As we drag ourselves towards one of the most depressing general elections I can recall and chart the fall and fall of rationality, a couple of glaring things-that-should-concern-us stand out.
The media, chasing ratings and hysterical headlines
have pretty much ignored smaller parties including those with a legitimate
reason to be represented – Greens, Liberals and the parties representing the 3D (devolved) nations – Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
On the other hand one party – the private company of
one Nigel Farage – has featured endlessly. Farage himself, 7x failed UK
parliamentary candidate – has been able to rely on media attention at every
turn in what I’ve referred to in letters to the press and on this blog as a
devil’s pact of rabid rantings for ratings.
This imbalance is matched only by the way the two
main parties, represented by Sunak and Starmer have ignored the biggest issues
affecting life both here in Britain and far beyond; Brexit, the Climate crisis
and the war in Gaza. On the latter, both parties have demonstrated catastrophic
moral, political and statecraft failure. Not to mention the way Ukraine fails
to make headlines despite it being the literal front line for the battle for European democracy plus countless other areas of the world where Western
interference or historic abuse has destabilised or wrecked local economies and
eco systems.
But once this Thursday is done (and for me – one of
the most interesting aspects will be the turn out) expect the limited attention
the public give to the thing that affects every aspect of every part of all of
their lives to fade from half-hearted to zero.
The army of folks who have proudly boasted to camera
that they won’t vote and ‘they [politicians]
are all the same’ and any number of other excuses for not taking the only
chance they have to actually influence their own future, will go back to caring
about which thin woman is wearing what minuscule bikini - because of course
they are not all the same! And which celebrity is making babies with which other
person you’d never previously heard of and which remake of which re-made, re-hashed
super hero movie is being churned out to a background of cheap CGI. (Am I
sounding jaded yet?)
There is a terminal carelessness in countries that
are – for now – not forced to care. Countries where the ever-present
distraction and brain-death balm of
consumerism, combined with infantilism of adult gaming and gambling plus a permanent
sense of an entitlement to be entertained, pushes ‘care’ away from the big
issues to the small.
In 2018 the vile Melania Trump wore a jacket with the logo
’I
really don’t care – do you?’
It’s a question we should all honestly ask.
Maybe we should consider the old nursery rhyme about
caring
Don’t
care was made to care
Don’t
care was hung
Don’t
care was put in a pot
And
boiled til he was done...
The point being that by the time enough people care
it may very well be far too late…
And on that note I’ll put this blog into summer
hibernation in terms of posts. I will pop out to put up info about any new
creative stuff I have out.
Other than that, see you in September.
*
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