The quick brown FOX jumped over the lazy DOG Sunday, Apr 9 2017

 

Hello everyone,

A strange title, yes, and some among you may remember, as we used to write this short sentence when practicing our Calligraphy skills.

The simple reason for this is that this little phrase happens to contain all the letters of the Alphabet !

But today I chose this particular title because I want to  discuss the word lazy.

 

 

I am concerned that so many different people that I encounter, almost always say : “They are lazy“. Or  : “It’s laziness“.

This is when we are talking together over the current British problem of litter, among other things.

Here are some examples :

 

 

• So many people are tossing litter everywhere, that the Councils are spending an enormous amount of time and money, certainly too much time and money, in order to clean our Villages and Cities, our Counties and our Seashores.
•  So many people are tossing litter everywhere, that it has become necessary to ask do-gooders to volunteer in order to pick up litter. They do so alone or in groups.
•  So many people are tossing litter everywhere, that Nature is suffering enormously. For example our soils are now so polluted that they have become viscous and smelly. After that, the rain that used to be clear and refreshing, nowadays makes our hair and our clothes, our cars, our roofs, etc, gluey and sticky. And the rainfalls of course return to our soils. So, I, for one, would definitively not grow my vegetables in the current British soil !
• So many people are tossing litter everywhere, that it has become a vast problem, an endemic, and the consequences are numerous, much more than I could ever write here, but it is very well documented on line.

 

 

To coming back to the word lazy, I hear, and I observe of course, that litter is often thrown within very small distances to the public bins. When I say very small, it is very small, it can be just a 30cms, 50cms or one meter range.

 

 

Litter is also the very troubling toss of cigarette butts everywhere. Not only it pollutes Nature, not only it is a fire hazard waiting to happen, but it is also very sad/ depressing that our little Children have to see this when they walk outside. We therefore invented the … pocket ashtray !  

But I have seen no one using a convenient pocket ashtray so far.

  Litter is also fly tipping, which is illegally dumping waste, anywhere, preferably in remote places. In the knowledge that the Regional Councils have organised large recycling centres, free to use in most Regions, and easy of access by car, and most people have a car.

When people are not fly tipping in Nature, they do so at Home, what they call Home, which is often a collective place, a community of people who live in Apartments or small Houses. Which means that the common bin areas of these places are repugnant, disgusting and foul smelling. It attracts Rats. There are a lot of Rats in Great Britain these days.

 

 

Leaving the subject of litter for a moment, there are other examples that can be associated with the word lazy.

• People pay high fees to Property Managements to take care and supervise their collective Homes. That means that the Landlords do not personally deal with their own Property when a problem occurs. It is the collective money that does it. Residents could have their say, but when meetings are organised, they do not attend. They prefer to pay, and to not give a second thought about the environment where they live.
• Workers have many tools but there is one that they never seem to possess : a broom. When they have completed their job, they usually leave behind : mud, plaster, cement, sand, wood flakes, small cut pieces, cigarette butts, etc. On the ground of the Properties that do not belong to them.
• Tenants who rent a House do not bother to attend to the Garden of their Landlord. ( see Photo below ). It is a strange thing, because everyone benefit from a nicely tended Garden.
• People take their Children to the local Nurseries, as young as one year old.
• People take their Children to the Local Parks, and watch them have a good time in the Playgrounds that the Councils have built for them. Very seldom I see Parents imagining new games with their Children. The Grand Parents, I think, they still do it.
• People take their car to be washed at the Local Carwash. I seldom see a person wash their own car.
• People leave their Home, jump in their car that is parked just in front of the communal entrance door, ( therefore not in their garage or their own allotted parking space ), then do the trip, then come back, park the car there, and kick open the communal entrance door and go Home. Perhaps in the process they drop another cigarette butt just next to the communal ashtray, not in it, because it is easier to toss it in the Plants.
• People do not really cook or invent recipes anymore. The local Take Aways are so much more convenient.
• People do not tend to Green Plants in their Home nowadays.
• People do not spend long evenings talking about interesting subjects.
• People do not purchase Books.

 

 

Etc, Etc. I am sure that you could add more facts to the list.

