On reflection, down the annals of history, the elite were the Royals, landowners, industrialists etc who had the power.
Nowadays the Royals, the landowners the old money are just a diminishing side show….the new ruthless are basically ‘educated’ idealists and big corporations who exercise power…people detached from reality who are minority view holders yet influence power over 90% of the population by manipulating the system to their goals … a skid mark on the underpants of humanity…. I find it disturbing now that people think before they speak, never a good sign in any society.

I heard something on the radio yesterday about the necessity (for want of a better word) of having a Smart Phone.

It’s getting to the point where you just about need one now, to post parcels, buy tickets etc but there is no gov backed or neutral platform to work with, it’s all people like Musk and the like.

I haven’t got one - people look amazed. Ha.

same with me and flatly refuse to conform. same as thinking twice before i open my gob. if they do not like it then they can do one big style. i was born with a brain and will use it and all the present day bullshit just never works with me.

I'm honestly struggling to understand who the 'idealists' are who are currently exercising power. Putin? Xi Jinping? The geriatric currently in the White House or the one who hopes to be by the end of next year?

Admittedly there are a handful of genuine philanthropists among the world's super-rich (Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet) who have given away hods of money and just about qualify as idealists, but most are happy to count their cash and please themselves, as the rich and powerful have always done.

None of these people have anything to do with 'wokeness' as far as I can see. So who do you mean?

The woke set the agenda and big corporations are happy to work alongside them, like the politicians..it’s a tyranny of the minority who want to tell the majority how to live and think….they all want control, that is their ultimate aim and yet they all make odd bedfellows.
Bill Gates and his ilk are only spending their philanthropic largesse on what they believe in, which is using their financial muscle to make things in their image…a true philanthropist covers a wide area of varying tastes and tries to improve things for the mass of the people..not just their disciple’s..in fact I’d question the description
of it as philanthropy.
The politicians you quote are transient figures, irrelevant figures even… as Biden so blatantly dancing with the fairy’s shows and probably is incapable of controlling a bowel movement never mind a country, it’s so blatantly obvious yet people go through with farce, so who is running the USA, because Biden is not.

I don’t know how you cope without a smart phone. Everything now is becoming so much more sophisticated and you need a phone to keep up. I do feel sorry for the elderly although some people will think I am elderly at 62. Nobody has ever said it to me as I am in good shape and dress 20 years younger. Yes I’m vain and I don’t care.

Maybe "wokeness" is a tool of theirs.

Still find it amusing that people think Govs, Govern countries.
There is a whole level above Govs, And NOTHING gets in their way.

Religon is another tool and always has been.

This is nothing new.





"say goodbye to the world you thought you lived in"

Correct Mr Greyhounded, I’m getting the feeling governments are just a frontfor something higher.
People still think the Tories and Labour are at opposite ends of the political spectrum, nonsense, you couldn’t force a fag paper between them if the truth be known.
The defenders of the working class, Labour, aren’t working class and the Tories aren’t Tories but closet liberals.

Ha! I’m 62 and don’t look it too

I don’t feel the urge to look at a smart phone or use any of its capabilities- although more times than often I rely on others to do the smart things I may require. But, it bugs me, they take over, I know people who are virtually addicted to them.

I have a tough phone from when I worked as a bricklayer. It’s ten years old and costs pennies to keep on the road. 2p per text, 3p a minute for a call. I carry it for the just in case moments, emergencies, and if anyone needs to contact me.

I do have fancy stuff at home, and use it too, I just don’t want it on me 24/7.

Personally I think the era of social media is equally to blame for 'wokeness' and conspiracy theories like these. Crazy shit spreads like wildfire via people's phones, whether it's adolescents deciding to be 'non-binary' or incredible (as in 'impossible to believe') nonsense like Q Anon. The world was a simpler, saner place even a couple of decades ago.

I'm 58, and look like shit.

Maybe it was spending nowt on phones, and buying loads of whisky and tabs instead..!!!

I have a smart phone and only have it with me when I’m in the car…..I use it only as a phone, so the other so called ‘benefits’ remain unused.
I despise phones because you are always contactable after a lifetime of pagers, radio’s and mobile phones…I like my privacy now.

Agree, great invention, but is the world a better place for it?

A mobile phone can save your life - however Smart phones don't add to this point.

I mean if you fall off Striding Edge whilst walking up Helvellyn you'll phone for a helicopter, you'll not be wanting to place a bet, shop for new trainers or look at the weather in L.A.

It's all about milking from the weak. That's human society (forever) in a nutshell.

So then we have a revolution to sort it out and once you're in power - start milking from the weak (and so it goes on)

Smartphones are a perfect way to keep the workers zombiefied enough to go along with how bonkers the world is becoming.

(I love mine mind - I can watch Pools games, buy a lottery and Netflix myself to death. Geez).

Mind you, the phones are bit of a piss off in the hands of idiots….I slammed my brakes on last week while this chubby lass let her kid run over the road in front of her while she walked zombie like behind …her head down looking at her phone.

The silver lining of having to sell the car is that I don't suffer this anymore.

The underground carpark at ASDA Peterlee scared the shit out of me because of what you describe. Knocking over Ten Ton Tessie and her Greggs-scoffing sprog would see you lynched by the locals, or if you managed to get out alive a jail sentence that Harry fucking Roberts would wince at.

The world's gone WAY beyond mad.

the former point is used by so many as the reason they own one. the number of phone calls i make in a year will be at a guess about 20. do not text and any that come up on my laptop are deleated without reading them. social media is restricted to the bunker and have zero interest in expending it. the biggest shock is actually bringing in a law banning the use of phones whilst driving. if you cannot pack em away in the glove box i think people have some form of mental illness. then the other one of receiving abusive texts. just why read em if you know someone is sending them to you. its not compulsory and bt doing it they,ll stop quicker than if you respond. even seen em tippy tapping taking dogs out on the windswept moors pissing down.

I was shocked at the weekend when my niece told me that use of a Sat Nav device is now part of the Driving test. Why would it be when not all cars have such a device. It forces learners into using driving schools rather than being taught by relatives. Also you are allowed to use reversing cameras during your test.

42% of tests are now taken in automatics as there is an assumption as we will all need EVs in the future why would you need a manual licence.

There is an assumption that everyone has access to, and the ability to use, these devices that simply isn't true. It's the same with EVs where there are so few public chargers because "everyone can have a charger at home" whereas the reality is a good percentage of the population live in terraced housing or flats without the space to install their own charger.

I expect charging points being built into houses and retrofitted to property’s where practical.
But…I also expect they’ll be on a separate meters so the governments can use them like fuel duty to top up their coffers.
In a few years at this rate, the mass of the population will be forced into using public transport because private motoring will be unaffordable, you’ll still be able to go to exactly you want to but you’ll need a bike.
Austerity to save the planet, while the rest of the world carries on as normal.

Due to circumstances I'm an "early adopter" with the buses.

Having not used one since 1989, I must say that it was comforting to find the drivers are just as miserable now as they were back then...!

have a go doing the job and you,ll find out why they are like that when the novelty wears off halfway through your first shift. your good intentions go quickly when you are constantly moaned at because the bus is either early, late or the temperature inside is not to their liking.

Lighten-up mate - it was just a joke.

I couldn't, and wouldn't even attempt to do their job no matter what the money was.