Back in the day, people seemed much kinder to each other even though they did not have two shillings to rub together
Seeing someone in a ditch even if drunk, they would not walk by and leave them
If neighbours were in trouble, or down on their luck, they would rally round and bring food and look after the children, or clean the house.
These days, many people shun their neighbours.
Walk down the main street late at night and what do you see? Gross behaviour in town centred on Saturday Nights.
People urinating, being sick, and copulating in doorways.
I miss the good old days where Bonhomie was the norm.
Now days it seems that Bonhomie’s antonym is more to the fore.
Aloofness and coldness towards one’s fellow man abounds.
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Times have changed but not necessarily for the worse.
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To some extent people have become more insular due to the internet there’s no doubt about it. When I say insular I’m talking about the real world not the digital one. We’ve been talking about people walking around with their eyes glued to their screens on a different thread haven’t we?
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They weren’t all hail fellow well met .
If you walk down any big town centre on a Saturday night you will see less than pleasant behaviour .I don’t really see what that has to do with being neighbourly .
Perth is a wonderful city one of the best places to live on earth yet when I first visited there over 40 years ago I was appalled at how people ignored the Aborginal people in the street some who were drunk other begging they looked poor and unfortunate . They were treated with distain by the passers-by . I don’t see anyone helping them.
But yes people are less friendly now .
I live in a very small rural village and yet there is always ill feeling of some sort . Parking is a trouble maker as people have too many cars and so park in front of other people houses which although this may be legal cause annoyance .
I don’t tak to my neighbour ( because he is an AH ) i have never done him a wrong and taken in more Amazon parcels for his family than I have ever done for myself . So now I ignore the of them .
The main problem is there ar e too many people and we live too close for comfort these days .
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In the last month of my husbands life at home I had need to call for an Ambulance twice ,it was Covid time , one Ambulance arrived with just a driver , he needed admiting to hospital , so a second Ambulance arrived , so two plus Paramedic car , the 3 vechiles blocked the road outside my house , he was kept in for a week , Not one of my neighbours came to see if I needed any help . 3 weeks later and same thing happened again, he died withen the 4 days of admittence
We had the Funeral a month later , not one person asked how I was , it was 2 months later the man opposite came and asked my son who was clearing out his dads car, about is Dad , … This was someone my Hubby had lent Books to.
I believe i live on a street where you could die and no one would miss you .Everyone keeps themselves to themselves , some with Curtains closed never opened , shutting out the world ,
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That is so sad yet and so typical of western society these days.
Yes, because most people were far more family orientated, whereas today we see one parent families as the norm and some of them have never been married. There is IMO far too much putting about without any thought to responsibilities. Two parent families were and still much better for raising children and those families tend to raise more responsible children. I firmly believe it’s a lack of parental control that has been a major contributor to what we see today.
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People have to be careful what they say nowadays, for fear of being branded sexist, racist or some other ist. They live in fear, spread by the Daily Mail. It makes them afraid to speak out. Also, in the old days, some people needed help, like a lift to the hospital or whatever. Now it’s all laid on. People don’t like to offer any more.
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Where I work I have to be careful what I say because one does not know people’s nationality.
So I tend to say nothing that could be controversial because many people are also litigious. They will take any opportunity to make a complaint in the hopes of getting a monetary payout.
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Sounds dire have you considered moving ?
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No one ever offered my family a lift to the hospital or asked after my mother when she was ill .
It was a very unfriendly place .
Sometimes nostalgia makes people forget how things really were .
Racism shouldn’t even come into it we are all of one race , the human race .
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Yes @Muddy, I keep looking .Theres nothing to keep me here ,
I remember when we first moved here and a old lady knocked at our door asking for help to lift her dying hubby off the floor where he had fallen out of bed … while i got my hubby and son , she turned to face the street and shouted , "at last Ive got someone to help me "
I was taken back by this , but years later I realised why she had shouted that ,it was everyone for themselves , and no sense of Community.
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The root of the problem seems to be the trend towards ever more individualism just because it is possible. Never in the past could people lead such an independent life. They used to be much more dependent on other people, on the community knowing that they would more or less stay at the same place. Never have a lot of people been more mobile than today leading to changing jobs and accommodation more often which is made possible by a flexible labour and housing market and, in turn, reinforces those again. This mobility brings about a feeling of not really belonging to a place or community because it’s all temporarily limited anyway. Why bother about formalities and getting on well with others if you know you’re gonna move on soon? The social media with their anonymity increase that trend, too.
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An interesting debate. It makes me appreciate how lucky I am. I live on a dead end street but it’s far from a dead end community. There seems to be two cliques of people who get on well with their preferred group so everyone has someone they can rely on. It’s a very friendly and inclusive place to live. We have a street WhatsApp group where we share information and borrow things from each other or do favours like taking in parcels/putting bins out etc. I really am lucky.
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Yep, it’s pretty ok in my neighborhood too. I have good neighbours, we keep an eye out for each other, take in Amazon deliveries etc.
All things considered it’s a pretty decent place to live… hope I’m not tempting fate 
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I guess I’m lucky to have lovely neighbours and yes we are also together on WhatsApp.
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Hey Muddy, I do hope you are not scaring the neighbours with your fun favourite topic: Islamics taking over the world and all that. There is a book called, “How to Win Friends and Influence People”. Maybe try that.
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It’s the older generation that are friendly and involved with the community around here.The younger ones don’t seem to plan to stay that long.Modernize the house,concrete the garden,make some profit and move on.
The first thing our latest newbies did was install electric gates .We got the message.
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Yes its every 3 years theres a turn around of old going out new coming in .
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Recently I caught covid and I got quite poorly with heart pain I rang for advice and an ambulance was sent , I reluctantly went to the hospital. I was there 6 hrs , returned home and went to bed with the all clear ( covid heart pain)
The ambulance was outside my house for a good 45 mins . Not once in the following days did any neighbour call or knock to see if I was OK. I live on housing estate and back to back living and been here 21 yrs . No one was interested . Even I was surprised.
I could die in bed and lie for days , honestly no one would notice. How sad
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