In some countries, small children are taught to sing songs to their Great Leaders. As soon as they learn to speak they are taught the national verses. They grow up worshipping photographs on their walls and in the streets, blind to any outside influence. By the time they are older they dismiss any ideas which don’t fit with their perceptions of the world. We in the west recoil in horror at such a blinkered view of life. Yet we still worship icons, be they religious figures or celebrities. We go to church on a Sunday and sings songs of praise and fellowship. We take our children to Sunday school where they learn the all important 104
passages and lessons, dressed up in colourful pictures, where Jesus and his disciples are all western, white and pristine. Is there a difference? I’m not so sure.
Idol worship. Lower down the scale there are the glossy magazines, showing people in the public eyes, lounging around their country mansions or their rooftop city apartments. They’re either admired or despised but I know many people who must go out the day a magazine is released so that they can see the new images. If the pictures are bad, social judgement is passed, if they are good, their choice of décor admired and envied. They talk of these people as higher beings. A lifestyle to dream about. A life above our own.
I don’t know why I’m analysing everything so much.
We’ll all blow each other to bits soon and life as we know it know will be gone forever. It’s not all doom. I often think it would be a good thing. Let other life evolve. One that’s got more common sense and compassion. One that doesn’t hate everything. One that doesn’t have to assert superiority to feel important, one that values life, beauty, social equality.
I’m not a big fan of the human race. It’s a sickly breed. If there is no final war and nothing about our culture changes, then I hope a huge comet hits us with unimaginable force, throwing us all to our deaths and wiping out any trace. Well, maybe leaving a trace actually so whatever follows can see what a mess we made in totally screwing the planet.
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