Retro movie fun the other night as I sat down to watch Ghostbusters, the 1984 film I absolutely loved as a child. Bill Murray was still funny and I was relieved to find it's still a fun family film, though some details did appear slightly different to me in the light of experience.

For example, when Sigourney Weaver's character becomes possessed by an ancient demon the main change is that she became overwhelmingly horny. Now I know the whole sex = evil thing has been around much longer than twenty years but it did make me think about how sex was seen in the eighties.

In my earlier description of another great movie, Day Of The Dead, (see tag => ) I mentioned a grim kind of 1980's apocalyptic vibe. The rise of AIDS during that period must surely have been a big part in establishing this feeling in the communal psyche. After the fun of the 60's and the decadence of the 70's, sex was suddenly scary and dangerous.

Now just to leap off at a tangent for a moment, Question Time this week included debate about the fast approaching reform to alcohol licensing laws in the UK, or '24-hour-binge-drinking-armageddon,' as the media have so responsibly portrayed it.

Reference was made to the difference between contemporary attitudes towards drink and those of decades past. The general upshot of this was to suggest that our current social culture is one of anti social decadence, that having a good time now fundamentally involves a loss of control and respect.

In one of those little golden moments that the human brain was built for, these two ideas found one another and a connection became apparent. The eighties were a time of fear and despair while the nineties were supposed to be about 'caring'. This change could be thought of as a backlash, so relieved at having survived the previous decade the 90's saw society push for the sensible and responsible.

If this is the case then another backlash explains the current trend rather neatly. After being boring for a bit the past fears are forgotten and the pendulum swings, away from social responsibility and caution and headlong into wild abandon.

Now obviously this is quite hideously simplistic and has three fairly obvious flaws. Firstly it's based on some pretty superficial observations and secondly there are clearly plenty of other factors that can shape social attitudes. For example it is fair to say that in the past, both economies and communities were local and inherently linked.

As our economies have become national and then international we have not developed our communities to keep up, (though this may well be impossible,) and so the concept of community has faded altogether. This nicely ties into the idea of a loss of respect and due attention to our fellow citizens as we become increasingly isolated from one another.

Finally there's the important, but often forgotten point, that society is never, ever homogenous. No matter what the mainstream trends and opinions there are always significant numbers of people involved in a variety of completely different lifestyles.

These caveats in place however, there is still much to be said for this backlash theory. A potential example is all over the news right now via the truly horrible shootings, one fatal, of two police officers in Bradford yesterday. According to BBCN24, the incident has reopened the debate as to whether UK police should be routinely armed.

I'm happy to say that I'm not too worried about this happening, mostly because the police themselves don't want it. A perhaps rare piece of common ground between myself and the UK police is the great pride taken in being one of very few countries in the world where the police do not carry guns. According to a police representative on BBCN24 today this is an integral feature of the British policing technique, ie. diplomacy and common sense over force and authoritarianism. A sentiment also reflected in our military's approach, cf. UK and US troops in Iraq for example.

The key problem with the backlash system is that the kneejerk responses we allow to continually shape our society are not based in fact or thought through. The facts, (according to BBCN24,) are that, over the past two decades, only around a dozen police have been shot dead in the UK. While each individual incident is clearly a tragedy and can not be downplayed, that's not a bad record compared to other countries whose police are packing.

Incidents involving replica firearms have gone up, increasing the overall 'gun crime' statistics, but crimes involving real guns have actually dropped over the last year by more than one fifth. This surely means that the chances of you actually getting shot in the UK have gone down. Unfortunately this makes very little difference to a potential backlash and there may well now be a subsequent public outcry to arm the police for their own protection despite the facts and the police's own opinions.

I can see no upside to this thrashing back and forth but within the swing of the pendulum there is hope to be found. A good friend of mine pointed out the other day that when things move in one direction what is left behind doesn't disappear. Instead it continues to be developed but outside the constraints of the mainstream.

Art is a great example of this. As music, film and literature become increasingly commercial and homogenised all that happens is underground scenes spring up to fill the gaps. Sometimes these scenes swell to become the establishment of the future, sometimes they don't, but if things are always changing then there's always hope that things can get better.

Another very good friend of mine, (he knows who is, respect for this one mate! ;) ) shared a brilliant idea he'd had with me recently. I've often bitched on here about how TV is incredibly powerful as a medium but incredibly crap in content. Now my friend knows a guy trying to start a pirate radio station and he wondered if, once the analogue signal is switched off in a few years time, how easy it would be to set up a pirate TV station.

My mind instantly raced ahead with the sheer possibilities. Only the old school analogue TVs would be able to pick it up of course so, if successful, it might be possible to start a kind of counter technological revolution, keep using your old stuff, don't buy new just because you're told to. Also the transmission range would be a major limiting factor which would probably lead to lots of small, local stations, again taking us in the exact opposite direction to the global media corps.

As with so many things in life however, being able to play the system to your own advantage doesn't mean the system is a good one. One thing that occurs to me about this continual backlash scenario is how utterly self absorbed we must be as a society to perpetuate it.

Is it really so ludicrous to suggest that a society should be driven by wider, more long term and humanitarian concerns? Instead we appear to have allowed our blinkered obsession with our own pop culture to constantly define us, leading us to lurch back and forth between various flavours of lip service while not actually making any real progress.

Some might say this is just the way society works and maybe they're right. I've long had an interest in what I call unconscious systems, ie. mechanisms of change driven directly by circumstance as opposed to any conscious planning, natural selection for example, and this could be a good example of one.

The thing is that once we become aware of the system, it is no longer unconscious. Once we recognise the true consequences of our own unwitting, and even well intentioned, actions, we instantly acquire responsibility for them. I believe that the backlash process is not inevitable and that, with a little thought, we could take more direct control of our society. Of course I can't claim to be breaking any radically new ground here so the real question is why haven't we already done this?

Unfortunately for us this situation of being blinded by immediate shadows and ignoring long term substance is hugely beneficial for a small but powerful minority. At the end of the day though, we currently ignorant and sheep-like creatures are in the vast majority, this is our world and it's just waiting for us to step up and get serious.