The New Unforgiveness

America first got into television in the 1940's.
They were not the first, before them The Third Reich
broadcast daytime television in the 1930's,
until the economy went on to a war-footing economy
when broadcasts were reduced, and then they ended. 

American Christians were late comers to light entertainment,
they came to television in the late 1970's/1980's.
They were particularly naive about the distorting effects
of broadcasting on the characters who filled the screen.

When pastors were inconsistent with their congregations
face to face every Sunday then their congregations knew it,
and the inconsistencies were in scale with the communities
that the congregations were part of. The hypocrisy was in scale.

When pastors started preaching on television,
to tame studio congregations they did not feel
the power of the distancing effect which television does,
the pastors were extremely naive about it.

It was like the effect facebook is now said to have
on groups and individuals; the amount of money
made from advertising and seeking donations
became vast and self perpetuating, and it multiplied
as preachers learned how hate sold better than engagement.

We who use facebook etc should learn
from the failure of the tele-evangelists
to learn about the distorting nature
of the smoke and mirrors they used.
We too speak through distorting mirrors,
and algorithms which we know little about.

Given how negativity so easily multiplies,
and we will be the last to see it started with us
we should seek always to be affirmative.

Peacetime Pastime Creativity

One of the more hidden aspects
of lives lived out in full peacetime
is how nothing disrupt the constancy
of creative activity for the wealthy artist.

There, life is an unending stream
of different projects to be completed,
before death provides a natural end
to any further word or intent to act.

For many artists it does not end there,
there is often that last book to write/
recording to be completed in order
to be published posthumously
though such projects seem melancholy
without their author to promote them.

But long before that the calendar
becomes so full of anniversaries
of past events held on different dates
that the public remember their creative leaders
by the date they first heard/saw and heard
their peak experience of said artist.

By then all creativity seems to happen in the past tense. 

 

Great Turn Offs of Our Time (23)

'He may be a criminal but he is our criminal'
is a phrase that many invoke, when they settle
on some particularly choice lawyer, leader,
or politician with his shiny charisma,
who they know is a criminal but they think
'as long as he is criminal for me
I can control him and he is the criminal, not me.
I can disown his criminality as my employee.'.

But the point about criminality is it's dishonesty.
When we employ somebody else to steal for us
whoever we employ is as likely to steal from us,
and lie by omission about it to our faces
as they are to tell us that thy have done our bidding.

The real question with any criminal practice
is how long it takes for it to be discovered,
and who will be most destroyed by it's discovery.

My Third Christmas Card of 2021

 

When Silence Is Not Absence

Many millions of people live out their days
as if they have nothing to say,
and they have plenty of time to say it,
when it is more the case
that the media they accept
scripts so well what they want said
that they can find no point in mouthing
what their media has thought for them.

A Choice Of Pandemic

There many strains of Covid 19
for us to choose from, and learn
how best to not catch them
in the surest way possible,
congruent with civil liberties
and the economy
of the country we live in.

But it does not end there;
in the wild there is now also
an ongoing outbreak of Bird Flu 
and that is trans-national
and trade barriers help it spread
by limiting the vaccinations
of tame birds to stop them
infecting wild, migrating, birds.

So when you see the turkey
it may be more off  than you think.
But remember this;with this virus
nature has it worse than humans know about... 

The Hopelessness of Forgiveness

When I was just old enough
to be advised about relationships
outside of my parents' evasions towards me
my mother told me two distinct things.

The first was
'when you make your bed then you have to lie in it afterwards.'.

The second thing she said was
'Don't bring any little bastards home to me.'.

I understood what she meant with the first rule; 
when you marry it is for life-there could be no change
and no choice once the vows were said,
not even if who you married was abusive
or was a murderer or a criminal
-you chose to marry the abuser,
their abuse is your reward,
abuse is what you married them for.

I understood the second rule even better.
given a choice of abuse or shame,
and I preferred the shame of bastardy,
as if I myself had been born out of wedlock, 
rather than passively living out an abusive relationship. 

Following Mother's advice
led me not only into my homosexuality
as a way of surviving the shame of bastardy,
but to finding a life times affection and support
from a man who lived in the full knowledge
of being conceived and growing up
outside the cursed state of wedlock.
His family related to each other
with more maturity
than I could begin to count.

Thirty years on from my first full choices
I have no regrets worth mentioning
and find modern heterosexuality more benign
than Mother would have wanted it to be,
but still it is strange stuff best left alone. 

My rule for relationships was more conditional;
everyone is bound to make rules for relationships;
part of their making rules is making the rules work.