"There's nothing to do here!" and other British lies

"This place sucks."

"There's nothing to do"

"It's just full of old people."

These are the arguements I've heard for a lot of places around Britain. All of it flawed and all of it steeped in a history that we've both lost and not learned of, with a light sprinkling of gentrification on top of the oppressive ice cream we call British society.

I've tried for a couple of weeks now to write this, as my brain was literally scrambled(1), but my point always seemed to be more and more incohesive. As if where I wanted to go wasn't actually in this blog post than I first anticipated.

So where am I going here? Basically, there is this idea that a lot of places in Britain(2) are without any real entertainment. We could say this is the truth, but what are the underlaying truths of this truth? And if it is the truth, is the primary truth able to be dissected into smaller truths that we could piece together into a massive British jigsaw of British truths?

Yes, because we are a great tapestry of community and oppression that we haven't even recognised in our time.

Beginning at the start, 'There's nothing to do here!' as a quote implies several factors of lack; Economic, Political and Social as a start.

Economic TNTDH(3) implies that there are no prospects for jobs. People in an area are left to fend for themselves for the job search, or must travel or drive to places of employment. If you can't do that, you will be left behind.

Political TNTDH implies that you have no real say in your area. Your politician doesn't live in your area and rarely holds surgeries, or your village is part of a bigger area that takes priority, like it swallows up other less populated settlements.

Social TNTDH implies that there is nothing to do to meet up and form communities. The pub has closed and the social hall has been sold on to a developer to make more houses.

With these in mind, I think we can paint a picture that been three hundred years in the making, starting with the enclosure acts and leading up to what we now know as gentrification.

So let's start with today. A lot of places that would have been a hub for the community have been lost. Pubs were more than just a place to drink alcohol, they can be called third places, a neutral space where everyone in the area could come and socialise. And the loss of these specific third places, which can be a community hall, cafes, barbershops, even a gym occasionally. Churchs and parks are also examples. Anyway, these places allow for groups to meet and socialise, but when the cost of a pint of a coffee is outside of your budget it now becomes a place of exile. You are poor, therefore not welcome.

This might not be true, my favourite local(4) is more of a social space. They are a place to talk rather than drink, they just happen to cheaper as well. The point still stands though, people feel like outsiders because of price in their own towns will be full of TNTDH, fuelling discontent. This leads to more antisocial behaviour as people become resentful of where they are. I've been on trains where people litter all over it because 'They don't own it, so it's not their problem', isn't this the same mindset that makes people litter in their town? As they have no say, cannot use the services in their area, and there is no community to call their own.

This makes people leave for a city as there is more options and opportunities, leading to a death of a place. This death then allows the developers in to 'gentrify' the place, kicking out the last few residents to cater for the newcomers. These newcomers will commute and have very little interest in the area unless it plays into their interests. Goodbye Red Lion fro the 1500's, hello cereal bar cafe(5). This then kills the last part of the town, until these newcomers have little newcomers that soon find that to actually entertain and form their own connections they will have to look outside of their residence. This gentrifiation leads to a settlement as community to settlement to residence, how fucking sad.

This leads me back to my favourite gripe in the social sundae of Britain, the legacy of that fact called enclosure. We're jumping right back in time here but it's similar. Lords and landlords closed off the land to the common people, alienating them from the fields and valleys that were open to them before. Soon, the locals have no choice but to work for the lord for income. When the landlord wants them off the land, the work drys up and rent isn't paid. They then kicked these locals, sometimes many generations down the line, out of their houses to make way for sheep or a massive green expanse of grass. For me this is always the start of the flavour of British alienation to the land that has purveyed the world through our empire.

Both these examples, Enclosure and Gentrification, fuel TNTDH that creates dead areas. But both need people to exist, showing how shortsighted and self destructive they are. People are not numbers, they are the reason we do things. TNTDH is corporate takeover of our public and private lives, telling us we cannot go places because of ownership or the other way that you must own something to fit in, like a crappy brown bag. TNTDH as an attitude is control over the population to value what they value, and to deny that is a strong decision to make.

I think this is my point that I'm going to leave with this. I hate TNTDH. It's a nihilistic, conformist way of playing to the powers that have created this hell scape we call a lonely society. we have to actively kill this attitude to find a new way to live.

Trespass, visit your friends, have meals in parks and socialise in open view of the powers that be. Permission will never be granted as they don't want you here. A house is more profitable if no one lives in it, so the dream is for a country that has no one in it, as they can't do that a population that stays inside and makes no fuss will suffice. Britain has many things to do, but you have to look for them.

Explore! Go to a town you've never been before! Eat food you've never tried! Learn a skill that only benefits you! But never fall for TNTDH, as that is a bad arguement and only plays into the pockets of those who wish you to buy buy buy their stuff. Never fall for that lie, it will kill you and everyone you love.

(1) Had an epileptic seizure, it was not very fun.

(2) Where I will be staying, as I don't know anywhere else.

(3) There's nothing to do here, abbreviated.

(4) Peasants Revolt, Brentwood

(5) Real place in Bethnal Green i beleive.