No vote from me. Nope.
The Internet is nothing if not supremely obnoxious in its overflow of putrid effluvia focused on the whole EU Referendum bollocks. From both sides, arguing like the rival gangs of monkeys they are, flinging shit at each other and feeling all self-righteous and meaningful. I’ve seen more profound rows going on in a fucking schoolyard. What a miserable, ugly spectacle it truly is.
(And then, apparently without irony, she added to said overflow…)
Compulsory since April 6th this year, the mandating of microchipping for dogs in the UK (and the rest of the EU, come to that) represents, to my mind, a step too far in this cycle of out-of-control Big Government.
There are a lot of pro arguments for dog chipping, parrotted from official propaganda—it’s ‘essential’ to combat the growing stray dogs problem, for instance, even though the numbers for such have dropped massively in the last 30-odd years (when did you last see a stray dog?); to not comply means you’re not a ‘responsible’ dog owner (classically idiotic, black & white, Us vs Them thinking), etc.
It’s all smoke & mirrors. The real purpose of this asinine, fascistic “law” is twofold: firstly, the big corporate interests manufacturing these techno-turds profit handsomely from it (a la many other unnecessary medical applications & drugs); secondly, it forms part of the acclimatising process that readies the public for HUMAN IMPLANTS.
Yes. Sometimes, too much is just too much. How can you effectively prioritise (or digest) when an endless, vast swamp—admittedly composed largely of baboon shrieking, chest-beating and effluvia—is at your fingertips? A sprawling landscape of noise and data and distraction, to numb you, desensitise you, program you, mind-fuck you, turn you into a stupid, drooling, hypnotised bot with no thoughts worth expressing…
The Internet was kinda good when everyone wasn’t on it. Before the establishment realised what a fantastic crowd control tool it was and declared that everyone should have access.
I said recently in an email that I thought Huxley had it nailed—the most effective form of oppression isn’t force and violence. It’s privilege and comfort. Make the prison cell a luxuriant one and they won’t complain. Mostly.
But I’m not sure it’s 100% there, actually, because so many people these days have the weary, joyless resignation of utter defeat rather than ignorant bliss. I think this expanding technology, heralded by the Internet explosion since the Millennium, for all its addictive, compulsive, habit-forming qualities—this surfeit of neverending distraction—is not, in truth, a very happy addiction.
Things used to be more fun, folks.
I sometimes wonder if my growing disinterest in contemporary culture & entertainment may be that inevitable process by which a person in mid-life attains the venerable status of old fart. The stories of this are endless and apparently mostly true. Take the 1960s. I wasn’t there to remember all this, but evidently the old farts in their droves attacked & dismissed the likes of the Beatles for having unsightly long hair and making an ungodly racket.
(I still don’t understand the hair bit. Pre-1967, the Fabs had the same hairstyle that was worn by Moe Howard of the Three Stooges since about 1930. This has never struck me as the least bit radical.)