The Fools' Lantern

THE FOOLS’ LANTERN

There has been much press coverage since June, possibly May 2008, concerning events in a children’s home in Jersey, on the Channel Islands, from many years ago. It seems that there was long-lasting and systematic child abuse occurring in a young persons’ home there. The Police have been meticulously been assessing the various sites concerned with time-consuming attention to every detail, no matter how apparently trivial, because anything could well be essential to any resulting prosecution. If it were CSI, however, all of that would have been done overnight. Probably just before Christmas, with every member of staff selflessly giving up their precious time to achieve a ‘result’ before Santa’s imminent arrival.
This is one simple example of the reality that television is not true.
There are all sorts of gendres of television programmes, but many are deemed to be a cut above the rest because of their realism. This is false. It is the common happening of something said, unchallenged often enough, becoming true because of a lack of opposition. Unfortunately life is not like that.
Even the programmes that claim to be the ‘True’ whatever it might be, are not. Put any human being in front of a camera and they lose any ability to act naturally unless they are a trained actor. No-one is going to turn up to a filming hung-over, unshaven, without matching bra and knickers.
The perceived wisdom from visual arts critics is that we are not affected by what we see on whatever sized screen. As Mandy Rice-Davis might have observed, ‘Well, they would, wouldn’t they?’ Self-assessment is dubious at the best of times.
Some years ago a chap whom I knew, not terribly well, but we did nod politely to one another, was kicked to death in the street by a disaffected young man for no apparent reason other than John was gay. Not an unusual sexuality in Brighton. According to ineffectual witnesses, the young man kept kicking John repeatedly despite the fact he was prone, unmoving, on the pavement. The film ‘Trainspotting’ had been the most popular video rental the preceding month. It means nothing when people educated enough to earn large amounts of money to review such things for newspapers and the like, claim immunity from influence for young people almost devoid of similar privilege.
The fact remains that there are huge numbers of young people developing in our society who are deprived of many things, with education being the most damaging deficit. Violence is always the next option when you run out of words. All of these ‘gritty’ films and television offerings demonstrate to those who are marginalised through lack of most things humanitarian, not only is their situation normal, but also a perfectly good reason for obnoxious behaviour. The word ‘glamourised’ is overused. Such visual treats provide justification for almost any life-style to be acceptable; druggie, alcoholic, violent thug, or something really unpleasant like politician.
For people to be influenced by what they see on-screen would be perfectly fine if these things did not depict foul and selfish attitudes as something to aspire to. It is said that conflict, criticism, judgment and intolerance make more entertaining viewing. Some will emulate the good guys, but most will try to copy the villains, portrayed as being somehow more ‘cool’. Even when the good guy is the, apparent, hero, he or she has to be a ‘maverick’; fighting against the system.
The supposed conundrum of whether life imitates art or vice versa is utterly specious. Art imitates life but exaggerates, creating a false reality which life imitates itself. Art then has to exaggerate this new reality, thus creating a vicious cycle of escalation, with art forms having to be more violent, bad-mouthed, pornographic, ignorant, selfish, bigoted and et cetera in order to shock and be relevant. ‘Go figure’, as our American friends would say.
It is not just the big features that inspire we mere mortals to greater and worse acts of unmitigated selfishness. Advertising is ubiquitous in its insidiousness. It is normal for anyone, in a consumeristic society to go and buy whatever one wants, whenever one wants, in a world of starving people. In the affluent West, obesity is a problem. In the developing world starvation and malnutrition are endemic. Consumerism being, ‘spending money you haven’t earned, to buy things you don’t need, to impress those you don’t like.’ After that, you pay well over the top for these things to a credit corporation of some description that takes a large slice from your hard-earned pay-packet, earned in your bovine manure job. Be honest; you grow nothing, build nothing, breed nothing, you do not contribute anything that means anything. You would have been quite useless not so long ago. Quite recently in fact. Look around you and wonder what life is really about. ‘I mean, like, the real deal’, as our American friends would say.
We live in a society where people will spend ludicrous amounts of money on bottled water with shyte in it, rather than donating to charities that provide clean water to children who would die if they drank the only other water available to them. This is the power of advertising. It is not true. If people were really like the people portrayed in advertisements, all over certain media outpourings and on reality television, then no-one would want to go out.
Our society does not consist of communities but small family groups, behind secured doors, watching films and programmes about communities, and garnering the impression that constant conflict is the norm for human interaction.
There is an answer to all of this but no-one would believe it because the world is full of stupid, selfish people who only believe what is on the telly.
From an early age we are taught, through various media, that the height of aspiration is to be married, parents, and home-owners with at least one well paid job between the couple, to pay for regular holidays and all sorts of technology to improve life for everyone. It is terribly disillusioning when one discovers that these things are quite meaningless. Why is it that the multitudes of celebrities who occupy modern consciousness still manage, despite having copious amounts of everything that consumerism has to offer, to find something to bleat about? Generally all over a glossy, but rather cheap, magazine.
Humanity has always been deeply flawed, with a history mired with intolerance, bigotry, heinous violence, dishonesty, selfishness and et cetera. There is nothing new in some people being obese while millions starve. What is novel in the current world, however, is the amount of pollution that now consumes the environment. Whether this will lead to an Ice Age or Global Warming is anyone’s guess. Scientists say what they are paid to say. Whatever scare stories are banded about, it has to be the case that a limited environment can only take so much before appalling consequences occur. If humanity is going to have a future, we are going to have to change everything, rather than sticking palliatives over symptoms.
Meanwhile we live in a society where overt bigotry is used to sell sweets to children. It is not a party I would wish to attend, no matter how smart. Chocolate is no substitute for alcohol.