Civilized society?

G-G

G-G

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On the daily grind to work on train and tube Wednesday 20th May 2009:

Man on tube opposite picks nose and eats the result from the end of his finger. Missed a bit but went back to make sure he got it all.

Three younger members of the population, but not under the age of majority, giggling and nudging each other very obviously at the fact that a man who was very short sighted was reading the paper an inch from his nose.

A woman with a large bag, impatient at the thought of waiting behind a mere 7 people trying to get off the tube at one door, barged her way past the lady next to me taking a chunk out of said lady's leg with bag to make her way to another door. The offending bag could not have failed to notice the contact but made no attempt to apologise or even stop.

A man with a large rucksack, and he is not the first, swung said large rucksack round his shoulder as the three hundred and other ninety nine sheep disembarked the tube and headed for the narrow exit to the escalator, but failed to be aware that in such crush someone could be close enough behind him to be hit it in the face with aforementioned rucksack and suffer a black eye, which I am now fed up already of telling people at work how I came by it.

The Idiot who left his rucksack by the door but sat 4 seats away but only claimed it after 4 people had asked very loudly who did it belong to and ignored them, two of whom got off to report it, asking me to keep an eye on it (not sure what I was meant to do but I did), along comes official tube person, who radios for the police and then Idiot claims it and carries on reading his paper.

These highlights were just in one day not taking into account the usual lack of manners, tolerance, patience and civility the vast majority of the travelling work force seem to be imbued with. Is it me?
 
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One could say that your post is lacking in tolerance.;)

There are a lot of thoughtless, intolerant and impatient people about but thankfully there is a fare share of the other as well.

It was nice to see that chap somewhere in America catch those ducklings as they jumped off that canopy and then ensured that they arrived safely at the water. Things like that give you a good feeling, don't they.
 
The four people on the train who took responsibility for the unclaimed rucksack are at one end of the spectrum, Rucksack owner and barging lady are at the other end and everyone else who sat by and probably observed the same stuff you observed are in the middle.
 
What amazed me about the abandoned rucksack incident was that the official didn't say anything to the Idiot about leaving it unattended. I was one of the four who tried to do something about it and if the tube person hadn't come along when he did was just about to throw the rucksack on the platform which was empty, as the driver had announced we were being held at a red signal. Not sure if that would have been the best idea but couldn't think of anything else at the time. Everyone else in the compartment apart from the Idiot were looking extremely nervous until it was claimed. The Idiot didn't have the excuse that he didn't hear us either as did when the official was about to claim it and his hearing wasn't impaired by a personal stereo/MP3/Ipod, whatever they are called now. That's another oxymoron if ever there was one from my experience every day with them; personal stereo - not when everyone within a twenty metre radius can hear it.
You are probably right Sheikh in the great scheme of things, just the Rucksack owner and barging lady seem to heavily outweigh the other two catagories twice a day, five days a week.
 
I don't think it's confined to London. Most people are good but are sheep and just let the assholes run riot. We need more people like G-G and co to take an active part in what's going on around them. I'm afraid we've all turned into drones.
 
I have no tolerance for twats. Twats are not in short supply. In fact, they are positively booming. No doubt they think I'm a twat, but that won't bother me when I crush their skulls with a sledgehammer and feed what passes for their brains to pigs.
 
Just sounds like standard transport culture really, people rushing to get on whilst people are still getting off is a pet hate but don't think it constitutes the breakdown of society...
 
G-G, if it's any consolation to you (not a lot!), I was taken backwards out of a tube train many years ago, probably in the 1970s, by the outrushing bastids who wouldn't go round me - and I'd been pressed against the door until they opened, and couldn't move anyway. I semi-fell onto the platform (did any bugger give a damn? Whaddya think?) and all the buttons were pulled off the front of my smart winter coat. Charming.

On another cursed excursion by ordinary train, there was nowhere else to sit but to have to witness a witless buffoon furtling his way to pleasure in his trousers. I'd have drawn the line at an actual production of Mr Winkle, but fortunately his stop came slightly before he did. Another outing, shortly after a fairly uncomfortable operation, which meant I rather crept about, saw me barged backwards into the train as I tried to exit. One delightful young man, probably an MP or banker today, snapped "Well, you should've thought about it earlier, shouldn't you?" when I said excuse me, I'm trying to get out. I hope Curse No.318 has come true, and that his acne and falling hair continue to this day...

Nothing changes, dearest. There will be the gormless and the unlovely until the end of days.
 
Agreed, it's everywhere not just London although I imagine with the high volume of people living/working there it does get pretty bad. A lot of people just don't seem to have good manners anymore these days and unfortunately, despite all the nice people that are out there, it's the idiots that you remember.
 
I had someone near me, err furtling in his trousers one morning on a particularly packed train going very slowly into London. He managed it 3 times in 55 minutes.

The getting on and off is actually one of the better parts of the journey. Generally people do tend to wait and let people off first even if it is at the constant nagging of the platform attendants. However, during the process of getting on and off, there is always more than one who will barge you out of the way with their shoulder/computer bag/rucksack/large handbag(s) as they just HAVE to get on/or off the train one second before you do.
While whinging, why do women have to have more than one handbag? If the one isn't big enough for everything, buy one that is! You would be stunned how much room multiple handbags can take up in compartments, on platforms and up and down escalators/stairs.
 
