Fear For Fear's Sake.....

The British really are as immature as they appear to be. It's the stamp of authenticity in the drive to control each other. Except only a few actually control. The others(boyishly or girlishly)bow out of conflict and head for their 'private places', where they spend a moment(but only a moment!)in reflection over the injustice of the world.

Then they go back to being childish.

The British are taught to be children by phrases such as 'schooldays are the best days of your life'.
They are actually the worst, since you are being forcibly confined with a collection of unsavoury people and indoctrinated, for a period roughly equivalent to the penalty for murder, but it is in Britain that the inculcation of moral cowardice has reached the ultimate degree of advancement, with 'respectable' professionals aspiring to the level of football hooligan.

They are taught from the very beginning that growing up requires the abandonment of childish notions of 'integrity' and adopting the level of maturity dictated by 'society'; that society fails to dictate any level is merely taken to show the benevolent liberality of our 'betters', and of course, we are all being left 'enough rope to hang' ourselves with, that is to say, freedom is a trap which we will be tricked out of at any time, so that we, having made our ways, may be shown the error of them.

So the British tend not to suffer from such overt notions of maturity as inform the social climates of other countries, for if all our progress is to be rescinded at the whim of some secret conformity, some wind blowing through the minds of our peers and sweeping us away, what is the point?

So, we must all grit our teeth, and keep our heads down, and drink our beer(until inevitably, that, too is taken away), and bow to the fear we may or may not feel, hobbling ourselves at every opportunity, being like Tim Henman in the Wimbledon of the life of the world.

Essentially, anything goes.
As long as we are not serious.
And, unlike the countries where life is real, fun here is never serious.