And of course, this is what I observe, but naturally, I won’t fall into a huge generalisation, and I won’t affirm that everyone is like this in Great Britain.

I just know that in my Childhood and my Youth in France, things were very different. For instance, I remember to this day the delicious homemade Fruit Tarts that we used to enjoy as a family. Fruits that were collected from our trees.

It is also because the theme of this Article is : “laziness“.

As a Philosopher, I pondered on this word : “lazy“. And I started to ask questions.

Because there must be an anomaly somewhere.

As it is impossible that suddenly, for the youngest people among us, ( I mean less than 50 something like that ), a generation is becoming massively and in number, lazy ?

Actually I think that it is the opposite.

Those people are overworked.

I have observed that they are constantly on the go, for this and for that, rushing there, and having to do this and that. They do everything speedily. And I have also observed that when they come back from a short ( and also expensive ) holiday abroad, or even, for instance, after Christmas, they look exhausted, especially the Children. Their holidays being always too short and too busy and too straining.

So they are overworked, too engaged physically. Why ?

Because they have to face a limitless amount of obligations/ chores/ roles, on a daily basis.

 They have to fulfil so many demands

 The Children also have to fulfil so many demands.

It is about executing, bringing to completion, achieving, learning, doing, competing, performing, complying with, and satisfying whoever/ whatever is placed above them.

And that which is placed above them, very often, is money.

This ruins their quality of life.

 

 

Their World is slowly but surely becoming more and more restricted and regulated.

( see my Article called : “The VALOUR of money” )

So from this, then, we can understand that bin problems, or litter problems, or parking problems, for instance not parking in their own allotted parking space, can become the least of their concerns.

Having said that, if we want Great Britain to return to be great again, perhaps the answer/ solution is to begin to spare/ relieve our younger generations, Children/ Youngsters/ and Young Adults, and to offer them once more a life worth living.

A life worth living would include more Time, more Space, and more Playfulness, Creativity, Affection, Nature, Promenades, … and Fruit Tarts made at home !

 

 

Therefore the proper word is not lazy or laziness, but lassitude.  

Lassitude is weariness or being weary.

Here is a very interesting study of the word weary with its anonyms and antonyms. The study explains a lot of things.

weary
adjective
1 he arrived home weary after cycling several miles: tired, tired out, worn out, exhausted, fatigued, overtired, sleepy, drowsy, wearied, sapped, dog-tired, spent, drained, jet-lagged, played out, debilitated, prostrate, enervated, jaded, low; informal all in, done (in/up), dead, dead beat, dead tired, dead on one’s feet, asleep on one’s feet, ready to drop, fagged out, burnt out, bushed, worn to a frazzle, shattered; Brit. informal knackered, whacked; N. Amer. informal pooped, tuckered out. ANTONYMS energetic, fresh.
2 she was weary of their constant arguments: tired of, fed up with, bored with/by, sick of, sick and tired of, jaded with/by, surfeited with/by, satiated by, glutted with/by; (be weary of) have had enough of; informal have had a basinful of, have had it up to here with, have had something up to here. ANTONYMS enthusiastic.
3 the weary journey began: tiring, exhausting, wearying, fatiguing, enervating, draining, sapping, stressful, wearing, trying, crushing; demanding, exacting, taxing, challenging, burdensome, arduous, gruelling, punishing, grinding, onerous, difficult, hard, tough, heavy, laborious, back-breaking, crippling, strenuous, rigorous, uphill. ANTONYMS refreshing, enjoyable.
verb
1 she was wearied by her persistent cough: tire, tire out, fatigue, wear out, overtire, exhaust, drain, sap, wash out, tax, overtax, enervate, debilitate, enfeeble, jade, incapacitate, devitalize, prostrate; informal whack, bush, shatter, frazzle, wear to a frazzle, poop, take it out of, fag out, do in, knock out; Brit. informal knacker. ANTONYMS refresh.
2 this must be stated again at the risk of wearying the reader: bore, tire, make fed up; irk, irritate, exhaust someone’s patience, annoy, exasperate, get on someone’s nerves; informal get to. ANTONYMS interest.
3 her friend had also wearied of the struggle: tire of, become/get weary of, become/get tired of, become/get fed up with, become/get fed to death with, become/get bored with/by, become/get satiated with, become/get jaded with, become/get sick of, become/get sick to death of, sicken of; have had enough of, have had a surfeit of, have had a glut of; informal become/get bored of, have had something up to here.

