THERE was a stage musical, popular in the1970s, which contained the heartfelt plea: “Stop the world. I want to get off.�
My bet is that very many people feel exactly this way today because most of us are living our lives too hard, too fast and way too superficially.
But the fact is that life is hard and always has been for most people.
It's just that living as we do in a relatively peaceful and developed nation – though it’s one that is now very fearful about a terror attack by Islamist extremists – life does sometimes give the illusion of being easy, decadent even.
For instance, there is little now in the way of pestilence and famine to worry us.
And marauding armies are unlikely to come raping and pillaging as they did among our ancestors.
But all the same, the best we can realistically hope to have is temporary happiness and the illusion of security and stability. That’s the nature of life on Earth.
Few people are truly happy with the way things are and we shouldn’t be surprised about that. Often we feel we are running to stand still in modern life.
Our overdrafts and our credit card bills fatigue us ... the planet is burning up ...and the pressure of bringing up kids while trying to hold down a job (a job that many people simply cannot stand anyway) can be unbearable at times.
And all the time, around us, are flashing, startling images on the television, in advertising and on the internet.
And the noise, the endless cacophony … who really needs it?
It’s all too much. Stop the world, somebody, please. I want to get off.
Yes, there is a restlessness in the human heart that no amount of consumer baubles or branded goods can heal.
We know in our hearts that the way we live isn’t good and nor will it be sustainable for much longer.
I don’t want to come over all prophetic, but you really do feel that human society is on the brink of a huge step-change.
Whether that change will be for good or ill cannot be clearly discerned yet, but our identity as human beings, with moral conscience and the will to make changes to create a better society, is clearly in the balance.
If we look to popular culture for clues as to how things will develop, the omens are not good.
British television, particularly, has become almost completely moronic, showing 90 per cent American product on digital, and a load of micro-celebrity trash on the traditional channels.
This week I had a peek at the new series of the jungle-based ‘I’m A Celebrity…’ show. I am amazed that adults will take part in such a puerile display of bungee-jumping and squealing in disgust at ‘creepy-crawlies’.
For me, the bugs have more dignity than this shower of self-obsessed showbiz fluffheads and media whores.
Yet we are constantly told by those in authority that we must embrace the crass global "infotainment" culture that is upon us.
We are told by the commissars of cultural change that we cannot turn the clock back.
Actually, the thing about clocks is … you can turn them back.
And the time has never been better for ditching all the spin and toil and startling imagery that so confounds the modern world – and rediscovering the lasting truths and great beauty in art that are humanity’s gift to the universe.
What’s more, the places where the big switch-off from all this dreary, corporate and globalised rubbish are places such as …
* Wallasey, a small town with a collective, relaxed, ‘do-different’ mentality.
* Liverpool, where the locals are down-to-earth and bolshie.
So what are you waiting for, folks?
Go out and start a revolution.
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Annette Kalms wrote...
Steve, I agree with you with regard to so-called reality shows. Who wants to watch a group of celebs or anybody, for that matter, doing reality shows. Sometimes real life is bad enough without watching someone else living it for you. I have never watched one of these shows yet.
*** SR replies: Quite right, Annette. Whatever is shown on TV will be quite insipid compared to what goes on in Hell's Wiating Room. 'Bout time they had a webcam installed in there.
Posted by: Annette Kalms | November 14, 2006 5:22 PM