I have had my head around the world, both man and boy, for many a year . I’ve strutted and fretted; witnessed my share of hi fidelity sound and ferocious fury.
But when it comes down to it I gotta say: “Bah!”
Hello! Are you listening?
Way back when I knew something was wrong. It was as plain as the smell under my very own nose.
It wasn’t that I was intellectually precocious or party to a special knowledge or insight. I just knew that the world was in in parlous state.
Don’t be thinking that I’m going on about a feral asteroid set to make a mess of downtown where ever. I’m not being apocalyptal. I’m far too young for that. (And besides, if the truth be known I’m spiritually shallow inside without an ounce of repentance worth harnessing.)
All I’m saying is that was bad way back when has got even worse.
Our lives have got worse. And this worseness has not occurred because there’s more juvenile delinquency, illegal drugs, invading Latins or swear words on the teley. Things have gone from bad to worse one hoodwink at a time.
What wages buy has gone down. Personal debt has gone up. We work longer. The social ‘safety net’ , inasmuch as it existed, has been trimmed right back to bare bones. Accommodation is expensive. Employment security no longer exists. Murderous wars persist as a permanent feature of a sham quest for ‘peace’. We are ruled by the stock market and God Profit. The air temperature is rising.
But this demented, sorry, brutal and nasty world is sold to us as the best of all possible options. How sick is that?
As for me, I miss the 20th Century. 1953, for instance. That was good year. Or 1968. And 1972 wasn’t so bad either….
But today, what’s on offer? Unless you make your own way through your own customized ‘opening’ and got ahead — ahead of any competing others (“Stiff bickies mate:your loss/my gain.” ) — you are going to be just another 21st century victim living an insecure existence one pay check (if you get one) at a time.
And there are billions of us –all more or less in the same boat. While some of us are worse off than others, we are all servants to the same master.
The same master? As I say I am lacking in spiritual essences.I’m theologically empty inside. So I can’t complain to somebody upstairs.
I’m also too kind to blame migrants or refugees. I rather like Arabs (and Arabic food) for instance and get a kick out of mixing with Latins. If I complain to the media they won’t print what I say.
If I start yapping on about ” the system” I’m dismissed as ideological, or that I have “an agenda”.
I have an agenda but they don’t?
Even at election time, which should be open season for whining , my complaints are worked over by party spin doctors and drowned in rhetoric. “Responsible government” prevails.
I’m ignored. Belittled. Abused. Dismissed. Patronized. I’m nobody.
And the pillars of society go about their business of looting and killing like the 21st Century Barbarians they are.
They do all these things and there’s not a fuckin’ thing in it for me.
No wonder I complain. Next time you butcher a Afghani wedding party or deport another Mexican , I want to know what’s in it for me?