 

 

And also this word.

Parsimonious
adjective
mean, miserly, niggardly, close-fisted, penny-pinching, cheese-paring, ungenerous, penurious, illiberal, close, grasping, Scrooge-like, stinting, sparing, frugal; informal tight-fisted, stingy, tight, mingy, money-grubbing, skinflinty; N. Amer. informal cheap; Brit. vulgar slang tight-arsed, tight as a duck’s arse; archaic near. ANTONYMS generous, extravagant, lavish

Because this is not only about money.

This is about a generosity of soul, of spirit, a generosity of heart, a generosity that is willing to pay attention and care. A generosity that is willing to run the extra mile, in a context where everyone have probably given up already. A generosity that loves life, and a generosity that loves joy and happiness. A generosity with an open hand that can work and play with others for free.

Unfortunately, nowadays, it is hard, problematic, punishing to be so generous.

People live behind their closed door.

They go from their door to their car and then go from their car to their door.

They are suspicious / annoyed of anyone who does not belong to their immediate clan, company and family.

Their idea of fun is often calamitous, damaging, destructive, brutal, rude, hostile and vicious. To themselves or to others.

I hardly hear any laughter around me anymore.

.

PS : I met a Police Community Officer on the other day, and we talked.

He told me : “when I see someone drop litter, I say to them, you have dropped something, please pick it up”.

“You are not fining them ?” I asked.

His reply was : “if I see them do it for a second time, then, I will fine”.

The matter is that those Police Community Officers, walk alone in the streets.

If they charge someone dropping litter with a fine that is now a heavy fine of £150, (2018), in an area that is likely to be an area where anti social behaviour is prevalent, they could meet with consequences/ retaliation. 

My solutions are straightforward :

• The Councils should clean our streets and our roads and our county sides and our beaches. We pay them to do so.
• If it is becoming too expensive, then the Councils should take measures.
• For instance, everywhere in the Country, there should be (fake ?) CCTVs placed high on solid poles and pillars with a clear notice saying : litterers will be prosecuted. Or something equivalent.
• A lot of adult litterers do their mischief during the night, alas. So, we could install high and solid pillars and posts that respond to human presence thanks to sensitive light bulbs, that would reveal as well the presence of a CCTV (fake ?).
• Youngsters, Students, School boys and girls are the worst litterers. Because so far, they can get away with it. So, they should be told by their Teachers/ Headmasters/ Employers that from now on, Police Community Officers are going to be present in many places, streets, etc, but without wearing their uniform. So unrecognisable, it could be anyone. And as soon as they see someone toss rubbish, the Police Community Officers will immediately act on the spot, and impose a heavy fine.
• Portable and convenient ashtrays should be on sale everywhere in towns, cities, resorts, etc. And the employers should make it compulsory to all their members of staff who are smokers to have one and to use one. And that includes all the “one man in a van” workers. 
• Last but not least, heavy and large bins, well designed, aesthetic, and practical, should multiply in number everywhere in the Country.

In my time, when we were young, we were sanctioned when we behaved badly. It did not kill us. But of course it was never funny. We did not like it.

So from an early age, we restrained from being wild and silly, selfish, because we knew that there would be unpleasant consequences.

Of course, that was during our youth.

Later, we grew in maturity and we learned how to be responsible citizens.

But the basis were there, we had been familiarised with the sound basis.

“The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them and do nothing.” Albert Einstein.

Take care.

PS : we had our old ways, and it worked.

Nowadays, they have new ways, and it may work too !

 

 

 

Hi Catherine,

Yes, I do continue following your Website “Catherine Philosophie“. I read your Articles and look at the Photos, and I admire your perseverance, your thoughts and your capacity to observe the world outside of the box.
And congratulations for having been chosen as an “Ambassador” by “Keep Britain Tidy” !

Now, why do people litter.
I have been pondering about this question myself for years. I have read a lot about it. So I am going to share my experience.

