Monday 16 July 2012

Success isn't what we need in life.



When I was a kid I wanted to be something.

 An astronaut, heavyweight champion of the world, a super hero. I wanted to make a difference. To somehow be an example, explore worlds unseen, be the new Ali, save cities from evil. people would mention my name and say what it was I did. Not what it was I had! The world has changed a lot since then.

We now live in a world where everybody worships at the alter of consumerism and status is based  on material gain. From the bankers private island to the 52 inch TV in a council flat, ( I refuse to use the term social housing, more PC stupidity).  From the stupefying cost of a trendy University type T shirt, Jack Wills etc to the new gangster jeans at £300 a pair.  Bling is de thing!  And the cheaper we can get this stuff in relation to the effort we put in the better we are!

The something for nothing culture is not about those so called skiving, work-shy, scroungers on benefits but about society as a whole.
It's origin and lifeblood is based on that most profound of all Thatcherite principles that greed is good. That somehow buying a few shares and sitting back while they accumulate a nice little profit for us is a transferable idea. Lets get on X-factor sing a cover song, sit back and watch the cash roll in. Lets gamble on the futures market and make billions. Lets get people to work for us for nothing, sign multi million pound contracts that no Gvt can renege on, smash an institution to death and cream off the profits. A new lambo, rolex, helicopter.

Whether it is a rap artist with the crystal champagne or city boys spending £1,000s on a bottle of wine at lunch time, bling is indeed the thing. It is what now makes the world tick and is the defining entity.
The rioters of last summer wanted bling. They didn't want to make a political point any more than any CEO does. They wanted what they could grab with as little effort as possible and to hell with the cost.
It is the new sickness where everybody not only knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing but is also prepared to do bugger all for it. We have multiplied our possessions while reducing our values. Stupid people with smart phones. It's time this changed.

3 comments:

  1. Brilliant blog Denis - you need more tyhan 140 characters to say your stuff - keep saying it, people listen - I know I do.
    I read this week that George Carlin said that trying to be happy by accumulating possessions is like trying to satisfy hunger by taping sandwiches all over your body!
    Looking forward to reading more
    big love
    Fran xxx

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  2. But in the world you THINK you recall, everybody knew their place. You can't have human nature AND egalitarianism without a race to the bottom of the cultural barrel.

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  3. Good Blog. I think what's missing from modern society is responsibility, even the notion of it is alien. We all make mistakes, but these days, a blame culture means that most avoid standing up and admitting it, citing many reasons why they are victims, not part of the cause.
    I think that people should be free to be independent, express themselves, have opinions, do as they like, basically, UNTIL or unless that doing impinges directly upon another. In that I don't mean feigned indignation, but the more physical impingement like operating a chainsaw over the fence with scant regard for your neighbour. Early in life I went to a kindergarten long before primary school. There we were often read The Water Babies, and the character; Mrs "Do as you Would be Done By" stuck firmly in my head, where it remains many decades on. That and similar should be compulsory reading for everybody at life's start. Sadly the lessons learnt these days have set up the opposite.

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