The Sky in the Puddles...

Having witnessed truly shabby behavioir in public recently, I came to the conclusion that we appear to have largely lost our social skills and hitherto ability to get on with the others in a civil manner, whoever 'they' were. These days, an imperceptible static charge seems to be present in the air, making each individual edgy and trigger-happy, prompt to interpret any error or act of clumsiness or ignorance as a willful, heinous affront to which the 'victim' must respond with outrage and indignation proportional to the wrong visited upon them. Simultaneously, many of the social norms and niceties that kept the social machine ticking along are being stripped away, sloughed off as pointless and inappropriate. Observing social interactions where the basics such as a simple hello or goodbye have become redundant both shocks and saddens me, not to mention the loss of the staple British 'sorry' that was used in so many circumstances yet not necessarily as admittance of fault!

I always considered the dusty old expression 'minding your Ps and Qs (was that for one's 'pleases' and 'thank yous'? to be stuffy and meaningless, but I instinctively understand its significance today. Far worse still, is that nobody seems to remark on this lamentable state of affairs, so engrossed are they in being offended or hurt and signalling this to some kangaroo court. Is life lived through a screen to blame for this erosion, along with the myriad of social networks that are as divisive as they are unifying? I don't know since everything has become so contradictory and complex - I cannot differentiate reality from illusion, right from wrong, or tell to which degree the one is the reflection of the other. That is why I prefer finding a certain solace in Nature... The blue sky mirrored in the water below; no questions, just pleasure. Tangles and snags in the natural world are simply intriguing, not cause for some histrionic, overly-emotive reaction. Yet in society today, any complexity or grey area is no longer deemed acceptable in a world where you need to choose your camp and duly show your colours.

In this polarised environment, silence is violence and words are taken to be weapons in a war where it is not enough to agree to disagree but rather to defeat the other party whilst portraying yourself as both victor and victim. Everything today seems to focus on self, which in turn is largely dependant on how others perceive us, with the selfie now being so central to image and perception that we find it normal to pout and preen to some screen or other, finding some aspect of live to use as content. Personas are now 'curated' yet never have people so lacked originality and depth as they frequently do today - even language is peppered with the same old clichéd words and expressions which endeavour to give meaning and relevance to what is devoid of both.