Little acts of kindness for a nicer city
Here are the thoughts of one his Majesty’s most loyal subjects:
It is extremely demoralising to be law abiding and industrious when there is flagrant fare dodging on the underground in front of staff and on camera, snatching of phones on the streets, and shop lifting. It’s these “low-level” crimes that grinds one down. The process for basic justice is long and bureaucratic. A whole economy is sustained on this dysfunctionality and mediocrity.
In turn, this is why it is extremely satisfying seeing a Brazilian Deliveroo rider take it upon himself to pursue pick pockets in the city in his own time filmed for YouTube, or guys just deciding to clean graffiti from tube carriages on the Bakerloo line one weekend morning simply by spraying and wiping themselves.
People like me just want safety and swift justice for those who violate it, order, cleanliness. Yes, people have mitigating circumstances - drug taking to escape unhealed childhood pains, and so on. But solutions to these things are more effective (and cheaper) when community-led.
The challenge is for each one of us to do his or her little part to counter the atomisation of modernity, be it with a stall to distribute water to passing people on a hot day, or doing the shopping for a nearby infirm person without anything in return, that kind of thing. I anticipate cynicism from some. But this is what I’ve seen at working spreading niceness amongst people.