Accompanying Music for This Post: ‘Fire in the Mountain’ by Long Distance Calling
Woooooaaahhhh, doo doo do doo doo YEAH! FUCK ME! The internet’s rather good isn’t it? I’m a massive fan. I’ve got my badge and everything. I’ve said on more than one occasion (maybe not on here though… this blog is mostly about doom and moaning and shit) that it’s the apex of human communication. Oh yeah. It’s will be the saviour of mankind. Mark my words. I haven’t said a truer word since Heat first came out and I said “this magazine is destined to fail”. Anyway, the net right… it’ll be like Jesus, only more influential and with less emphasis on sandals. The bigger it grows, the more accessible it becomes and the more it offers and thus (you following?) the more we can share… and bond. So pretty good then. Has this point been laboured enough?
Trouble is, modern life is a mixed bag right? It giveth and it taketh away. With one had it provides a global, uncensored community where the likes of me can gobshite, but on the other hand it means the poxy authorities can have a good nose around, like here. Bugger. I think it was Tony Benn who recently said that politics is no longer about left and right, it’s about libertarian verses authoritarian. The old man is right. Even when the institution the government normally uses to justify their draconian measures speaks out against them, they ignore it. It seems like that slowly but surely our individual freedom is whittling away every bit by bit. Need a passport to buy a phone? Balls to that. Got to get an ID card? Balls to that. Allowed to be locked up for 42 days without charge? Balls to that. Allowed to execute an innocent man by shooting him seven times in the head without consequence? Balls to that.
So where to go? What to do? How do you fight against it? It’s everywhere. I can think of a personal case of someone last week who has to pay a £500 fine for parking outside their own house for 10 minutes during the wrong two hours of the day. £500 for doing what? How is this possibly a criminal act? I’d be likely to get a lower fine from a court for vandalism or drunken behaviour. If we tolerate this, then our children will wear v-necks. So if the system is getting worse, drop out. Well, to a degree; don’t go all Into the Wild or anything (although McCandless rules). Don’t provide your approval by voting. Don’t accept that the police can stop and search you for no reason. Don’t accept harrassing letters from the council and most of all, rely as little upon the ruling institutions. This isn’t a Tory ideal, or a Labour strive for “hard working families” it’s a target to aim for. Well, it is for me.
My reading papers is down to a minimum. My watching TV is almost non existent. Although my internet activity and book reading is rocketing. I think it’s my way of dropping out as much as I can. Ooo, ooo, fucking ooo said the monkey.* Next up is a bit of Permaculture (see ‘Further Reading’ section). I’ve always liked River Cottage.
* I wrote this post in 5 minute bursts over several days, I have no idea why I wrote this bit, but I left it in for posterity.