I have in my time encountered a great many people who hold blindly to the all-politics-is-bullshit ethos; those who refuse to vote because ‘voting makes no difference’; who will hate on a politician simply because of their role in society rather than their opinions or actions; those who shout loudest about the way ‘the system’ does not give enough of what they want and only benefits others. These people, it will not surprise you to learn, grill my goat in the worst way possible. If you refuse to participate in a system designed to (usually) give voice to the majority you cannot complain about it not performing in the way you want – END OF!!
A short time ago, I discussed the important role comedy had played in my own political education and I have since learned this is the case for many other people brought up in similarly apolitical and disenchanted households. Off the back of that particular post and the commissioned article which had led to the investigation, I began to look at things in a different way and looked for new sources of comedic political statement.
And here is where I started to realise the bigger problem. We had only three, then four, later still (occasionally) five television channels, four national radio stations and one local. Those and a far smaller selection of newspapers was the full extent of availability of information and entertainment; thus we often ended up watching things which would not ordinarily hold our interest and become informed on more diverse subject matter. Nowadays, with a 24-hour bombardment of hundreds of television and radio channels and the internet yelling incessantly from the corner of the room we can always find exactly what we want; so if politics does not interest you, it can be avoided quite easily. We truly have become an ADHD society, unable to watch more than a few seconds of anything before deciding “not for me!” and moving on.
I am perfectly aware, of course, that it is this same response that has many of you landing here now as you frantically jab at the “next blog” button looking for something worth reading. If this is the case and you are still with me, I feel I should acknowledge your efforts, so Thank You!
But back to point…
If we are to seek out our politically-based comedy, how do we firstly know where to look and secondly encourage the disaffected to also find it?
The answer, as with most things in modern society, possibly lies in the social networks. In a spirit of double standards which seems to be very much the model nowadays, I find myself loathing the loss of my own privacy brought by the new ticker feed whilst praising it for the fact I see every click of the ‘like’ button by my friends and it is that very feature that has led me into my current phase of renewed interest in political statement and satirical comedy. I noted that a friend regularly ‘liked’ posts by the comedian Tiernan Douieb and soon found myself subscribing to his blog, checking out some of his work online and taking more of an interest in politics off the back of his commentary. Incidentally, Tiernan Douieb has recently started a blog at the news site, Huffington Post which you should really check out! Another friend whose posts I generally pay little attention to was posting many links to a particular video to which I eventually succumbed. In reality, this person is not one known for her sense of humour and possibly believes whole-heartedly in every word of the video concerned, but regardless I found it funny… and in one of those rare Youtube journeys that ended in a positive place, I want to share a brilliant video of that same comedy character, Sir Ian Bowler:
So I guess the message for today is to pretend like it’s 1985, find the thing which interests you least and start your own google journey… or pay greater attention to what your facebook/twitter/tumblr friends are up to… or to be slightly deeper:
If you wish to express an opinion about immigrants, the benefits system, how we all pay too much for fuel, taxes being too high, wages being too low, schools performing badly, kids being given limited options/too much freedom, bankers and/or politicians receiving too high a wage and too many ‘extras’ or any similar bandwagon statements of opinion you have to contribute more than a re-hashed Daily Mail headline… so teach yourself something before you speak out. What’s that quote often misattributed to Twain? (or some would say “attributed to”, I think it depends on your source) …something about keeping quiet and having people think you a fool vs speaking and proving them correct… it would be relevant to professionally quote that now, but I have already spent longer than intended writing this after a simple exercise in transcription became a major re-write so we shall assume you all know the one I mean rather than trawling off on another Google voyage!
In short, if you think there is a chance you could be one of those people who after the riots of the past summer were claiming a political reason for their actions in spite of not having a clue what they were talking about: really, stop now. Do not speak. No. Stop. Not one word.
You know the ones… we all watched them and laughed at their stupidity… well, I hope you did anyway! Those claiming that they had a right to take a 3D television as recompense for the taxes they were paying out of their benefits; those declaring that rioting was a nation making themselves heard in spite of not knowing what it was they were trying to say; those who believed that somehow their actions were going to change the government stance on immigration. Listening to interviews with participants trying to justify their actions with such an outpouring of misinformation really grated at me at the time. Even now with so much time passed, I am getting angry again just remembering them….
So thank you, people. I was feeling kinda good today, but giving you all something worthwhile to read has really quashed my nice.
Find a happy place…find a happy place…find a happy place
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