Just to show how delightful people are nowadays, for the second time within a fortnight I found myself standing, waiting, on crutches, outside a disabled toilet at Salisbury races waiting for the able bodied people to finish. Even better, today I was told "someone's in there, but I'm in next" by someone else perfectly non-disabled (current occupant also non-disabled). Charming.

Similar to the time I was on a packed train from London and standing, again, on crutches. One woman (also standing) went garrity and demanded that someone give up a seat for me, as they all sat there looking the other way.
 
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Shadz, one of the probs is that people are told that if the regular loos are full and there's no-one waiting for the disabled ones, then they can use those. You know it's sod's law that the minute a non-disabled person goes in for a wee, the disabled one will show up! But as for 'I'm next' - I'm amazed you didn't bean the twonk with a crutch!
 
Warbs is right to some extent - it's London, or rather it's much worse in London. Up here in rural Sufflk people are very corteous - eg whilst driving, they will always pull over to let you pass, gesture a thank you if you do the same etc etc. It's to do with being part of a community - which London isn't, certainly now it's over 50% transient foreigners.

I'm old enough to remember when young people (of either sex) would automatically get up on the tube for a pregnant or elderly or disabled traveller. That was already going by the late 70s. Now parents won't even tell their kids to stand for someone who obviously needs a seat. I regularly used to shame fit young men into giving their seat to pregnant women or old ladies - which they will when prodded, sheepishly
 
Judging by all the groups of people I saw out and about enjoying the weather today, community is alive and well in London, despite the best efforts of us transient foreigners to destroy it :rolleyes:
 
That,s if you can find a loo in the first place

:mad:
Shadow Leader said:
Just to show how delightful people are nowadays, for the second time within a fortnight I found myself standing, waiting, on crutches, outside a disabled toilet at Salisbury races waiting for the able bodied people to finish. Even better, today I was told "someone's in there, but I'm in next" by someone else perfectly non-disabled (current occupant also non-disabled). Charming.

Similar to the time I was on a packed train from London and standing, again, on crutches. One woman (also standing) went garrity and demanded that someone give up a seat for me, as they all sat there looking the other way.
Click to expand...
Shadow I know just who you feel you could be laying on the floor in London as people walk past, glad to say when I was in Yarmouth the other day people asked are you ok, when I was just getting my breath back. The other thing isv when your in there people try to break the door down...........................Hellow that's why it,s locked.
 
Just seen this thread now...all pretty depressing really. But it is just a general break down...slightly more trivial (but a part of the problem nonetheless) when reading the papers this morning I was really disgusted that so many of them (including the "respected" broadsheets) referring to Susan Boyle as "The Hairy Lemon" or "The Hairy Angel". Think of her and the programme what you like but I think its this sort of rudeness and bad manners that just drips its way down through society. The woman clearly has issues and is an easy easy target yet no consideration it taken for it. If someone like her can be picked apart with little thought or care what chance does society have.
 
Good point Gal.

Just come back froma hen weekend in Birmingham. People very friendly when we needed directions but absolutely now concept of how to queue for a bus at all. Bit like the tube on a smaller scale I guess. We waited half an hour for the bus we needed to come in and formed a nice orderly queue at the stop while we aited but as soon as the bus arived it was like wild animald trying to get on. No hope for society at all.
 
The moronic behaviour of the some of the crowd at Newbury on Saturday night also left a lot to be desired. I pitied the medical staff having to deal with them.
 
The security staff seemed to be turning a blind eye though - there was a scrap comprising a good half dozen lads all beating seven bales out of each other right in front of the entrance to the Berkshire Stand and not a security guard in sight, even though at least one was in direct view of the incident, standing by the entrance.
 
Incident at work today. Elderly lady, in her 70s, came in for a refund on an item that she'd bought yesterday. It was a medicinal product and she'd changed her mind as thought was too expensive. Now we only refund on meds if they're faulty as they can't be resold due to the fact that you've no idea how the product's been stored. The lady who sold it the day previously had told het the item was expensive and was she sure she wanted to but it - she said yes. Well, I've had customers kick off before but this was along the lines of ''I want my f****** refund, I want my f****** money back, I'm not f****** leaving until I get a f******* refund'', to which I said ''You won't get anything if you speak to the staff like that''. But it was her reply that shocked me the most - ''I bet if I was f****** coloured I'd get a f******* refund''. I couldn't believe it. The member of staff who was dealing with her is asian and we've also got a summer student in at the moment who's also asian and I can't tell you how embarrassed I was for them. But the best bit was, the next customer to come into the shop was, yes you've guessed it, a coloured lady and they obviously knew each other and were happily chatting away, with the first lady moaning to the 2nd lady that she wasn't allowed a refund. However, the coloured lady obviously worked some kind of magic as the abusive lady suddenly said ''Bye love'' and left.

Needless to say she didn't get a refund.
 
Totally agreed Galileo, teasing and all that is one thing, out and out distaste is another and worse when the person is in a vulnerable position. We are by no doubt a rather childish and vindictive society in that respect.
 
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