Over the weekend, I saw a lot of discourse against sunbathing in parks with the argument being that doing so means "you can't control the environment around you".

Consider - unless you're in your own home, you CAN'T control the environment around you, really. You can only control your OWN actions within a public environment, such as a park. Further, you cannot control the actions and choices of other people, particularly strangers.

But there's clearly an urge to control others, particularly in a substantial subsection of the population. I would hazard to guess that the demographics of that subsection are middle class, white and British. (Of course there will be exceptions)

In that urge, there's a sense of entitlement and a lack of responsibility for one's own actions. Think about it - there's no mention of losing control of yourself, but instead the blame is placed on other people, who one doesn't know.

This demographic:
- are used to getting what they want
- has the privilege to curate their environment
- has inherited a legacy of colonialism that encourages the conquering and control of environments that are not yours

I'm seeing a lot of parallels to the theatre etiquette debate - the absolute fury at other people who are strangers, and a total failure to consider WHY people might be behaving as they are.

Some examples:

- a person coughing in a theatre because they have Cystic Fibrosis
- a person not maintaining social distance because they have a cognitive disability that prevents them from gauging how much space is around them

So really, people generally need to widen their world view and consider all the possibilities that might be behind other people's choices. Sure, they might just be an arsehole. But more than likely, they're NOT.

People also need to reflect on the urge to control othes around them. It's unhealthy - it will increase anxiety and stress because it's fundamentally impossible - but also reflects unconscious bias directly goes against the notion of progess and postcolonialism.

(I appreciate my grammar and syntax is a bit of a mess, but it's twitter. Not a book)

PS - it's fascinating that the conversations this thread spawned so perfectly encapsulated my point