Galaxy
Wasnt the age of the individual or phrases like it used to describe the 80's?
I can't remember. The 'no such thing as society' started then, so yes, maybe I borrowed it from then.
I think it's different now though - the 80s 'loadsamoney' greed and consumerism is less widespread now, although the seeds of today's inequalities were sown by closing manufacturing, selling off council houses and portraying the contrast between unemployment in some areas and property wealth in others as meritocratic. Nowadays I think it is less 'everyone for themselves' and more tribalism, with differences in age, politics, sex, education and geography (as well as wealth) being sold as reasons for mistrusting one another and for encouraging people to be ok with those in another group suffering from cuts in case they end up better off than their own 'tribe'.


. I would like to see more modern and relevant texts (or works) being taught, but I also think that shared cultural references are A Good Thing. Obviously they could co-exist, but really only of there are half a dozen texts being studied, which (I think) only really happens at A level? If there is only space for a few texts then I don't know whether I would argue for George The Poet v WH Auden, or Douglas Stuart v Dickens. The former choices would probably change in a couple of years, meaning that pupils from different age groups would learn different texts (so no shared cultural references), but dead white men's perspectives on life are very limited (and limiting) and can put young people off reading in a way that more immediately relevant texts might not.)