I am afraid that I am going to be a little tough, merciless, stony hearted, because it is a phenomenon that is present in Great Britain in a much greater extent than in the other Countries of Europe.

In my view, it is psychological, it is a collective illness.
As with all psychological illnesses, it is the manifestation of a message, a message that needs to be expressed.
And often the expression is naughty or even nasty. Because there is a proportion of :

Annoyance
Exasperation
Aggravation
Resentment
Vexation
Defeat
Non success, etc,

behind all this, from the messengers, that is, the culprits.

People who litter have the maturity/ mentality of unruly adolescents.
Never mind if they are young or older.
“I am going to annoy Mum, because she keeps saying that I have to tidy my room“, type of thing.
But the adolescent has no respect for Mum, because Mum always ends up cleaning the room anyway.

They are mostly men.
The “one man in a van” being the most guilty party, the most unruly ones.
Simply because they can do it.
They are not supervised, not watched, and often there are two or three men in the van in question, and they can have the malign and hostile pleasure of vandalism, doing so by wrecking down an environment that does not belong to them personally.

I am the female Guardian/ Concierge of a Property of 30 apartments and 9 houses.
And my job into trying stopping the “one man in a van” doing all the mess is a hopeless one.
My argument is : “what about if someone was doing that to your car, to your garden, to the house where you live ?”
After I say that, the tone changes, because their attitude is :

MY house
MY car
MY van
MY tools
MY motorbike, is a … DON’T TOUCH !

Now, if they see a female cleaning after their passage, their pleasure is multiplied.

This is why I call it a psychological collective illness.
A habit that was born from too much freedom given to young ones that were not properly instructed and prepared into being more considerate, less selfish, and above all, less mean spirited.

Women nowadays have risen into positions of control and dominance in all areas of life, in education, politics, career, employment, trade, media, etc, a control that affects the life/ well being of many men, psychologically so.

There are very few professions left that belong to men only, or where men are still predominant :

Building and construction.
“one man in a van” : plumbing, electricity, painting buildings, maintenance, Deliveries, etc
Scaffolding, etc
Lorries, transport, garage, taxi, etc

Women love to have a beautiful house, and they most often than not, do the cleaning, the washing, etc.

They like to dress well and to look attractive.
Beauty very much involves and appertains to women.

Of course, this is a generalisation.

But this is still relevant in the collective unconscious nowadays.

And the way to punish a woman is to make a big mess.

Have you noticed as well, that the “one man in a van” loves to have really loud music in front of the house, when they are working ?
It is an aggressive form of wanting to be more self important. But it is done in a mean way, and they know that it is mean, that they are mean, so it aggravates their inner exasperation.
An exasperation that is turned against themselves, but pride won’t admit it, pride and pain won’t admit it, so they turned it against others, and their environment.
Moreover, they are stimulated/fuelled by the “clan“, and their attitude is : “we are having fun“.

They do not think :

That there is perhaps a very young baby, or someone ill in the house, or a student preparing an exam, when they are reckless and noisy.
That the environment of others is something to respect.

 

They are similar to the people who go to the pubs as late as possible in the night, and then fight in the streets.

These are demential habits that are very difficult to change/ alter/ reorientate because they are collective.

Talking about demential habits, it is recorded that Great Britain have the largest number of bullies in Europe.

Talking about loud music, I think that there is so much ugly/ foul/ vile music on the radios nowadays, and on all the other technological devices, that it affects the minds of the people, young or older.

So my view like yours, is to be tougher.
Because the Mum of the past was too lenient.

How to be tougher ?
Well the last thing to do is to resolve the problems that they cause.
They count on that. And it allows them to continue.
It is like cleaning graffitis, for instance. Then, it is more space to do more graffitis !
They enjoy our discontentment, because they suffer a deep discontentment themselves.

Beside punishment, and CCTV cameras in order to catch them in the act, there are more ways.
And like you said, enforcement of fines.
Concerning the enforcement of fines, the problem is the “clan“.
We have one Community Police Officer here as well, and if he was to fine, he would justifiably be worried about a retaliation.
In old days Police Officers in the streets were always walking two by two, and there were numerous, day and night. They had their legendary whistle !

