A quick thought on alienation.

The nature of our lives these days leads very easily towards alienation. This is especially true for 18-30 year olds. Often single, living away from where they grew up to get work, a social life that is geared around consumption......etc. In short, a lonely life geared around work or the search for work.

The media constantly reinforces predudices that are designed to seperate us. Plays on generation gaps (The old are boring, the young are criminals.) race (Don't trust them Muslims folks!) class (Bloody single mothers!) and sex (Phwoar! single mothers!). Which should inevitably lead to greater distrust within society. And at first glance this appears to be the case. The Bnp is growing in a few areas, people seem to shit themselves when they see youngsters in hoodies...etc.

But there is an interesting side effect to this sort of alienation. We have to figure out whether we trust our perceptions, or not, more quickly. Often this trust will be won on the basis of brand loyalty, your favourtie brand of pie in the newsagents for example. But we also have to trust strangers more, simply because our livelyhoods and our lives move around more quickly. Every time we move job or home, we have to start from scratch with the people around us.

Anyway, this needs more thought. I'm just trying to get the basics of my line of reasoning down so I can work on it. There may be more to come on this.