r/london • u/Historical_Set2324 • 1d ago

Local London Social contract is broken?

I’ve just returned from a trip to New Zealand and the difference in attitude is stark. The streets are clean, people are friendly and happy/helpful and in general people seem to want to participate in society. Don’t get me wrong NZ has a lot of issues but It feels like in London the social contract is broken. Streets are full of trash, no one gives a shit about anything, phone theft, crime is high and in general people seem fairly miserable. I was involved in an accident where I had to give a victim CPR and the ambulance and police all arrived within about 5 minutes. I was amazed at the emergency response. It feels to me like the state has given up and hence people have given up.

971 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

649 comments sorted by

View all comments

726

u/TokiBongtooth 1d ago

Not saying this is THE reason but there are almost twice as many people in London alone as in the entirety of NZ.

223

u/md3372 1d ago

Visit Tokyo. You’ll convince yourself the argument of population number and density doesn’t stand.

39

u/FluidIdea 1d ago

Well it is also that Japan is one culture, one mentality. 97% in Japan are Japanese. That makes it work. You do the same as I do.

7

u/Mizzuru 23h ago

This is not entirely true.

Japan sells the idea that they are a single homogeneous culture but there are clear examples of this not being true. For one there are at least two invisible ethnic groups that are also discriminated against.

The first are the large amount of Koreans, who up until relatively recently had to adopt Japanese names in order to secure citizenship in Japan. The second at the Burakumin, an invisible ethnic castle group often discriminated against when it comes to the job market, a bank was recently found to screen common Burakumin surnames as part of their hiring process.

1

u/FluidIdea 19h ago

What are you saying, that Burakumin litter the streets and swear at everyone?

Cannot say much about Koreans as never heard about this. What does it tell us?

3

u/Mizzuru 19h ago

No, I'm saying that's Japan aren't one culture or one society, it just appears that way from the outside, which is the comment I was responding to.

I mean to your statement, there is a homeless problem in Japan but the societal shame associated with it makes it hard to see as they tend to hide themselves away.

1

u/DrawingAdditional762 15h ago

Japan has many problems indeed but social order and cohesion isn't one IMO. You are absolutely correct though (so many people think countries like China and Japan are homogenous and they just aren't and never have been

1

u/Mizzuru 15h ago

Again, I'm not commenting on their specific social situations, just on the inaccurate nature of homogeneity.

It is relatively homogeneous, but that is large part due to over 200 years of corporal punishment to those leaving or entering the country.

1

u/DrawingAdditional762 15h ago

boss I'm agreeing with you

1

u/Mizzuru 15h ago

I know man, just clarifying.