Living in Fear 29th November 2009

2009-11-29 @ 20:36:52 by ashtonboatman

Living in fear

Today I tried to distribute leaflets for the recycling trip. This is a job that I'd really like to delegate, but it looks like I'm stuck with doing it for ever. To be honest it's a bit of a chore, but it has to be done every month to remind residents in our collection area of the date of the next recycling trip. Sunday December 6th in this case.

Today my task was complicated by the fact that I've managed to stab myself in the heel with a nail, so I'm limping, and I've contracted some sort of virus, so I'm wheezing. I only managed to get about half the area leafleted.

Most people are very welcoming of our recycling efforts, but occasionally I meet with hostility. I try to do the leafleting in the morning as troublesome children are less likely to be active then. I am used to being insulted by them- "yer f_____g tramp" etc and have sometimes had objects thrown at me, once being hit on the shin by a half brick. On another occasion a child of about 5 or 6 repeatedly collided with me on his little bike. I think it was his big brother who told me "we don't recycle" with an air of moral superiority.

Today I was waved away from the living room window by someone as I approached a letterbox. On another occasion a man opened his door as I pushed a leaflet through his door and said "scuse me mate, I'm not trying to be funny, but I don't want people I don't know coming on my land. I said OK and moved towards the next house. He said"I own that one as well". For someone not trying, he was being very funny.

When I was a kid there were many knocks on the door. My Mum dealt pleasantly with all kinds of people. In those days there were many tramps, probably mostly people who couldn't cope with life after World War 2. They always got a sandwich and a cup of tea. My parents didn't give lifts to people who they thought were beatniks, but they would often stop for soldiers, who, in those days, would wear their uniform to hitch hike home on leave. I think the IRA put a stop to that tradition.

As I got older I found that hitch hiking was a good way to get around the country. I met many interesting people that way, and I hope that meeting me made their journeys more enjoyable. When I started driving, both privately and for a job, I enjoyed many interesting conversations with hitch hikers. If driving alone on a motorway I would often drop off at a services to see if anyone needed a lift.

Try hitch hiking nowadays- you'll starve to death before you get a lift.

I remember in the 1980s standing at a junction near Luton until eventually a Jamaican man in a big Ford Granada stopped for me. As we rolled up the M1 he asked "how long you bin waitin there". "About 3 hours" I replied. "No-one got no sense of community here" he said. "In Jamaica you wouldn't even need to lift your thumb, you just start walkin and somebody would stop to ask if you needed a lift"

Never having visited Jamaica I can't vouch for his assertion, but I do think we've become a particularly mean spirited nation during my lifetime. People seem to live more and more in their own anaesthetic bubbles and resent any disturbance from outside. The track Comfortably Numb from Pink Floyd's The Wall springs to mind.  

The media have had a lot to do with it. The way that they report exceptional events such as murders is calculated to increase fear. Be afraid, be very afraid of strangers is their constant refrain. As people absorb this subliminal message they steadily cut themselves off from the outside world, and so the sense of community dies a death of a thousand cuts. As they are brought up to consider outsiders as hostile, children learn to have no respect for them, hence the slings and arrows of outrageous youngsters that I sometimes suffer whilst leafletting. This process is wonderfully described in Michael Moore's film Bowling for Columbine.




So, how do we start to reverse this? Well, you could start by coming on one of our recycling trips and meet a lot of friendly strangers ( they don't come much stranger). Generally though, stop being so fearful. Strangers are often very interesting people