

This is Unst bus shelter. Via a post on the Streets list.

Unst bus shelter

2 Jun 2010 16:22:05 | Space and place

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Selfishness: living in an 'impoverished emotional culture' Occasionally you hear arguments defending individualism, and claiming that it is not directly related to issues of exclusion, disengagement or uncivil behaviour. The tide seems very much against these views now though, the bankers and the MPs have seen to that. Here's an item in the Daily Mail, with its squeaky-clean reputation as a stalwart defender of selfless collectivism, reviewing a book called The selfish society by Sue Gerhardt, and folding-in some points from the Catholic Church's Choosing the common good report and the Children's Society's Good childhood inquiry. Focusing on the influence of consumerism, Gerhardt identifies problematic styles of parenting which combine material indulgence with emotional neglect, speaking of 'an impoverished emotional culture'. The Good childhood inquiry emphasised the negative impact of individualism. So are we more selfish, or is it just that the ways our selfishness and selflessness play out have changed - perhaps not unlike the way our connections changed over a few decades from geographical community to social network? We may find out. According to their latest bulletin, ippr is beginning a new programme of work exploring selfishness, in partnership with the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen). 'The work will provide unique analysis, drawing on a comprehensive range of data sets together with new evidence to assess how attitudes and values have changed.' I can't imagine they'll keep the results to themselves.
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Neighbours and food I just came across this little gem: I had an old man living next door who was a recluse and I used to help him a lot. He was very independent though, so I'd say things like: 'I've cooked too much food, could you do me a favour and take it from me?' He died and now we have a young couple, who we haven't really met. I'm now at the age where they might bring me food and I ll tell them to get lost, like he used to tell me. More in this curious little collection.

Kevin Harris

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