Today is just one of those days where I am quite bored of talking about shoes and find myself a bit more inclined to talk about something that bothers me a bit, not in the sense that it personally disrupts my being, but rather makes me feel sad for society and how we are becoming (or rather how we have always been….). Like many of the people who live in London, I am subjected to the need of using public transportation, as having a car simply isn’t that practical here in the center. Taking either the tube or the bus each and every day, I am constantly subjected to the scurried rat race that has become society: the need to hurry, rush, crowd, barge people over, run, bump into, forget manners, cut off, squeeze on (when there is no room) among the many other things that I witness and am subjected to on a daily basis. It’s just frightening watching these things, thinking about how manners & decency seem to just have disappeared here in London (as I am sure many other cities of this size), when it comes to getting to and from somewhere.
Ducal
Ducal
Edward Green above
Ducal
can’t remember….Il Quadifoglio if I am not mistaken
No one says thank you anymore (for holding doors open, for letting them pass or allowing them to get on first when they are simply itching to do so). People constantly bump you and don’t say ‘excuse me’ or blatantly cut you off or rush past you simply to go and stand and wait for the tube (the one that comes every 2 minutes). We have turned into a thoughtless, numb society of people who seem to just not care about anything but themselves and their own self-absorbed well-being. And it bothers me because even sometimes I find myself succumbing to this way of being, forgetting to give up my seat to someone more in need and thus becoming apart of these frantic people that feel the need to rush every second of their commute and ignore everything around them. It’s sad and even though I know that this will most likely never change, I hope that some people will wake up and realize that life is too short to be apart of this, to bombard past people just to go wait, to not say thank you when a thank you is due, to jump to the last tube seat when there was someone else closer (just so that you can sit down for a small amount of time), to subject themselves onto someone else’s very personal space just to catch a tube that is only 2 minutes ahead of the next one, among many of the other inelegant acts that I witness on a daily basis, …. Please people, slow down and realize that the seconds that you may save by doing this is insignificant in the long run, and more likely than not is actually detrimental to your well being through all of the stress that you cause yourself to simply save a minute or two….
For those that couldn’t care less, well I hope that you enjoy the pics of shoes (courtesy of a a few Tumblr blogs, one being Bespoke-Makers, another being CC-Coccinella) as well as have a lovely rush-free weekend!
Meermin
Roberto Ugolini
I constantly find myself in that place as well. We really need to slow down a bit and start acting politely.
On a side note, these Meermin boots will be quite welcome on my boot collection!
they are indeed quite nice!
Well said. But the good news is there is a growing movement trying to inspire men to start acting as gentlemen again, regardless of what the ‘herd’ are doing. It is up to each of us to take a stand and slow down, be courteous, refined, tolerant and ‘do unto others as you would be done by’ – well done Justin for highlighting this.
Mark
let’s just hope that it pays off!
Thanks justin
I rant and rave frequently about the same thing, I hold doors or both men and women, allow women to pass In front, give up my seat, say please and thank you. It’s gotten to the point where if I am waiting for someone to pass thru the door I am holding and they don’t say thanks. I’ll say out loud ‘you’re welcome’. More times than not I get looked at like I’m the ass.
I have actually had an encounter where it was raining outside and I turned and saw a couple walking in to where I was. I held the door and waited. The guy looked at me and said ‘bro, no need for that, that still won’t get my girl’ . I responded that it wasn’t about that , it’s about being a gentleman and you know.. Being nice, he laughed and so did she, and they walked away.
It blows my mind how often this happens and I’m glad I’m not the only one. Thanks!
wow, that’s crazy. It’s truly sad to think that some people can be so daft and silly. I would have had a hard time giving that guy a piece of my mind…at least you took the high route….
The Shoe Snob is actually human! 😀 But really, having being on the receiving end of similar ape-like behaviour (and worse!), both in London and other big cities around the world, I believe that the most important thing we can do is to be aware and control our own behaviour, that it may rub off on the others. Only love can overcome hate!
Oh, and one more thing. It really doesn’t matter if a man (or woman) has the most sublime pair of panda-skinned footwear on if it’s not accessorized with good manners!
P.S. The unique lacing structure on the Ducals are similar to the Aubercy Stockholm. I wonder who invented it first?
only monday thru friday, then I turn into a superhuman on the weekend for sitting at home on my couch!! 🙂
Fully agree with you, Justin! Madrid is not far from this.
Great to arise this topic linked with brain and hearts in a shoe/feet-related blog.
It is paradoxal to see how education and behaviors are getting back to the jungle in an epoque of cutting-edge and refined advances in other areas (technology, medicine…)
yes it is strange isn’t it…I wonder if there is a correlation?? Technology has been said to dumb us down a bit as we lose touch with the human side of things…we become stuck in our own self-involved bubbles..
it could be worse, i went to a bar to meet a couple of friends this weekend who were celebrating someones birthday, i wore a light blue bespoke jacket .. a drunk girl grabbed my jacket at one point … only later did i notice that all this sweaty makeup powder stuff had formed splotches on the back of my jacket from whatever she had applied to her arm (god knows?) … on the way home i sat on a tube seat only to realise someone had leaked a can of beer down the back of it … the worst part is that everyone at the party i went to was wearing jeans 🙁
ah that’s terrible Anand, I am sorry! Hopefully you were able to dry-clean it all out!
@Benjy
The Scotsmen did XD
It’s a model called Ghillie and it’s their national shoe. You can still see some gentlemen wearing it with their kilt.
@Il Satiro, Ghillie Brogues! For only 50 quid at a Best of Scottish webstore naturally! 😀
Thanks for the heads up!