What grinds my gears...

[Guest seanfox778]

Working at the Radio 1 teen awards on Sunday and realising that 12,000 teenage girls create a better atmosphere than we do at home 

Edited 20 October 2014 by seanfox778

[DennisNedry]

- When you're at a queue at traffic lights that are on green, and the car in front of you is so slow moving off that the lights change and said slow driver casually rolls through on late amber, leaving you stuck.

- When you nip to the supermarket to get a pint of milk and at the only till open, is a fat old bastard with a huge trolley full of shit. Not only does he not offer to let you nip in first, he'll slam his items down on the conveyor belt with such verve, as to metaphorically rub his dick all over your face.

 

Oh, and Ed Balls.

[FoxesAreBlue]

[FoxesAreBlue]

Getting out of the shower at work and realising you left your ****ing towel in the office, along with your phone so you can't call a colleague.

The only thing you can dry yourself in is your dirty fvcking pants.

[DennisNedry]

Getting out of the shower at work and realising you left your ****ing towel in the office, along with your phone so you can't call a colleague.

The only thing you can dry yourself in is your dirty fvcking pants.

 

Haha, that's grim.

[leicsmac]

Nationalism. In fact, the whole fvcking idea of the nation-state.

 

One day it'll be responsible for the end of civilisation.

[MooseBreath]

Nationalism. In fact, the whole fvcking idea of the nation-state.

One day it'll be responsible for the end of civilisation.

What's wrong? The Koreans trying to kick you out?

[Jon the Hat]

Nationalism. In fact, the whole fvcking idea of the nation-state.

 

One day it'll be responsible for the end of civilisation.

 

Interesting one.  People need to belong, i think it is in our nature as a survival mechanism.  If you think about the evolution of belonging:

Family > Village > Tribe > Town > City state > Nation State it is all the same thing really. 

[leicsmac]

What's wrong? The Koreans trying to kick you out?

 

Nah, au contraire they want me to stay for another six months, as was agreed. And though they do have their fair share of nationalists, the guys over here are hardly unique in that respect.

 

I guess I've just been looking at too much depressing news recently where the future is being overlooked at the expense of one nation trying to one-up another.

 

That kind of attitude makes sense now to most, but in the long term it'll be the end of us.

 

(I guess it's the realpolitik and nationalism and supremacist ideas that go with the nation state that really grinds my gears, rather than the nation state itself.)

 

Interesting one.  People need to belong, i think it is in our nature as a survival mechanism.  If you think about the evolution of belonging:

Family > Village > Tribe > Town > City state > Nation State it is all the same thing really. 

 

Well, hopefully we'll reach Nation State > World/Human Race sooner rather than later.

[Jon the Hat]

Nah, au contraire they want me to stay for another six months, as was agreed. And though they do have their fair share of nationalists, the guys over here are hardly unique in that respect.

 

I guess I've just been looking at too much depressing news recently where the future is being overlooked at the expense of one nation trying to one-up another.

 

That kind of attitude makes sense now to most, but in the long term it'll be the end of us.

 

(I guess it's the realpolitik and nationalism and supremacist ideas that go with the nation state that really grinds my gears, rather than the nation state itself.)

 

 

Well, hopefully we'll reach Nation State > World/Human Race sooner rather than later.

 

That will only happen if we align against something.  Alien invasion!! 

[Alf Bentley]

Interesting one.  People need to belong, i think it is in our nature as a survival mechanism.  If you think about the evolution of belonging:

Family > Village > Tribe > Town > City state > Nation State it is all the same thing really. 

 

It is indeed an interesting one and your "evolution of belonging" is a credible theory (assuming that some of the belonging gets left behind at each stage). I suppose that nearly every stage gradually loses some, if not all, of its importance. That arguably applies to all apart from family, though nation state has retained a fairly high proportion of its former importance (so far).

 

I suppose that the source of economic wellbeing (and therefore social wellbeing) lies at the root of this shift. Once upon a time, the family, village or tribe were the main economic unit, but then some of that economic importance shifted upwards to the nation state....and now to the continental and global economies, so where does that leave us?

 

More sense of belonging to family remains because family involves animal instinct and nurture from birth, not just economic wellbeing, whereas people have less reason to retain a sense of belonging to a village, tribe or city state. So, will the same inevitably happen to our sense of belonging to the nation state? Will it be diluted as our economic wellbeing is determined more at a continental or global level? Is that happening already to some extent? The culture and values we're nurtured in from childhood also play a role, though....and they probably come from lots of different levels.... Plus there's the evolution of communications, which feeds into our sense of belonging.

 

"Where we belong" will vary depending on personal circumstances, of course. Someone running a village pub/shop will probably feel a stronger loyalty to that village than someone commuting to London. Likewise, my Dad grew up in Ireland but has lived in England since the age of 24. He still feels a strong bond to his home country, but also a strong sense of belonging to his adopted country. 

 

More people on the European continent (and in North and South America) seem to feel a stronger sense of belonging to their continent than we do in this country.