But I found another way.

I have noticed that in Great Britain things have to get really worth before they can get better.

I was aggravated by the “Highway Maintenance” people here, who throw thousands of cigaret butts on the grass just opposite their premises, with a lot of litter as well. This lasted for years.

The grass belongs to the pavement, that means that a lot of passers by and children and students see the mess everyday.
I am thinking of the thread of a contagious pattern. That people and young ones get use to mess and litter.

I talked nicely to some “Highway Maintenance” people several times, I mentioned the idea of the portable ashtrays, and bins, etc.
With no avail.
Like I said, when you do that, they do the mischief even more !

So, one day, I decided to have a completely opposite tactic.
I put right on their grass as much litter that I could find around.
This lasted about 18 months.

And it worked !

Because it was bad, noticeable.
I think that the Council workers reported the matter, because they could not cut the lawn with all this mess.

I know, women do litter as well.
This is because a trend has started, and it is difficult to stop it.
People, males and females, are simply opting for the easiest way. The way that they see everyday.

I saw once a Mother with a little toddler in a pram. He had finished his milk smoothy, and he threw it on the ground. The Mother did not pick it up.

And some years ago, a young mother once put a small mattress outside, near other people’s bins, a mattress full of large stains of blood and urine. The rest of the bed, belonging to a little girl, was placed in the bin area.
And another woman recently placed two dirty large mattresses outside, in the patio, a patio that is collective.
“You see, it is gone !” she said to me with a smile on her face.
The Property Management started to fine them. They did not like it of course, but they continued nonetheless.
Now the bin area has been locked with a lock that request a code.
That does not stop them, because now they are fly tipping outside the bin area.

 

It is as if the mess that they can produce is a signature.
Their signature.
Similar to signing your territory.
Similar to showing your power over the authorities.
Similar to say : “we are here, and we can if we want to“.
We all know that the phenomenon of graffitis is exactly that.

 

Also, the means in order to stop people throwing rubbish in the streets are not very organised.
For instance, all along our Road, which is a very busy road, (Garage, College, School, Train Station, Bus Station, large Parking areas, Residential areas, Sainsbury Local), there is not one bin !
So, this is not making things easier for the good wills, if there are any.

Another thing that was not very organised, was to demand that smokers smoke outside.
This was done without a thorough preparation, beforehand, in order to help the collective to adjust to that demand.
I am thinking of portable and public ashtrays, similar to the public bins, if only we had many and very good public bins.

Now it is too late.

In the streets or the outdoors, no one smoker is ever seen with a portable ashtray in the streets. It would look unpopular, a little bit of a lunacy, in their mind.

The “one man in the van” for instance, toss their cigaret ends everywhere, never mind if it is at someone else Property, and they even throw the left over of their coffee cups or their tea cups on the tarmac, leaving huge stains.
The rain can not wash the stains away because milk is a greasy substance.

So now the millions of unhygienic and toxic/ soiled/ contaminated cigaret butts, and so many of other rubbish/ detritus, are changing the purity of the soil, the rain, the rivers, etc.
The same as you, I for one one would never cultivate my vegetables in the soil of Great Britain.

Why is this phenomenon not happening in France, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Italy, (my Country), Austria, Hungary and Poland, etc.
Traditionally so that is.
Because when there is an area heavy with Migrants, this happens also.

The answer is that the phenomenon is not in the collective unconscious.

From a very early age, Children are severely told a no no if they throw a detritus in the street.
Smokers do not smoke in the streets.
Ashtrays are still for sale everywhere, nice ones. And it is not a shame to use them. The shame would be not to use ashtrays.
There are a lot bins collected regularly. Every week, in fact.
And those Countries prefer to enjoy a good meal at home, rather than eating in the streets. There is no “newsagents” plenty of small snacks, sandwiches, and little bottles of drinks.
For the workers, there are what we call the “cantina sociale”  which are self service restaurants. And the food there is rather nice, varied, and filling.
The same for Schools and Colleges, the “cantina sociale” are good there.

Thank you for listening.

Food for thoughts as always.

Take care.

Giorgia

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