Question: is society worse now than it ever was before? Come on, think about it. There are paedos living in every street, watching kids going to school. There are gangs of yoofs, armed to the teeth, ready to stab you to death. There are grannies getting badly beaten and later dying for the price of a loaf of bread and a newspaper. There is more war, the weather is worse, global warming, food causing cancer, immigration and financial hardship for all, particularly the middle classes. Disease and death is about to consume us all.

Yes, the evidence is compelling, isn’t it? But let’s stop there for a minute and think a little more carefully. There has ALWAYS been the above … always – in every category I mention above. Lots of it. Repeated throughout history. The Moors murderers (and countless others, like the one recently uncovered), the riots of 1982, the Falklands conflict, the drought of 1976, Lebanon torn to shreds, the winter of discontent, the miners strikes and the list could go on. The truth is, we live better and longer than we ever have before and every generation before them could say the same thing (discounting huge numbers lost in World Wars perhaps).

I think there are two things that come into play here.

Firstly, the media. There’s now so much of it. 24 hour news channels competing with one another for the “best” news stories. Let’s get in there and see someone shot, shall we? Let’s see Iraqis beaten by soldiers in the street shall we? Like it’s never happened before, with frustrated soldiers living their life on the edge for us. It’s not an excuse, but it’s not “news”. The “Breaking News” flashing banners have to be justified and given a sense of purpose, even when the breaking news is how much Paul McCartney’s wife got as a divorce settlement. I’m not “old”, I’m now at the grand old age of 37 (recent birthday!). But, I remember watching News at Ten when younger (ditto, News at 6). We had 15 minutes news, a bit of sport and some off the wall nonsense about a giant pork pie eaten by 500 yokels in Norfolk. They didn’t have the time to cover some of these things or the necessity (much) to compete with lots of other news sources – and I’m also referring to the internet here. Coming from Battersea, I can confirm groups of yoofs would gather on estates and cause trouble. I went to hospital to visit a friend who had been stabbed. Was it on the news? No. Not “news” enough because those things unfortunately do happen. As Crimewatch says, of course, statistically, you probably won’t end up the victim of a terribe crime. That’s not to say you won’t, but to me, I’d bet the probabilty is the same from one generation to the other but you’re more likely to be reported on the news somewhere.

I think these media frenzied times have a good effect: you get to know what’s going on around you and that can only be good if you appreciate that because you know more it doesn’t mean it happens more than it used to; but it also introduces a social paranoia. I used to go out on my bike a lot, with friends or on my own. I used to go around the parks and meet up with other kids, “knock” for a friend (who allows that now? I certainly don’t let my kids do that) and with friends we might challenge stranger kids to a game of football and make new friends in the process. This doesn’t happen any more because of the perceived danger introduced by 24 hour news coverage. The fact of the matter is I probably rode past perverts back then, but I knew not to talk to strange adults and knew to run, scream or ride for my life. I was very wary. Nowadays kids talk to each other on MSN or via text messages and I do believe this will lead to a lack of socialisation skills in the future for some. That’s very sad and a lot of fun is being missed. Kids are probably more likely to meet perverts online than in the park these days anyway. If my son or daughter wants to play with a friend, it’s done like a miltary operation with times and transport all agreed well in advance. I remember knocking for a friend and his parent asking if I wanted to stay for dinner, I’d say “yes” and they’d look at me and say, “don’t you think you should check with your mum first?”. The spontaneity has gone.

The second point is that it’s older people who always seem to bemoan the state of the world and society isn’t it? That never changes. The thing that does change in that regard is that you become that older person yourself and fit the pattern of those old friends of your parents moaning about kids hanging out down by the newsagents late on Saturday evening. You know? Sometimes they’re just bored and watching the world go by, trying to feel grown up, but the older you get, the more intimated you feel and this must mean they’re up to no good. Right? Well, I’d guess that your answer will probably depend on your age!

Bah humbug, that’s what I say!!