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I think I can help you there, by presenting it in your own terms.Quote:
Originally Posted by Emil Miller
I looked at the figures at the time, and it's obvious that everyone who watched Big Brother also watched Bleak House. And they all also watched The Teletubbies and Seinfeld. If you are telling me that it's not true or that I have imagined it, then I have to tell you, and anybody else who may be interested, that you are wrong.
In other words you are not prepared to corroborate your statement that: "Ordinary people like loads of stuff. The audience's tastes are less stereotypically predictable than marketing strategists would have us believe. "Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkBastable
Excuse me - I think I just did.Quote:
Originally Posted by Emil Miller
Think again.Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkBastable
I remember the c*ck of our school. I had three fights with him that I didn't want from age 8-ish to 15. I didn't win one, but I was getting closer. The good thing about fighting at school was that you knew - because of the rumpus it caused - that someone would come along and break up the proceedings. The worst words were - "I'll see you at half three" - especially in the morning where the word would go round the classes and a sense of excitement would grow amongst everyone but you - slowly filling with a dread of anticipation. It was a relief to get the whole business over with a few bruises and muddy trousers.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheFifthElement
One of the older c*cks was called Sid Okker - a name that would put terror into our young hearts, though I never saw him lift a finger in anger. He did have a face like the back of a bashed up bus.
They used to say that school was the best years of your life, but it wasn't. In the 70s it was full of random violence, bullying that was never addressed, and someone was always out to "get" you - (or was that just me). The potential for a fight was there the whole time at the rough comprehensive I went to. I remember a sixth former being put in hospital by three lads who were 2 years younger than him. After I'd left school, two of my brother's classmates beat a lad I knew to death with a golf club, and another bloke, who used to be at school with us, murdered his girlfriend. He'd been picked on terribly at school, and I couldn't help thinking that it was somehow part of that terrible thing.
The school couldn't and didn't cope with bullying at all. My impression of schools now is that there is a lot more posturing and shouting, but less actual violence. Like you Fifth, I think they try to deal with it now. I didn't hate school, but when I left I realised gradually what a horrible place it was, and how crap some of the teachers were. Some were very good. Lots were mediocre at best.
I've thought again. And, yep, if you are telling me that it's not true or that I have imagined it, then I have to tell you, and anybody else who may be interested, that you are wrong.Quote:
Originally Posted by Emil Miller
there's definitely a case for inventing a font exclusively for use on the Net, called Facetious Sans Serif.Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkBastable
Cheers of applause from that class of person who enjoys your serious discussions very much but is ill-equipped to participate! :ladysman:Quote:
Originally Posted by Emil Miller
See, Brian, you do write posts that are appreciated.Quote:
Originally Posted by Delta40
Yes it's rather unfortunate but I'm sure she meant well.Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkBastable
I don't like muddy waters when it seems no one has a decent definition of what they mean.
I actually quite like Muddy Waters:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjPezeHN9Hc
and John Lee Hooker as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X70VM...eature=related
although Brian undoubtedly recognizes the fact that they would garner serious attention... especially by a cultural snob such as myself... is proof positive of the decline of Western Civilization.
Don't worry Brian... I'm currently redeeming myself... listening to some marvelous operatic arias by Johann Christian Bach sung by the amazing Philippe Jaroussky. This brilliant young singer is rapidly becoming a classical super-star... and one more example of the decline of Western culture:goof:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1yUQJj7NbI
I did! I trust you all know you have an admiring audience...Quote:
Originally Posted by Emil Miller
It is a shame, I believe in the comprehensive system, but it can and does go very wrong. Discipline is the root of the problem.Quote:
Originally Posted by Paulclem
Our comprehensive was fairly strict on the discipline until the old head retired and a "progressive" educator took over - things went down hill rapidly then - although at the time it seemed better to us . They removed the old system and had nothing ready to replace it with. Things became pretty anarchic until another strong man was put in charge - In time for my own kids, thank goodness.
I was (to my suprise) **** of the school for my last year at juniors, and was consequently given a severe beating on entering high school.
There have always been smarties and dummies wherever cultures have existed - in ancient Greece there were Herakles and Jason for the dummies, and Theseus and Perseus for the smarties
There were two classes and two standards of education - the elites needed extra for purposes of governance and marshaling armies, and their 'special' heroes had a form of moral compass the gods seemed to lack
On the debate about Big Brother the mental age had a lot to do with those who watched (check the actual numbers and you'll find that it's still a tiny fraction of the total population - same as Bleak House, you're looking at two extremes)
You could extend that argument to the popularity of The Beatles during their peak - though the world knew who they were they'd sold as many records by the time they broke up that amounts to only one person in a hundred in all Britain having bought one album apiece - and this was before the widespread cassette copying craze (the rest of the money coming from movies, merchandising, and touring)
But everyone was familar with the songs from the cartoon series, endless radio plays, and being taught them in music class
Why am I chattering about The Beatles? Because my Grandmother was convinced that they alone were singlehandedly the end of Western Civilisation
I guess it comes back to “invalid” anecdotes again. I nearly spilt my sub-standard coffee at such words, but it is all about your experience of the world, if your experience is positive then you are likely to think that way I suppose.Quote:
If anything I'd say the standards of behaviour have improved.
As a front line worker in the thick of education today I can tell you that it is not my opinion. Three/four fights a day, bullying at epidemic proportions, drugging kids to give teachers half a chance to get them to sit in chairs etc, etc, is all a "normal" part of my day. However, I am not basing my arguments solely upon my own observations (as if a person lives in isolation to the world anyway) it is based on having spoken to numerous, numerous people in education who work across the region (also I always speak to supply teachers as I feel sorry for them).
Here, the overwhelming consensus is that things are getting worse. More accurately things are getting worse at schools in the bottom of the socio-economic scale. Schools at the high end are generally excellent, getting better or at least maintaining their superiority (same old, same old) but the behaviour and standards at the average, or bottom end, are getting worse and have been slowly getting worse for a while.
A lot of the problems (if you believe there are problems) can be boiled down to having replaced common sense and discipline, with ever changing buzz strategies, some of which are imposed on schools from above. I’m not going to go into this, but ask anyone in education today and they will tell you the same thing here most likely – (have you checked your 4Rs and focused on your AFs having incorporated your BLPs into your Accelerated Learning Cycle, etc, etc?) However, I also think that what’s happening in the classrooms merely reflects what is happening outside of them – a general erosion of respect, maybe not a massive decline, it is difficult to tell, but a decline nonetheless for sure.
Ahh, the good old feudal system, a time when torture and slavery was far less sophisticated than it is today and mass media brainwashing had not yet been invented!Quote:
How do you rate them on the goodness and badness scale?
How do they compare against life say, 400 years ago, under the feudal system. Was virtual slavery an advantage in cultural excellence.
I’m speaking of what I see as a general decline in manners, in respect, over the last 40/50 years – or really in my lifetime. There are some great positives today for sure; a greater openness for minorities and certain flexibilities, but as I sit on the bus (observing the “please give up this seat for elderly or disabled people” or the “do not abuse the driver” signs, look out of the window at all the boarded up shops (due to the domination of the supermarkets) attempt to read over the “slap your bit*h up music” which comes from the back of the bus, I think that not all change has been good.