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@fallen-archie wrote:

 

Why can’t we map out a way forward that embraces our heritage, acknowledges about past misdemeanours and allows our society to interact socially and on a working level with pride, a society where jealousy is abandoned in favour of opportunity, where compassion for the elderly and lonely becomes the norm, is it really down to the behaviour of a our failing press or is it more to do with our own personal aspirations? I don’t know any more!!!!

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Isn't it true to say that opportunity is being curtailed for so many that even aspiration is failing by the wayside?  How many can aspire to anything more than keeping the job they've got and that their next pay rise will be enough to keep their heads above water as bills and taxes continue their inexorable rise?

Any sense of heritage is down-played as it demonstrates that the past has helped form what we have now and its continuity can help construct our future.  Far better to have a never ending now, apparently without beginning or end, where we are all nothing more than consumers whose main aspiration is to increase our credit rating.

Politics is played out in sound bites, reacting to the latest sensational revelation.  Largely policy free with little reference to historical values or long term goals, this weeks aspirational sound bite so often jettisoned the following week.  So many now have never been taught how to develop a reasoned argument or how to organise their thoughts to debate a point of view.  Many will never have even heard such a thing done by a politician or anyone else.  Education has largely been replaced by courses designed solely to pass exams demonstrating how employable the victims are.   

I don't think any of the things you cite above will come about until education starts producing generations with a sense of history, the place of their heritage within it and the determination to make the future how they want it.  I don't see any of those around right now.  All I see is a population beguiled by transient images on flickering screens being led into the future by those who control the images and who would prefer that everyone else doesn't think at all.