Contempt

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Dear Monty,

Contempt is such a ubiquitous attitude in our society today. I suffer from it myself. I noticed a neighbour throw rubbish onto the street outside the boundary of his front garden - and I admit I had feelings of dismay and a sense of grudging acceptance that this contemporary world is one of a disregard toward any environment other than the one we 'own'.

Why is there no respect for beauty and cleanliness ? Why do we no longer see litter as an eyesore ? Of course I am virtue signalling ; but isn't having a pleasant environment a virtue worth signalling ?

This lack of valuing the visual beauty of our environment seems to be a particular problem in South Wales perhaps because of a post industrial attitude to a landscape scarred by heavy industry. But that cannot be the whole story - because I remember neighbours cleaning and washing the steps up to their houses and keeping the pavements clean. Perhaps we expect others to do this for us these days ?

The amount of waste thrown from cars on to verges again makes no sense. Thrown by visitors to the hills which draw people presumably because of their visual beauty. It is anathema to me.

I am not trying to be super virtuous. I just love this landscape and this valley too much. Perhaps I need to despise it more and then I may be happy.




Paul.

Comments

  1. Marigold Jam17 January 2016 at 16:46

    I know what you mean! I wonder if the people who do this live in a mess too - I was about to say in pigsties but that would be unfair to pigs - or if they think that "we pay our taxes so they (we all now how useful they are) should deal with it"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Paul Steer17 January 2016 at 22:45

      Perhaps as a society we are forgetting that we share this environment for a short time and that caring for the patch we live in means we care about each other and future generations. If they wait for someone else to clean it up they may have a long wait ! Thank you again for your comment.

      Delete
  2. Unknown17 January 2016 at 20:41

    Just after Christmas I noticed some person had discarded/dumped a stack of office chairs just at the side of the 2 mile stretch of road between the local villages! On the edge of woodland! How could they do that?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Paul Steer17 January 2016 at 22:37

      It is a kind of blindness,perhaps a wilful blindness ? I truly do not understand it - it costs very little to have furniture taken away by our councils - and there are many places that can recycle. Is it contempt for the countryside ? Have we forgotten some useful values ? Is it just laziness? I don't know.

      Delete
  3. Anne Wareham17 January 2016 at 23:02

    You don't need to change your feelings about the beauty of the countryside. But - hey, that is how people are. Always have been. Always will be. That's why I'm so settled and happy with the status quo, because I know that. #asif.XXxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Paul Steer17 January 2016 at 23:11

      It's soooo hard to accept - it grieves me but I know what you mean !!!! X

      Delete
  4. Gardens at Waters East18 January 2016 at 18:20

    I have never understood how people can be so disrespectful of the environment both in little and big ways. Calling them animals would be unkind to animals! JC

    ReplyDelete
  5. Paul Steer18 January 2016 at 19:24

    Yes even though we are animals we are the only ones that destroy the very thing that sustains us !

    ReplyDelete

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