Seriously,
what is wrong with everyone? I mean, come on guys, I know it’s
tempting to tool about like a brain dead halfwit, but surely you can
see that it’s gone too far now. Nobody seems particularly connected
to what’s going on any more, apparently preferring to pour
judgement on a group of hopeful, desperate, above average singers, or
follow the heavily scripted ‘real lives’ of a bunch of vacuous
orange twats. Perhaps obvious, easy targets to home in on as examples
of a crumbling society-and even collective intelligence – but
they’re obvious because they are worrying. Try starting a
conversation about the universe or time or perception of self and
people will switch off, they’d actually rather work or stare at you
blankly. Approach the same people on any other day and ask if they
saw Joey bloody Essex do that thing last night, and the conversation
(as I shall reluctantly refer to it) will flow freely. Worrying.
People
tend to latch onto popular opinion, sometimes even absorbing it and
using it as their own. When popular opinion originates from broadcast
standard manipulated idiots there is very little chance for us as a
species. Such an alarmingly high number of people talk about this
shit, that should you value yourself enough to not watch, you will
find yourself an outcast. Some one once looked at me as if I had
pissed in their eyes when I informed them that I had no idea what a
TOWIE was. Could we not find something better to chat about, like
moss, or how they get the stripes in toothpaste, or something? We
could learn about each other or wonder at the world of physics, or
debate a multitude of policies or discuss the tangled threads of a
fully fledged narrative. Anything but the tedious, enthusiastic
ramblings of an actual, sentient human being, who spent some of their
actual, finite time watching some simple, vain, narcissistic people
you’d cross the street to avoid, doing things they might do in real
life, but made to look a bit more interesting and dramatic by
producers and directors.
Then
there’s standing still. Yeah, that’s right: standing still.
You’re walking around, yeah? Going from shop to shop, meeting
friends, enjoying the air on your face as you exchange currency for
tat. Everything seems to be functioning as it should, you can see
images in your periphery, your legs are soundly connected to your
brain, guiding you safely. Then something happens, and everything
stops. You are unable to move, you stand perfectly still, your gaze
drawn by something shiny and status enhancing. You start to dribble.
Sadly, the rest of us – without due warning – are unable to
engage our special powers and shift into a gas, allowing us to pass
straight through your dense, dense body. Really, pay attention or I
shall smash into you, not because I’m not paying attention or
unable to avoid the collision, but because somebody really should. Is
it that your brain is off, that you’re so self involved that no one
else matters, or that you are some sort of complete fool? Perhaps,
being an avid watcher of Made In Chelsea as well as a human, you have
just realised what you’ve been doing with your leisure time and had
a mild seizure. I don’t know.
Finally,
what ever happened to common sense? I’m sure we all used to weigh
things up, assimilate all the relevant information, have a bit of a
think and act accordingly. Now we just ask someone else before even
engaging our brains, or simply don’t act. Or Google it. Technology
is great and everything, but we do seem to be allowing it to make us
profoundly less intelligent, I don’t even need to check my spelling
as I write this, or look a word up should I be unsure, because auto
correct does it all for me. There are advice lines, comprehensive tip
websites, experts in everything from nuclear fission to first dates,
from the irrelevant and out of your reach to the bloody obvious and
unadvisable. Give us a relatively simple decision to make with
nothing but our own mind and our own mind starts to panic,
desperately reminding us that we haven’t used it for a while so its
kinda out of practice. Isn’t there something with a battery and a
WiFi connection we could bother instead. Possibly, perhaps, maybe we
could watch less insanely pointless, dream stunting, mediocrity
encouraging crap. There’s a chance we should talk more. I realise
it’s difficult but could we also try to notice when we’ve stood
still in the middle of the street, directly in front of others. Oh,
and be less stupid. All of it is up to you, nothing and no one else
is of any consequence. Have your own strong opinions and don’t back
down. Cause offence. But have a reason that belongs to you.
That
would be a start. Can’t make anything any worse, can it? And it
would nice to have a functioning brain. To be a halfwit with a
functioning brain. That’s the dream.
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