Friday 27 September 2013

The grey goo society...

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I had planned to explain how giving free membership of the Conservative Party to trade unionists isn't the brightest of bright ideas but then I read this:

I arrive back in the UK today to a strange dystopia – a world of the outraged. Syria? Bank debt? Taxation? No, the insidious creeping grey goo of the professionally offended. 

And I realised that we've replaced society's spine with jelly and mandated a sense-of-humour by-pass. I know Old Holborn is a "vile Internet troll" but he's absolutely right that it is grotesque to see Alistair Campbell - the man who lied so British soldiers could go and kill (and be killed by) Iraqis - being upset about a bad taste halloween outfit (aren't halloween outfits supposed to be bad taste, or have I missed something here) because he once had a mental health problem.

Lots of people haven't got jobs, soldiers are dying in Afghanistan, innocent folk are being slaughtered in Syria and most ordinary folk still struggle to pay their way. And what does the BBC, The Guardian and every second pundit - self-appointed or otherwise - choose as the big issue of the day? A fancy dress outfit. Is that really so massively important or should we simply say to ASDA; "that was a bit off" and move on.

Again and again these trivial little spats fill our airwaves - whether it's from the perspective of the Daily Mail's crypto-fascist control-freakery or the BBC's political correctness on steroids. As I've said before our national debate (in so far as it merits such a grand description) is now so taken up with the trivial that it is indistinguishable from a soap opera - to endless chitter about who's in and who's up, we can add a game of manufactured outrage that pushes the news agenda even further from the things that actually matter to people.

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1 comment:

Radical Rodent said...

I didn't know these were available until advertised on the BBC this morning. Where can I get one?