 

I've repped Leicsmac's original post as the last thing that we need just now, at a time of global economic and political instability, is MORE nationalism! National belonging will be around for a long time to come, I think, even if it is somewhat diluted for many people, but hopefully it'll become a fairly outward-looking sense of national belonging, not one seeking to put up barriers and hostility to other nations. The latter variety of nationalism always tends to surge in times of instability and uncertainty.....and it usually doesn't end well, as we discovered in the 1930s....

[MooseBreath]

Is Nationalism a symptom of narrow-mindedness, lack of international experience etc? On the one hand you've clearly got the cultureless cvnts who go in for Nationalism because they've not got much else going for them, but then you also have intelligent, well travelled nationalists, who are much harder to understand. If you know about the qualities that exist elsewhere in the world why would you want to close your door?

[ScouseFox]

wind. how do you combat wind? 

 

if it's cold put a coat on. if it's hot take all your clothes off. if it snows put your gloves on. if it rains get your umbrella out or if you're not cool enough put your hood up. if it's sunny get your sunnies on. there's literally a combat for everything except wind. there's shit flying all over the roads here, it noisy as fúck and it's pissing me off. 

[FoxesAreBlue]

Less of the beans mate

[Royston.]

Lucozade Yes Project.

 

For those of you that bother entering the codes, have you ever won anything?

 

Reckon its a load of bollócks just to get peoples contact details.

[Jon the Hat]

Is Nationalism a symptom of narrow-mindedness, lack of international experience etc? On the one hand you've clearly got the cultureless cvnts who go in for Nationalism because they've not got much else going for them, but then you also have intelligent, well travelled nationalists, who are much harder to understand. If you know about the qualities that exist elsewhere in the world why would you want to close your door?

 

I guess there is the viewpoint that you can value the differences and not want everyone to become a single Americanised populace.

[Guest MattP]

Is Nationalism a symptom of narrow-mindedness, lack of international experience etc? On the one hand you've clearly got the cultureless cvnts who go in for Nationalism because they've not got much else going for them, but then you also have intelligent, well travelled nationalists, who are much harder to understand. If you know about the qualities that exist elsewhere in the world why would you want to close your door?

You could turn that around.

You could be well travelled and see things you despise so much you'd become nationalistic to keep it out of your own society for what you see as the greater good.

[Merging Cultures]

When I travel, I definitely enjoy the differences in cultures.

 

I married a into a different culture, my daughter and son were born into a different cultures and we live in another culture (hence my new login name).

 

I believe borders should be open, for economic reasons, but that host cultures should be protected, that people should be culturally sensitive when they live in a different culture, but that having additional cultures in our societies adds richness to the host country.

 

Having lived in 5 different countries, I have learnt that to succeed in your host country, you have to respect their culture and adapt, rather than expect them to adapt to you.

[Jon the Hat]

You could turn that around.

You could be well travelled and see things you despise so much you'd become nationalistic to keep it out of your own society for what you see as the greater good.

 

Its a point.  I was in Wembley / Neasden area the other day, and was thinking how crap your life has to be for living there to be an improvement.

[lavrentis]

I believe borders should be open, for economic reasons, but that host cultures should be protected,

 

good luck with that

[bovril]

When I travel, I definitely enjoy the differences in cultures.

 

I married a into a different culture, my daughter and son were born into a different cultures and we live in another culture (hence my new login name).

 

I believe borders should be open, for economic reasons, but that host cultures should be protected, that people should be culturally sensitive when they live in a different culture, but that having additional cultures in our societies adds richness to the host country.

 

Having lived in 5 different countries, I have learnt that to succeed in your host country, you have to respect their culture and adapt, rather than expect them to adapt to you.

 

Having lived in 4 countries and 'worked' in a few more I'd say nobody is as different or unique as they think they are.

[David Guiza]

People who use "What ever happend to freedom of expression?" as an excuse to being racist, homophobic, idiotic, xenophobic etc.

[Guest MattP]

Its a point.  I was in Wembley / Neasden area the other day, and was thinking how crap your life has to be for living there to be an improvement.

 

Disgusting area isn't it? Really bad.

 

I feel for anyone still there who hasn't been able to move out for whatever reason, must make life a living hell.

[leicsmac]

good luck with that

 

Why?

 

Cultural wipeout as a result of open borders for economics is hardly an inevitability.

[leicsmac]

You could turn that around.

You could be well travelled and see things you despise so much you'd become nationalistic to keep it out of your own society for what you see as the greater good.

 

Agreed, but wouldn't it be a better idea to support ways to get them to cut that shit out rather than just pulling up the drawbridge and saying it's not our problem?

 

I understand the fears regarding culture etc but my argument is purely pragmatic here - at some point there WILL be a civilisation-threatening problem that one or even a few nations alone can't sort out, and if there is still too many differences between nations by then we'll either deal with it piecemeal and fail or just nuke each other fighting over the few places left on the planet that will still be inhabitatable. Either way everyone loses.