This is all based on an interview she did in the Guardian recently. Not only is she witty but shows insight and empathy. The interview starts with an amusing (if sad) vignette:
My uncle Mahmood was kicked by a teenage girl on a bus last week. He is a lecturer in sociology. I mention this, because of all the people this young lady could have kicked that day, he was the only one likely to try and draw her into a discussion about the cultural implications of her behaviour. Uncle Mahmood rather reasonably asked her to explain how one might, given her behaviour, differentiate between her and a barnyard animal (the example he used was a goat). She kicked him once more, then disembarked with her friends, giggling. My uncle is a black belt in karate. I don't know if I would have acted with his restraint, but then I don't practise martial arts. My own sporting accolades never went much beyond a near-perfect forward roll in 1984. What was the reason for this ugly altercation and assault on my family member? The girl had been playing her music from her phone out loud and my uncle asked to turn it down.
She gives other examples of such mean spirited and nasty behaviour:
A few weeks ago, a young office worker threatened me with a punch on the underground. She had violently pushed passed me and all I said was, "May I suggest anger management?" It seemed to make her more angry. Another time, at night, I asked a posh guy at a taxi rank if he would give his place up for a couple with two sleeping children in their arms. His response was: "I do not think so! How dare you suggest it?"
So why have changed, England certainly wasn't like this 25 years, like Shappi I'm not 100% convinced by arguements that it is all due to hormones and stress-levels:
I got chatting to an old lady on the bus about this surge of nastiness, and she told me that Osama bin Laden, George Bush, goat-girl and taxi-man all have overactive thyroid glands. "They can make you very aggressive if left untreated," she warned me, before getting off at Waitrose.
I like the idea of liberal Waitrose shoppers, forgiving the world's worse tyrants and putting it all down a thyroid imbalance. Shappi sights a dummying down and celeb culture as her primary culprit:
But I blame the telly. Reality TV stars, from Gordon Ramsay to Big Brother inmates, are rewarded for their inability to debate intelligently and rationally by being given heaps of cash and fame. The message received is: "This is how your life can be if you bellow obscenities at anyone who isn't behaving in precisely the manner you would like." EastEnders has never exactly been Sesame Street, but it has never been that bad. Knee-jerk rudeness is spreading.
Last week, Lily Allen was pictured lunging at another girl, attempting to punch her. My 18-year-old cousin shrugged and said: "The girl must've been rude to her."
She makes a good point. Personally I think there are multiple inter-related reasons: a more divided society, with more people living and working in poverty are a big worry for me. Also people are deeply troubled regarding the global warming, unsustainable development, spin and lies ...
Unfortunately this probably isn't going to be funny, unlike Lily Allen pulling another starlets hair ;-)
witty |ˈwitē|
adjective ( -tier , -tiest )
showing or characterized by quick and inventive verbal humor : a witty remark | Marlowe was charming and witty.
DERIVATIVES
wittily |ˈwitəlē| |ˈwɪd1li| adverb
wittiness |ˈwɪdin1s| noun
ORIGIN Old English wit(t)ig [having wisdom] (see wit 1 , -y 1 ).
vignette |vinˈyet|
noun
1 a brief evocative description, account, or episode.
2 a small illustration or portrait photograph that fades into its background without a definite border.
• a small ornamental design filling a space in a book or carving, typically based on foliage.
verb [ trans. ]
portray (someone) in the style of a vignette.
• produce (a photograph) in the style of a vignette by softening or shading away the edges of the subject.
DERIVATIVES
vignettist |-ˈyetist| |vɪnˈjɛdəst| noun
ORIGIN late Middle English (sense 2; also as an architectural term denoting a carved representation of a vine): from French, diminutive of vigne ‘vine.’
empathy |ˈempəθē|
noun
the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
DERIVATIVES
empathetic |ˌempəˈθetik| |ˈɛmpəˈθɛdɪk| |-ˈθɛtɪk| adjective
empathetically |ˌempəˈθetik(ə)lē| |ˈɛmpəˈθɛdək(ə)li| |-ˈθɛtɪk(ə)li| adverb
empathic |emˈpaθik| |əmˈpøθɪk| |ɛmˈpøθɪk| |ɛmˈpaθɪk| adjective
empathically |emˈpaθik(ə)lē| |əmˈpøθək(ə)li| |ɛmˈpøθək(ə)li| |ɛmˈpaθ-| adverb
ORIGIN early 20th cent.: from Greek empatheia (from em- ‘in’ + pathos ‘feeling’ ) translating German Einfühlung.
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