Smoke Screens

SMOKE SCREENS

There was some deeply shocking news just t’other day. A civil servant had a fit of honesty. The man who stole the headlines as Britain’s Drugs Czar was Keith Halliwell, but the power behind the throne of this country’s drugs policies was an interesting man by the name of Julian. He announced to the world in general that he had changed his mind and the policy of being tough on drugs was ‘pointless’ and the best way of dealing, excuse the pun, with the situation would be to legalize the lot. No shyte Watson. Those of us who do know a thing or two about drugs have been saying similar for a number of decades.
I had something of a heated discussion with a young lady recently. She is a teacher and had strident views on cannabis and its terrible effect on the mental health of users. I disagreed. She became rather angry, especially when I pointed out that she had never been stoned in her life, so that her views were based soundly in ignorance. Having firm believes about something one knows nothing is bigotry if not prejudice. It is pointless trying to reason with an unreasonable person and the conversation ended.
My own little experience of twenty years of smoking dope would go something against the attitudes that are currently being propounded by the ignorant. The facts are that cannabis is less dangerous than peanuts and, if the youth of this Fair Isle were into binge-spliffing rather than binge drinking, there would be no youth knife crime at all. Cannabis was made illegal in the ‘Twenties due to American political lobbies, always renowned for their intelligence, and successive governments have been funding dishonest scientific research ever since. On a regular basis, new ‘evidence’ is dribbled out claiming that THC is more evil than any number of Bin Ladens. Rubbish. How can a naturally occurring plant be made illegal? Since the law was described as ‘an ass’, it has not become more intelligent. Any person with half a brain and the habit of occasionally using it, knows that a fine trait in humanity is the willingness to recognize when one is wrong and apologize. Such a habit is unheard of in politicians and so the original lie is propagated by more lies.
As a society we are surrounded by dishonesty. Even concerning dishonesty itself. If something is untrue that is that. There are no shades. There is no such thing as ‘a little white lie.’
What is perplexing to a man who enjoys knowledge, information and thought is the stupidity of the lies which surround. A doctor once said to me, straight faced, that alcohol is a depressant. No. alcohol is a suppressant. It affects the brain’s efficiency. If booze is so depressing why are there not suicides at wedding receptions?
A major batch of constant and consistent dishonesty in our society concerns sex. By definition, human beings have been having sex for quite a while now. Anywhere one looks there are magazines, TV programmes, films and et cetera shouting ‘SEX’. It is endemic. So why is there so much ignorance and unhappiness surrounding such an ancient pastime? There are two facts that are immediately apparent. No-one is instinctively a good lover. One has to know what one is doing. Have sales of sex technique books increased with the rates of porn and abandonment? No woman looks like those glossy lovelies who adorn the top, and now mid-shelves of many places, for longer than the time it takes to shoot the pictures.
One of the most insidious lies that pollute modern life is that of religion. Why would God be a petty-minded, sexist bigot? If someone with a beautiful voice has a give from God, what are the other gifts dished out to humble humans by The Almighty? Homosexuality, paedophilia, terminal boorishness, crass stupidity, mortal sinful ugliness and an apparent personality and sense of humour double-bypass? If God is in charge of this world then why is it in such a mess? Why does God’s angry weather only really affect the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people? Of course they are ignorant enough to think that they have angered God in some way and it is their entire fault. Why is there so much misery? Why are those American celebrities who have always had everything, including copious amounts of love, so desperately unhappy? They have anything they could dream of, including religion, so why the torment? Why does religion have a shred of credibility? In the words of the great Eddie Izzard, ‘In a thousand years of religion versus a thousand years of science the only real change in religion has been its temperature.’ Of course science has uncovered what might have really happened around that time. Did you see that documentary on Channel Five t’other night? The only thing to say to any religious person is, ‘Of course there is a God, just not your one.’
One piece of history-moted propaganda in enacted over and over, in films, TV programmes, documentaries, plays and whatever, always more emotive. In fact there are countless religious myths that provide the underlying plot to endless everythings. No police psychological drama is complete without the religious nutter.
The most insidious of religious lies is the concept of life-long, monogamous fidelity. This society might be deemed ‘Sectarian’ but religion still rules. One has to find ‘the one’ with whom, and only they, happiness can ensue, after spending huge amounts of money impressing people who you do not even like particularly. This is obviously ludicrous. Such a thing is completely unnatural, and the chances of two individuals happening across one another in a world of six billion make the lottery seem worth a go. The only other mammal on this planet that ‘mates for life’ is a type of Gibbon found in South America. It is endangered.
The people who, apparently, run this world are professional liars. Politicians have never been known for their veracity but we have seen a marked worsening of late. Every politician in recent or current office has sworn that something or other was true. Within a short space of time, good journalism has shown that, not only this was not the case, but the politician concerned knew this. Amidst such blatant bovine manure, they don’t even care slightly. ‘I believed I was doing the right thing.’ Yeah right. Jesus said, ‘Turn the other cheek.’ not, ‘Bomb the Arabs.’
But what for those in society not bogged down with such trivialities as truth in politics and the religious justifications for fascism? Of course there is television, that bastion of veracity.
Advertising is always astonishing in its blatant misinformation. All of those things sold as being ‘good for the environment’ are not. Nothing, no matter how expensive, will stop you from aging. The truth is that everyone is so wrapped up in their own vanity that they have no time to notice anyone else. If you want to lose weight then stop eating so much. Eating different stuff will do nothing. Americans have been eating low-fat food for decades. They started the whole ‘lite, lo-cal, diet’ nonsense. With the amount of stuff they need to life on, it is amazing that babies have survived for at least six thousand years. Rather successfully. If I had a car I would not know what to do about insurance. They are all the cheapest; almost certainly in more ways than one. It would only be too easy to be confused about bacteria. On one hand we should drink it because it is ‘friendly’, on t’other there is something that kills all bacteria. Fact. It strikes me that drinking bacteria is akin to inject Botulism into one’s face, with both being equally pointless. There is even a gorilla flogging chocolate. Our society is saturated in consumerism so that children, kids, are in charge, adults subservient and easily duped while teenagers are confused and, at best, touchy. At worst ignorantly violent. Advertising only works on the ignorant and naïve.
Then there is ‘Reality Television’, which is becoming more real as life imitates art, which was trying to imitate life. As the TV critics point out, the best Reality TV comes from apparent conflict. Stupid, fat, ugly people behaving in a way that is deeply unpleasant. We are all being encouraged to behave like spoilt children. This can be seen in the recent popularity of The Olympics. Who can run, cycle or swim the fastest, jump the highest, throw something heavy the furthest and et cetera is what children compete at. Anything vaguely cerebral like Cricket or Rugby Union is deemed ‘elitist’.
Quite frankly, it is not surprising that a society so fundamentally based on lies is imploding so badly.