The tone of our culture now is course, selfish and hedonistic. Ethical imperatives like the odious “work hard/play hard” are commonly heard. People are told to “get a life” when they don’t conform or simply advised to “get out more”. It’s less important where you go or who you’re with as long as it’s somewhere with someone. It’s not cool to be “in”. You’ve gotta be “out there” - somewhere, anywhere. Interesting too is the transition of the word “party” from noun to verb. Partying is now something you do, the more, the better a person you are.

Now you would think that all these terms signal sociability or commonality. But no. They are routinely employed by people who are individualistic and self-orientated, aggressively so. Ironically they are usually the types who very soon sign up to age-old conventions and the often insular existence that follows, the very thing their talk would seemed to have mitigated against. Their connection to any real kind of shared enterprise proves to be utterly fallacious. They are the sad bastards. And annoying!