darchas wrote: ↑Sat Sep 12, 2020 8:10 pm
My grandma used to run a working man's club. Used to absolutely love summer holidays spent helping her out in the cellar, ironing the snooker tables, putting on 'shows' on the stage for the lunchtime regulars. The whole place had a camaraderie about it, the same blokes playing crown green bowls, snooker, darts, buying me and my sister pop and crisps or giving us some change for the bandit. Maybe I'm just getting old, but just doesn't seem to be that equivalent sort of space these days.
Nice story.
Men, blokes, gentlemen (whatever) had places to hang out. The rich had clubs with chesterfields lounges, jackets and cigars; the working man had a few card tables, snooker tables and maybe a pay phone to an SP bookie etc. Some men grouped together at sport, others at church.
Women had women's associations, mother's groups, the salon, bridge clubs, tuck shops etc.
The society just referenced resulted in a "patriacharcal" society that was mysogynistic (racist, homophobic, islamophobic and transphobic ) and had to be socially engineered away - the State must be in control of all aspects of an individuals life and most importantly thougts. You see, if humans organise their own lives and have their own friends it will result in people being mildly happy and having brief moments of joy (like when a bird with a great set leans forward just that little bit further as she pours you a pint and smiles at you - and you know that she knows exactly what you are thinking and she enjoys it and you enjoy it - that kind of spontaneous human flirting and platonic enjoyment of beauty is "wrong" in modern progressive society). We now have to raise taxes (and borrow) to fund "mental health" initiatives for young men and old men. We need to find a pathway for all those psychology and sociology graduates to tell us what is mentally wrong with us and then tell us how to live our lives in a way that they consider not offensive to any other person. (I'm glad this is in rant corner).