It's so easy to be cynical or even derogatory about certain British characteristics. Take prudishness. According to a Dutch author, sex in Holland is "a normal daily part of life, like shopping or football. In England, it is a joke or a nudge." (Link to today's Independent newspaper article below.) You know what I mean. Wink. Wink. Nudge. Nudge.
Even here in Scotland, where discussions about sex might be more openly raunchy and raucous in hilarity, there is a puritanical streak that lets you know where such talk has its limits. Namely within the bawdy confines of a social drinking. Get onto the subject of sex (education) for the 'younger' generations and the cringe factor takes over. If it's not birds, bees and storks, it's biological functions and 'naming of parts'. That clinical approach was parodied in Monty Python's the Meaning of Life to great effect; for me, it just set my teeth on edge!
Then the statistics about teenage pregnancies come along and I can't help screaming "What has been the point of the decades of sex-ed classes?" When are we going to learn not to throw money at things without being open and considered about what we're trying to achieve? The irony of that question in these strange economic times only adds fuel to my anger at the futility of ignorance.
I started out wanting to rant about island mentality and the close-minded superiority I can see and feel around me, how inward and insular the thinking can be.
But I know it's the same within every nation, every people. (After all, the fact that the UK has the highest percentage of teenage pregnancies in Western Europe is "... second only to the United States..." according to the WHO. So what happened to sex-ed there!)
This is where I sink into the cynical mindset. And lose the audacity of hope.
