I realised a long time ago that I was out of touch with modern living but I still pride myself on being well informed about what is going on in the world. The two are not quite the same thing. I manage a suite of computers and scan news events etc. I still think about what is happening in the world and I could express an informed opinion about a lot of things. Probably, in truth, I am better in touch than many younger people. Perhaps that is the privilege of age. What I cannot do is to think like a modern day person.

I have just finished watching the NME Awards ceremony on the TV. Everything about this programme is alien to me but it is like a challenge to try to understand what is going on and what the appeal of it is. I can still remember what it was like to be young and to feel passionate about music and culture. I can especially still remember what it was like to be 'written off' by the grannies of this world. In that sense my position remains with the young - and always will do. What I struggle with is trying to understand what is going on today culturally.

There seems to be a huge movement which is designed to bring 'obscenity' into the mainstream. I have put that word in quotation marks so that it can evolve into the realms of the acceptable if that is its destiny. Swearing on TV was something I never experienced in my own youth. I have only just returned to watching TV after some 3 years without one (bliss) and whilst I was away people started swearing on the box although there do appear to rules about it. Music too contains swearing and probably the worst offender is comedy.

I saw a comedy documentary not long ago in which I gathered that there is an acknowledged agenda among writers to be as outrageous as possible in the interests of pushing the boundaries of acceptable comedy forward (or should that be onward?).

An age in which anything goes. Neo-punk? No forbidden words. Politically correct obscenities. Led of course by the media who have been quick to realise that they have to re-package themselves into this 'reality TV mode' if they are to maintain credibility in the modern world. In a nutshell the central freedom of speech issue here would seem to be the statement:

"I can say 'fuck' whenever I want to and no one has the right to stop me."

Freedom of speech is, of course, a very important issue and I would certainly want to defend anyone's right to express themselves in whatever way they see fit. After all, I don't have to listen to them if I don't want to. I got on fine without a TV for 3 years. I can do it again. The internet is a great place to get the news. (I heartily recommend Reuters online.)

Odd, though, that this same society is banning smoking in public places, another 'freedom' that some want to exercise in public. And there are many, many examples of private space/public space issues that could be cited. The fact is there are huge differences between how we behave, according to whose company we are in. Language, including body language, is always going to be at the centre of this because it is, by definition, a tool of communication. My generation had a relatively easy task of coping with family, school and work progressively and that was about it. Today the whole socialisation thing is much more complex. Public space has crossed the threshold into our living rooms and bedrooms. We now communicate with people through our phones and computers and on our doorsteps without even leaving the house. When we do go out we buy, negotiate and interact with crowds of people. Inevitably, our attitude toward strangers has changed. Oddly, though, our long suffering shop assistants still have to put up with torrents of abuse just because they are 'strangers' behind a till. Perhaps we shall see a fight back. Supposing they could say 'Fuck off, I'm not serving you if you speak to me like that.' Well that would be a level playing field!

I suppose for me, as the arch democrat, I would take the view that whatever people want to be the accepted way of behaving has to be allowed expression but personally I don't want streakers in the middle of the Olympics or copulation in the adverts and I don't want to hear obscenities from every other mouth. I hope there is still room for each of us to say 'I did it My Way'.

Pierre