People make peace as much as Politicians

In the late 1980s I spent a weekend in a place called Benwell in the west end of Newcastle (NE England). It's an area recognised by many in relevant organisations as one of the toughest neighbourhoods in the UK. Because I went up there with a friendly demeanour I was made to feel very welcome and had a really enjoyable time. If I had gone up there with an 'attitude' , and/or been judgemental the minute I got off the bus, concidering the sort of place it is, I would probably have lasted about 5 minutes - because the 'attitude' I'd have got back would have been infinately more - erm - 'up front' than anything I'd have been able to carry off. That was 16 years ago, and I sometimes wonder if these days it's possible to be able to do things like that, and does a friendly approach evoke the same, or are we becoming cynical to all that?

Is the world generally becoming an increasingly aggressive place, where competition is all, and being friendly towards people sometimes isn't enough. Is the whole notion of friendliness seen as a strength or a weakness to be exploited these days? People have to work longer hours in the increasingly competitive work place, to pay ever higher mortgages and a bewildering array of credit agreements, and you wonder what sort of effect that's having on societies as a whole, and how societies interact with each other. We live in a high octane culture where the simple day to day use of words can be taken and twisted totally out of common sense parlance by people who seem on a mission to cripple the basis of any peaceful coexistance - spoken communication.

Is this the Neobrutalism, and is it really possible to "Give peace a chance" in the 'get one over on someone else' culture - or are we just trying to grow flowers on a motorway?