When the dark nights draw in across Europe different countries, or more to the point the people living in those countries resort to the bottle.
The Russians are famous for their vodka the Germans for their snaps, and the Scandinavians it's whisky that's the cushion to get them through the dark nights.
Of course, this pretty much a 'generational' thing since now a days the choice of the under 50s seeking artificial solace is the drug market. From the poppy to the cannabis plant, nature allows substances which swing the mind off its natural orbit, arguably to make the present more palatable. The Chinese with their opium and the many tribal communities who chew leaves such as Khat to seek mild euphoria have been doing so whilst we 'westerners' were running around in animal skins.
Today's chemist has concocted a devils mix of hallucinatory drugs to bend the mind and temporally change the personality. LSD was famous in the 60s but unpredictable, triggering all kinds of images, many of them horrifically distorting to the point of driving the person temporally insane. Spice, another drug of choice amongst the young, also has the unfortunate tendency to lead the user into degrees of paranoia, seeming to elevate the psych of the user into believe in the users infallibility.
The question of a person finding the need to release themselves from the reality of their actual condition and risk a journey "to where they know no of" speaks volumes of so many who are at odds with who they are and what they are doing in this life. We know that there is so much confusion in the short term nature of everything, from the job to emotional commitments, nothing seems for the long haul and, in this ever changing environment is it any wonder that the values which were once part and parcel of life's special signature ingredient such as bearing responsibility are now in such short supply.
Is there any solution as we globalise the means of production to maximise the profits for a few. Is there anyway back, to place the human being at the centre of our thoughts and not the dollar. In many countries the human being man or woman are in over abundance as child birth seems the only two fingered response to the authorise and their control over us. I suppose the Chinese got closest with their one male child policy in the 60/70s and the tinkering at the edges in Germany in the 30s to produce a blond, blue eyed aryan super race. Humans, as a species seem to swing from one extreme to the other mixing their ideologically proffered humanitarianism, religious and non religious to those sections of the race profile they seem comfortable with whilst trying to eliminate the rest. Is it any wonder that, as the world shrinks, increasing our knowledge through better communication, then the prejudice is raised rather than lowered because of the wide cultural gaps between us all. Our so called free will and our ingenuity at creating self centred bubbles, 'our way, is the only way', makes the break up of 'our way' all the more traumatic, especially if we see solidarity in the way other cultures seem to find a collective way of staying together (mostly through religious ritual) in the way they live their lives.
The Russians are famous for their vodka the Germans for their snaps, and the Scandinavians it's whisky that's the cushion to get them through the dark nights.
Of course, this pretty much a 'generational' thing since now a days the choice of the under 50s seeking artificial solace is the drug market. From the poppy to the cannabis plant, nature allows substances which swing the mind off its natural orbit, arguably to make the present more palatable. The Chinese with their opium and the many tribal communities who chew leaves such as Khat to seek mild euphoria have been doing so whilst we 'westerners' were running around in animal skins.
Today's chemist has concocted a devils mix of hallucinatory drugs to bend the mind and temporally change the personality. LSD was famous in the 60s but unpredictable, triggering all kinds of images, many of them horrifically distorting to the point of driving the person temporally insane. Spice, another drug of choice amongst the young, also has the unfortunate tendency to lead the user into degrees of paranoia, seeming to elevate the psych of the user into believe in the users infallibility.
The question of a person finding the need to release themselves from the reality of their actual condition and risk a journey "to where they know no of" speaks volumes of so many who are at odds with who they are and what they are doing in this life. We know that there is so much confusion in the short term nature of everything, from the job to emotional commitments, nothing seems for the long haul and, in this ever changing environment is it any wonder that the values which were once part and parcel of life's special signature ingredient such as bearing responsibility are now in such short supply.
Is there any solution as we globalise the means of production to maximise the profits for a few. Is there anyway back, to place the human being at the centre of our thoughts and not the dollar. In many countries the human being man or woman are in over abundance as child birth seems the only two fingered response to the authorise and their control over us. I suppose the Chinese got closest with their one male child policy in the 60/70s and the tinkering at the edges in Germany in the 30s to produce a blond, blue eyed aryan super race. Humans, as a species seem to swing from one extreme to the other mixing their ideologically proffered humanitarianism, religious and non religious to those sections of the race profile they seem comfortable with whilst trying to eliminate the rest. Is it any wonder that, as the world shrinks, increasing our knowledge through better communication, then the prejudice is raised rather than lowered because of the wide cultural gaps between us all. Our so called free will and our ingenuity at creating self centred bubbles, 'our way, is the only way', makes the break up of 'our way' all the more traumatic, especially if we see solidarity in the way other cultures seem to find a collective way of staying together (mostly through religious ritual) in the way they live their lives.
So let's raise a glass to "the others" but remember the personal optic seen, after having emptied the glass is different from those who keep a clear head, at all times.
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