For those of you my age and older, cast your mind back to a time when you were a kid and we roamed the streets with our friends. Do any of you remember playing some crazy made up games to get ourselves into trouble? Usually this would be the social norm for kids about to go into High School or reaching puberty. It was basically us testing our boundaries and lashing out at the system slightly.

Childhood Highjinx

There was a time when we were all out, as a gang, it was the summer before we entered High School and the girl that most of us wanted in her knickers, or at least I did; by then I fully knew what an orgasm felt like, suggested that we all play Garden skippy. For the better behaved of us that don't know what this game is, it's basically where we skip through back gardens to irritate house owners. It's a stupid game but boy did it wind up residents the wrong way where we lived. Anyway, I remember one instance where a man came running out of his house and kicked one of my friends, Barry, so hard in the balls that he flew over his fence. It's safe to say we learned a good lesson that day.

Why did I tell you that story? Well, picture if that scenario had happened today? If my friend Barry was a kid and he was thwapped over a fence via his testicles? I could imagine his parents would be right down at that man’s door, screaming at him, or worse, calling 911, regardless of the fact that he was trespassing, and regardless of the fact that he was antagonising that man. As kids, we were the brunt bearers of our own irresponsibility’s, if Barry had gone and told his Mum and Dad what happened I've no doubt he'd have been battered by his Dad and grounded for at least a month by his Mum. I'm no flag waver for smacking or hurting kids, but I'd certainly be having stiff words with my son if I caught him doing the same, and, he wouldn't be allowed any of the things he liked for a while.

Respect elders and youngers

If there was one thing we were taught as kids it was how to behave and how to respect our elders. I've worked with a lot of older people (than me) in my time, and the respect that I have for them is immense. The stories, the experience, a time long gone; I can sit and listen to them for hours. I'm also learning to respect my youngers too, it's something we didn't have much of back in our day, respect for our youngers. There was a saying that was only just having negative connotations when I was a little boy, "Kids should be seen and not heard" and lucky my Mum always listened to me. Yeah, it's something I'm slowly learning although it doesn't come naturally like it does with people older than me.

I find it hard to see when there's literally no respect for anyone anymore. Like I said in a previous post I had a mere child literally call me a sexist pig over the wording that I used in a post. I called some woman that was bad mouthing the Grenfell Tower survivors in London a 'whore' and whilst I'll admit that given the people I have on my friends list it probably wasn't the best choice of wording, but simply messaging me and saying "using the wording whore offends me because of x, y and z," and I would have been happy to accommodate, rather than spend a whole 15 minutes trying to get her to remove herself from my friends list because of the abuse that I was receiving. She was a kid and Politically left. I'm beginning to see it all over now, I watch as lefties shout down their opposition in a red-eyed, frothy mouth rage equal to the people they are supposedly opposing.

Free speech ftw!

Can I just say that I'm someone on the left that respects free speech; the left right now, or so I'm seeing, more so in the last day or so, is being hijacked by people that really don't respect the core nature of what true socialist ideals incorporate. Please, before you equivalate my ideals to that of Gorbachev or Stalin and communism, the word socialism has been bastardised too, most European countries are socialist as we speak. Socialism does not equate to Communism. Both are separate entities, one incorporates equality right across the board and was thought up by Carl Marx, and the other champions community ownership. If you were truly left then you would respect that there is an opposition in your community and you'd want to hear them out too so that you can better yourself and the community as a whole. Being left isn't us versus them, it's just us, and that's all there is to it. We have somewhat been bastardised by a bunch of whiny, entitled people that live in perpetual victimhood and think that everyone that opposes them is wrong, or bad. This is what Hitler did, I see this now. I can actually see why the right are so mad right now. Although, please don't mistake my understanding for agreement, I strongly oppose nationalism and racism! I'm open to talking about it though :)

Everyone is a master debator now

For me it's a case of everyone can debate over the internet now. Where we would once get on with whatever we needed to in life, and leave the debates for people that were experienced in such, the world has been duped into a weird micro-environment where each of us are the only people in the universe and nothing else matters. Our opinions revolve around our central universal point and it's not correct to have them challenged. Think marketers pandering to all our needs, think Facebook asking us to express ourselves, everything in this world right now is geared up to have us thinking about ourselves, and we've become terribly selfish and self-important and because of this, hearing another opinion that conflicts with ours is now a terrible feeling, whereas once it was the accepted norm. People get bent out of shape, fights ensue, craziness, friends getting rid of friends. It's all a bit ridiculous really. Yet above all, very little have mastered the proper art of communication. We now scream our demands instead of politely ask, the opposition is made out to be grotesque ogres but if we stop and talk to them we'll understand that their needs and wants don't differentiate much from our own. It is easier to hate and be bitter than to extend a hand of understanding and communicate. I swear it'll get easier when we all just try to understand than be angry at each other.

So, when you're sitting there furious at someone else for thinking differently from you, ask yourself, what circumstances has led to them thinking like that? How can you educate them? No-one listens when you scream, ridicule or anger. It's stupid and it's immature. Educate and inspire, friends. Educate and inspire.

Thanks for listening :)