A very British Theme Park

 

Subject: A very British Theme Park


You would have thought Disney had captured all the characters we love to love and hate, the characterisation of Mr Bad and Mr Good which in the the old time music-hall the audience would provoke a hiss from the stalls when the devious individual walked on stage and cheer and applause when the heroine appeared. Life was simpler in those days, television hadn't for instance entered the Palace of Westminster and we were under the illusion that the MP had our interests at heart.
As a nation we continue to slide down the economic and social slope. Our public services dwindle, the NHS, Police, Care of the aged, Mental health and the overall disestablishment of so much we had taken for granted within our British Society is disturbingly getting worse year on year (not to mention the potholes). These days we come out last in so many league tables when compared to countries of similar size and GNP (Gross National Product) tables which we were comfortably on top, or near the top, 10 years ago. We haven't been to war, we suffered the same economic upheaval of a banking crisis as other European countries, we suffered as most of the world did from covid-19  and the only self harm was Brexit, disentangling ourselves from Europe, our biggest market.
So where has the slide manifest itself most.
George Osborn the chancellor, who was precursor of the Chinese covid-19 subplot, set about rebalancing the countries accounts in the only way the Conservative Party  knows how, by cutting public services and reducing the funding on social spending. A dose of harsh medicine was metered out across all public expenditure with huge cuts in virtually every service on which the ordinary person depends.
The government sound bites repeatedly announced spending commitments which were clearly false and never appeared on the municipal balance sheets, more of a wish than a promise. The drip drip of cuts were accepted as part of the belt tightening but whilst the public played the tune the better off were racing away with the loot, their own income growing in leaps and bounds whilst  the ordinary citizen was being fleeced of what little he or she had.
It seems to me we are living in a dystopian world where the establishment can tell us a whole load of cobblers without any comeback, lies which have become the main currency and no one is held to account. Political posturing was always part of the politicians tool box but at least there was some attempt at apology when things went wrong, now it’s as if deceit is the first call and all that remains is the depth of the deceit and the deeper the estrangement the electorate are from their political representatives.
Of course the complexity of human perception means we each have a different concept of what is the correct path to take and our sympathy of the claim sections of society have on the treasury’s agenda to help is as wide as it ever was.
What seems to have happed is that amorphous mass we used to call the “working class” has itself morphed into a clash for the means of consumption with little time for those not being able to consume. The bombardment individuals receive these days to buy this or that product is ceaseless and sets the trend for our sense of social standing.
Back then a purchase was considered and then considered again before the tentative first step to venture into a shop and finally weigh up whether you really needed it. Parting with cash was a remorseful business, not the tap of a card on a reader but a careful counting of the hours spent accumulating the stuff and only then the pleasure of the purchase. Often the money returned to the safe haven of the pocket or wallet even whilst standing in the shop and I heard myself, even these days openly saying to the shopkeeper “sorry I can’t afford it” as a scuttle out onto the pavement.
Recognising if you could afford things was a fact of life and not a mark against you, in fact it was considered a good trait to be thrifty if not frugal, and the art of ‘knowing the price of a thing but not its value’ signalled consumption as something dictated by need not only desire which seems a far cry from todays society.
We are a society constructed by the marketing executive who given the tools lodges his jingles in your mind, each day, to such an extent that desire becomes an obsession.