Safe European Homes

Ah, to be British these days, in the relative safety of our western bubble, safe from fear of repression and free to do what we want to do. Who really needs ambition and achievement when it’s all here on a plate? Why try at all when you simply don’t have to? Fuck it, let’s not even pay attention, the government will sort everything out. Politics though, shit aren’t it mate? I’m not even remotely interested in politics unless it means I can stomp around bemoaning everything and getting unjustifiably angry at immigrants/teen mothers/drug users for taking advantage of a free house/car/mobile phone and our education/benefits system. Frankly pal, I can do all that in the pub so what’s the point?

What the fuck is going on here? It’s little wonder that the rest of the world (that’s overseas) see us as a motley crew of fast food munching flabby drunkards with more money than sense, or tattooed football hooligans content with merely an opportunity to kick anybody different in the face, pasty, obnoxious tea drinking bastards who know nothing about the rest of the world and have little inclination to understand any happenings outside of this little island. (Unless, that is, you’re speaking to an American who, despite your Yorkshire drawl will pin you down as an awkwardly polite yet bumbling Hugh Grant-type who knows the queen. They’ll deem your teeth terrible though, shallow fuckers.) Now I’m not usually one for stereotyping folk but y’know…

On the grand scheme of things we lead a charmed life. We are lucky, full stop. Freedom, opportunity and a wonderful standard of living are ours to behold and we’ve no reason to complain about matters of importance, so we don’t. We might moan about each other or being fat or having to queue, we’ll carp on that we hate our jobs or that they don’t pay enough and we’ll gripe that we’re not famous yet, merely because our freedom affords us this lack of real concern, simply because we can. How different Britain would be if the British couldn’t complain about anything less than pertinent! My commute would be much less stressful.

2011 is quickly becoming a year of awareness, each and every day which passes convinces me a little more that it could be a great year for humanity, for the underdog, if we try.

The people of countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya, Algeria, Iran, Iraq and Syria have had their fill of being denied their basic freedoms, those which we perceive to be our basic human right. In the face of oppression unfathomable to some here in relative comfort, hundreds of thousands of people are taking to the streets and literally putting their lives on the line to show their persecutors that they’re fed up of the raw deal they’ve been dealt, with the lack of basic rights and freedom they’ve suffered for years. Masses of people gathered under a common cause have overridden fear with rage, or perhaps desperation.

If you can imagine a world of police brutality, emergency law, no free elections or speech or expression, if you can envisage being ruled by a government tarnished by unchallenged and obvious corruption making decisions about you, for you, without you, a land where most of the people you know are unemployed and those in work paid a pittance then it’s not hard to see why rage has taken a hold. Maybe if you can conceive of a life like this, you’ll realise just how sweet a situation we have here. If you can imagine a life like this, then perhaps you can also imagine being so desperate for a halfway decent quality of life that you might be prepared to stare down the barrel of a tank or set yourself on fire. Maybe you’d be prepared to bed down in your town centre under extreme duress until those who can eventually relent and allow you your freedom and free those who you love.

I can’t see it, not really. It’s hard for me to believe that anything could go so horribly wrong in my life that I’d be compelled to act in this manner, that any possible issue could bring together a modern western ‘civilisation’ as one. It’s all very sad that our luck has ruined this. Power does, as it always has, lie with the people and the leaders of western societies have for decades appeased us rather than piss us off. They’ve also colluded and conspired to see to it that the vast (voting) majority just don’t care. If we’re not prepared to try to solve our problems (there are problems) then we don’t have the right to complain, not really. The powers that be may as well remove dissatisfaction as an option from us too. Who’s going to argue?

Perhaps we’re all too busy staring at screens all day in the name of entertainment to stop and think about what’s going on. Even the rolling news coverage we’re afforded these days takes on the role of an amusing pacifier, showing images of far flung strife on a loop, happenings we can detach ourselves from because it all seems so unreal. The news, for fucks sake!

T.V, radio, tabloids, the internet – these are the new tools of the state. Our T.V generation, shaped by decades of temptation and manipulation seems to know what it wants though not what it is, or what it’s capable of. If we don’t have an over inflated idea of our own abilities, we’re likely to be incredibly insecure due to our aspirations, desires, motivations and even basic perceptions being governed by the box.

Modern television shows demonstrate to us how we should all be happy and incredibly attractive, living in beautifully decorated houses purchased with bags of money made from our wildly successful careers, while we’re having great and meaningful sex with the partner of our dreams and that we really are all talented enough to turn 15 minutes of mostly dubious fame into something poignant and life changing. It’s a noxious mindset which aggravates our personal differential between what we are and what we should be. If we’re confused already about our identities then what will become of those younger, our fledgling internet generation? A nation’s teenagers may well eventually bring it to its knees.

Picture now a generation obsessed with what everybody else is doing at any given moment, whilst the urge to list your activities in hourly twitters or status updates is uncontrollable. Factor in the dubious sense of identity ingrained on the minds of our young by television… The notion that they’re not good or popular enough is exacerbated in the online world and has the potential to deal a catastrophic blow to the mental health of an entire generation. Worse still, if you complicate the education system for these people by removing financial help and resources before ultimately making university places unattainable then you’re left with an angry and embittered age group content to relieve their stress by shouting at their friends through an Xbox headset whilst shooting them in the head in some already over populated virtual world. We’re either creating some sort of super army or an unstable force devoid of emotional intelligence who only know how to relieve their stresses and anxieties by shooting things… Actually, if I was running this joint I’d want to keep this particular demographic staring at screens for fear of what they might see when away from them. Piss off the internet generation at your peril.

A synonym for entertainment is distraction. While we’re all distracted all sorts of things can happen to us, for us, or in our name. Before long it becomes too late to do anything about them.