Interesting piece from The Telegraph about the epidemic of signs that is plaguing our society – the most recent ones concerning smoking. There are so many signs ordering people about that, in fact, no one reads them anymore.
We really are a generation of sorry hysterics, stamping our feet and red in the face. We have failed to grow up in spite of the fact that most of us have white hair. As we babyboomers feel our powers fading, we forbid. If we feel we have failed to master life, we desperately post signs on how to live it. England in particular imported the rot from California and made it worse. Perhaps this is because the two places have something in common. In the 1960s, they were the two world poles of the long-haired, nihilistic “revolution”. California with the flower children. Great Britain with the Mods and the Rockers. They protested against what they did not like but had nothing to offer as an alternative. They still don’t. Like locusts, they go on destroying the accumulation and the achievements of generations while pouring the blood of those who died for liberty down the toilet with contempt. Driven by the fears they never conquered, they perceive liberty as a threat. Tight-lipped, they swap freedoms (acquired with blood) for "health" (acquired with statistics). In their zeal, they both parody and betray the excesses of their youth.
The generation now in power shot its wad prematurely, giving all it had right after puberty (all connotations intended), and all it has left is its obsession with "premature" death.
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