Exterminate!
Monday, September 14th, 2009 02:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
caddymanHard though it may be to believe, I think that I am becoming less tolerant as I get older. When I say ‘less tolerant’, I mean in the context of groups of people. I think I am reasonably tolerant of the foibles of (most) people, but get groups of them out in the street, or in shops, well…
Twenty years ago it took something like Oxford Street on a Saturday afternoon to ruin my good mood (albeit temporarily). Now, just walking through Marks and Spencer at lunchtime will do it: trying to get out of a revolving door where yokels in suits wander up to the bit that spits you out and then dodge to one side as if walking up to the entry point is rocket science. These are the same mental giants that ride the escalator and then stop at the top and suddenly switch off, necessitating a shout to get them to move or suffer collision; the same dweebs that stop and talk in the narrowest points of passageways or aisles. These are the plums that stop dead for no reason in a crowded street or shop and then look at you askance because you are not prescient and walk into them. This is the end of the gene pool that thinks eyes are meant to show you where you’ve been as they walk backwards in the assumption that geography and demography will simply resolve around them.
The mobile phone has brought a new level of tedium.
A couple of years ago, Dr Who had a cybermen story in which the cybermen took over people by controlling them through their blue tooth earpieces, via their mobile phones. Well, it’s not science fiction or fantasy: people are controlled by their mobile devices. They can’t walk through or interact with the wider world unless they are talking to someone on their mobile, if not with an earpiece, with their head tilted to one side with the phone jammed to their ear, held in place by their shoulder. Presumably someone is saying, “Walk sideways now. Stop. Walk backward. Drool on your tie. Now pay for something without exchanging the most meagre of pleasantries with the shop assistant. Over there is a crowd of people: collide with them.”
Give me a katana and a flame thrower.
Twenty years ago it took something like Oxford Street on a Saturday afternoon to ruin my good mood (albeit temporarily). Now, just walking through Marks and Spencer at lunchtime will do it: trying to get out of a revolving door where yokels in suits wander up to the bit that spits you out and then dodge to one side as if walking up to the entry point is rocket science. These are the same mental giants that ride the escalator and then stop at the top and suddenly switch off, necessitating a shout to get them to move or suffer collision; the same dweebs that stop and talk in the narrowest points of passageways or aisles. These are the plums that stop dead for no reason in a crowded street or shop and then look at you askance because you are not prescient and walk into them. This is the end of the gene pool that thinks eyes are meant to show you where you’ve been as they walk backwards in the assumption that geography and demography will simply resolve around them.
The mobile phone has brought a new level of tedium.
A couple of years ago, Dr Who had a cybermen story in which the cybermen took over people by controlling them through their blue tooth earpieces, via their mobile phones. Well, it’s not science fiction or fantasy: people are controlled by their mobile devices. They can’t walk through or interact with the wider world unless they are talking to someone on their mobile, if not with an earpiece, with their head tilted to one side with the phone jammed to their ear, held in place by their shoulder. Presumably someone is saying, “Walk sideways now. Stop. Walk backward. Drool on your tie. Now pay for something without exchanging the most meagre of pleasantries with the shop assistant. Over there is a crowd of people: collide with them.”
Give me a katana and a flame thrower.