Hackery
Having nothing much to think about at the moment, I set to thinking about the past.
The 1980's will, thankfully, never return, but the skills I learned while keeping afloat through that badly managed decade have been very useful recently.
Mostly I learned what to avoid. The vengeful nature of much journalism today is beginning to frighten people who have confused it with reality. When I worked as a hack in the past, we kept ourselves going with dinner parties and trips to the parks in Summer to see outdoor productions of Shakespeare. Since there was a war raging, it was an exhausting time and great efforts were made to write in a positive vein. The astonishing competitiveness which makes contemporary television programmes unwatchable in my case would have brought us even further down, financially and emotionally, than was already the case.
The streets today are still full of ordinary people getting on with their everyday lives.
It's quite pleasant, in fact.
The 1980's will, thankfully, never return, but the skills I learned while keeping afloat through that badly managed decade have been very useful recently.
Mostly I learned what to avoid. The vengeful nature of much journalism today is beginning to frighten people who have confused it with reality. When I worked as a hack in the past, we kept ourselves going with dinner parties and trips to the parks in Summer to see outdoor productions of Shakespeare. Since there was a war raging, it was an exhausting time and great efforts were made to write in a positive vein. The astonishing competitiveness which makes contemporary television programmes unwatchable in my case would have brought us even further down, financially and emotionally, than was already the case.
The streets today are still full of ordinary people getting on with their everyday lives.
It's quite pleasant, in fact.
Labels: hackery;
posted by Tales from the Birch Wood. at
14:49
5 Comments:
Beautiful butterfly!
If you lived through Thatcher, you can get through the Con-Dem government? True, you're not having to deal with them directly, but I'd imagine you have your own creepy politicians.
A bit like having lived through Reagan, one could manage living through the Bushies.
I never visited Britain for years... something to do with street battles performed daily on TV.
Things have changed but since I cannot work out what this might be, I wait with bated breath.
If you follow Irish politics a sense of humour helps. I view it as part of the entertainment business.
As for American politicians, I think they are partly responsible for my never having dared visit the States.
Watergate was the last straw after the amazement of the 1960s, with draft dodgers and the civil rights struggles.
My brain is too simple for the two you mention to take on board.
Yes, I can see that thinking of the whole info-tainment industry as including the politicians would be helpful to one's sanity. Ignore the lot of them.
With as much travel as you've done and still do, I must say that you've seen far more than most. If missing out on the US isn't leaving a gap in your travels, well, good show! I don't feel that not visiting Australia is leaving a gap in mine, similarly. :)
In fact, I'm one of the few people left here who has not visited the US.
Anybody who has chatted with me about my ideas think I have adopted a "French" attitude... loving the films, jazz and consumer items while fretting (probably needlessly) about public social issues.
There are probably many people in America who would not visit Ireland because of the news reports that went out for years.
I certainly met many French people who thought that Dublin must be dangerous... they had been watching news about Belfast.
Quite true: observed from afar - particularly, observed from a country where a 500 mile drive isn't unusual - Ireland seemed a land of terror.
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