How true. Things are good, they’re useful and very often a necessity but in a world now so consumed by materialism it wouldn’t be crazy to think the statement above to be false, sad as that may be.
How have I come to this conclusion? Well, I simply assessed our modern day ‘cosmopolitan, democratic and civilized’ culture. A societies culture is meant to revolve around the core beliefs of a populace. I know that is a vague definition but the dictionary gave me too many options so I’ve been forced to simplify.
What is our culture?
I live in England. Great Britain. Conqueror of distant lands and itself a land of pastures green, the queen, tea, and lots of other stereotypical things that are supposed to make up our collective identity which simply fail to represent real cultural affiliations.
So I was thinking, what do we do, I mean culturally? Theoretically with the rise in living standards we should all be intelligentsia. Literate, curious ungullable* and generally ‘cultured’ but no, silly me, I’m obviously being far too optimistic.
Well here’s what I think ‘we’ do, we go to the pub, the football (if you can afford it these days), sit on the sofa, eat fast food, watch TV, heckle people different to ourselves, go shopping, and to be honest I’m running out of things to say.
“Oh and politics, whats that all about, bunch of tosser talking heads if you ask me?”
Our culture seems to be diversionary, leading us away from people and toward things, making us ‘individuals’. Overall we seem to be embracing it. But what if you don’t like the things I just listed, what do you do then?
Welcome to the periphery of society! What do we do? Strange off the cuff things. Like the things people do on TV while the others just watch, because its easier that way. It’s safe and its comfortable. We wouldn’t want to exert ourselves would we?
“Pass me the remote”
*if ungullable isn’t a real word I’ll patent it and propagate it until it becomes a real word in the dictionary. A real word. You heard it here. At which point I will decide to charge extortionate sums of money for its use and become filthy rich off the back of it.
nice post…how true that statement is.
Brilliant post
And I agree, ungullable should definately be a real word!
I love it! I sometimes put grafitti on my blog, but it is mostly non-text (other than one instance when it was against France’s Nicolas Sarkozy). Maybe this has something to do with the fact that I am in France.
In any event, I enjoy the posts!
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Thank you for the post! I like your big buttons above!
Thank you for the post! I like your big buttons above!
I like your blog very much. Nice idea and very wise descriptions. Your buttons are smashing. I’ve clicked in all of them (one by one, of course). Good luck and happy blogging.
Piotr Wójcicki
Warsaw,
Poland.
This was such a joy to read because of your quirky, realistic analysis and the wonderful photograph.
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Thank you, so much.
when asked what my favorite saying is when signing up for something new I always put “The best things in life are free”. I think I may change that now.
I once looked at my ex husbands profile and his was “Try Harder.” She’s,no wonder I divorced him.
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Nice blog
and this post is so so true. I’m originally form the UK and have lived in Australia and NZ too. Sadly each country has the same approach to what makes us “developed”….. fast food, TV, materialism, being lazy, convenience and consumtion consumption consumption.
On a positive note though- I have alot of sunshine here and can enjoy the outdoors…… where most consumers don’t wonder from their “things”.
Wierd isn’t it. You’d think people would see some connection between the rising numbers of depressed people and the shallowness that our culture embraces. Ungullable.
Wonderful post. I’m quite optimistic because of all you people who share and support the same view. As I often say in a game of Monopoly “Greed will be your demise Muaahahah” =). I’m sure we’ll see a ripple, if not a wave of changes due to the economic issues the world is facing. However, I do believe things will get worse before they get better.
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The best things in life are eternal
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