I have caught myself doing something a bit odd recently. When I’m out and about, going along a high street say, and I hear a child call, I automatically look round and assume they’re shouting abuse at me. Of course, most of the time they’re just chatting with their friends; but my concern about these youngsters seems to have reacted a point where I just assume they are going to be nasty. I don’t know if I’m being paranoid or not, given how regularly these little shits do indeed think they’re being clever by mocking me. I probably am, but kids seem so abrupt and brazen these days that I inevitably feel a pang of concern whenever I’m around them. It just seems like a sad point to have reached, when just hearing a child shout puts me on edge, not just with respect to my own psyche but in terms of what it says about youth culture more generally.