h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Those of you unfortunate enough to be following me on Twotter will already know about this.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/28/norfolk-police-warn-alarm-clown-norfolk

I don't get dressing up. I really don't. I mean, I used to do it when I was a kid, and I went to one or two fancy dress parties in my teenage years, but since then I've left it behind unless a particular occasion calls for it (once or twice at the Drafthouse), and even then it seemed a little childish.

Because it is. Grown-ups don't do that unless there's a good reason for it. Acting, for instance, is an obvious one. Being part of a historical or period exhibit might be another, such as working at a folk museum or on an old time railway. That's okay, it's being done for reasons of authenticity and experience.

Halloween is far more of an obsession here than I ever remember it being in the UK, although I believe they're catching up fast. As far as I'm aware, kids used to dress up as a ghost or a witch or something scary before they went out trick-or-treating, and that was pretty much it. Nowadays it's a given that adults are going to do it, they're going to spend a whole load of time and money on it, and it'll often be nothing to do with being scary. It's a multi-billion dollar business. Even the money spent on pets' costumes runs into the millions

There's been a similar thing with cricket. You can't go to a test match nowadays without seeing nurses, Gromits, convicts, bumble bees, fairies, Tiggers... you name it, someone's wearing the costume.

It's getting to the point, which is getting unpleasantly common these days, where if you're not joining in, people get irked. You're somehow spoiling their fun and enjoyment*. There's an imperative now that you must do what the group wants to do, especially if it's wacky and 'fun'. Whose fun? If I get a kick out of something and ask if you want to join in, it's good enough for me if you decline.

*That's not entirely new, of course. I had a schoolfriend who would never take no for an answer when he wanted you to join in with something he wanted to do. Pain the fundament.

A more sinister example of this is wearing the poppy. I've heard it called the dictatorship and the tyranny of being expected to wear it. If you don't, you're not showing proper respect and, more threateningly, you're not one of us. It's utterly unthinkable now for anyone to appear on British television in the weeks leading up to Remembrance Day without one, including Reginald D Hunter, an American from Georgia, on Have I Got News For You. Poppy-wearing isn't part of his culture, but he wore one. I don't know for sure if he was quietly told that he couldn't appear on the programme if he didn't, or if it was something he wanted to do, but if there was the merest hint of coercion, I think that's despicable and deplorable.

As far as dressing up is concerned, I think this http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/24/cutesification-of-everything-elf-twitter-funny has much to do with it. That's a very telling passage about looking at a picture of his father when he was the same age - 33. You don't have to do childish things as an adult to have fun and have a good time. You might still get the same kind of thrill from, say, a fairground ride, that a kid would get, and it's okay to do something silly once in a while. I'm willing to bet the writer's father was fond of a parlour game or two. Life shouldn't be entirely serious.

Personally though, I think the line between having a bit of childish fun now and again and expecting it as a matter of course has long been crossed.

Ha! The moment I posted that I started whistling the Harry Worth theme tune http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIPihrhzr-U

Ah but he might be A stephen king fan....

There does seem to be an increasing expectation that people conform. And increasing willingness to conform, too.

You can even see it in politics: there was once a time when the leader of a political party would say "Here is what I support; and here are the reasons why that is the best way to do it". It was called "leadership". These days, opinions are gathered to see what people want, and "leaders" then say they are in favour of that. Where the leadership comes into that, I'm not quite sure. The art of persuasion has been replaced by the art of shouting "Me, too! Me, too!"