Fogeys are not normally receptive to liberal ideas, so you can imagine my shock when a conservative friend of mine, (yes, variety does add spice to life) suddenly exclaimed at dinner in my house that he agreed with my views on our policymakers and their distressing order of priorities. If one may be permitted to abuse the convention of modesty, the CCTV's, moral policing and hi-fi music system detailed in last week's article was the somewhat heated topic of discussion. In the mood of the moment, few were inclined to disagree, although compassionate noises were made from some quarters about the general state of moral decay among our youth.
Having observed at first hand the awkward romantic fumbling labeled "unsuitable" by Anna and the new female security guard, Rajamma, on duty at Cubbon Park, me thinks they doth protest too much. Queen Victoria and Abdul displayed far less restraint when it came to "shakin' da b***y" at Balmoral. Incidentally, the film depicting their torrid romance grossed $12 million in its first week, which clearly indicates that the term "Victorian morality" is a misnomer. I personally feel some portion of the lavish Cubbon Park budget should be spent on free movie tickets for couples who feel they are missing that zing in their lives and who aren't too proud to learn from Dame Judi Dench at 82.
Royal romps aside, everyone observed that they were not aware of having felt this way before, but agreed that they felt it now. In fairness, there had been depressing news on resource allocation, coming as it did after the body blows of demonetization and GST. Far be it from me to attach too much importance to this mood shift in my dinner guests. Apart from the young, whose opinions on most subjects are confined to the expressions "chill" or "whatever", the company consisted of successful people in their fifties, none of them within walking distance of the corridors of power.
As the political analyst,Auberon Waugh, observed during Thatcher's reign, "There seemed to be a general feeling that bad administrators inflicting poorly conceived plans had been around long enough; there were too many of them; there was too much about them in the press and that they exercised a generally stultifying influence on the country". More particularly, there seemed to be a feeling among successful IT honchos in their fifties that they had reached their pinnacle in life without the slightest help from the government, which had never acknowledged their existence by so much as a nod, let alone an award for honest taxpaying. Those who did qualify for some mark of state approval were scamming the system and enjoying an unfair privilege; the whole rigmarole was essentially pointless.
I wonder if similar feelings go any way to explain the almost universal loathing in which a political career is held throughout the mercantile class in our country. It is certainly not that the country has rejected Jaimonomics, or thinks that more should be done for the underprivileged in our midst. As a wise man once said, "We must constantly question our motives which may often be unworthy and extremely ridiculous, but nobody should be frightened of looking ridiculous in the search for Truth.”
The truth is that practically nobody among GenX gives a toss for a career in public service: it is seen as something which has no application to their lives or aspirations. Those who take an intelligent interest in current affairs would welcome the adoption of a legal system, based on the inquisitorial rather than the adversarial approach. People are fed up with our ancient British-inherited institutions in all their incompetence, expense and cruelty, like the law. Perhaps we could replace our ghastly education and legal systems with something suppler, more flexible and in tune with the needs of our youth. Instead of putting more starch in khaki knickers or dietary-based lynch mobs, what we would welcome with enthusiasm is classes on the art of conversation for eve teasers, inculcating the reading habit by making Kuvempu's writings mandatory for rowdy-sheeters, dance classes for chain snatchers, free tickets to Victoria.
