The Virtual Rambler

Number twenty eight: 19^th September 2012

In Denial

The condition of ‘being in denial’ is usually associated with dysfunctional individuals but in fact it’s one of general humanity’s deepest traits , a by-product of their all-consuming sense of self-importance. This probably developed from their top position in the raptors’ league. Being in denial was also a concept they ascribed to several of their deities , who behaved like men coming home from the pub after ten pints and losing at darts. That is , exchanging their omnipotence for a spot of taking it out on their nearest and dearest .... and of course refusing to go on an anger-management course. If it was good enough for the gods , why skimp on the trait ? Everywhere you look in the past and present , men - largely men - are in denial. Particularly Americans. Once established as eastern seaboard immigrants , they threw off the taxing influence of their country of origin and turned their gaze westwards. Out there in the wild west they steadily exterminated most of the original natives of the continent with an ever-popular gun culture , while developing a southern economy which invited millions of black Africans to generations of slavery and social exclusion. Thence that great anthem of denial , Home of the Brave , Land of the Free. After the Second World War (and their brief partnership with the Russians) , American foreign policy was based on supporting dictators in Africa , Asia and South America who would help to ‘contain’ the spread of Communism. This obliged them to collude in wholesale torturing and murdering by those dictators’ ‘security forces’ as they regularly waived their own principle that ‘all men are born free and equal’.

Nearer home , we inhabit a country under the direction of pretend political strategists and crystal-ball economists who appear to have strayed from another century altogether and inadvertently blundered into the one presently on stage. We also have balding pop stars who are never without a hat , pensioners publicly going about in tracksuits and trainers , alcohol retailers exhorting us to “drink responsibly” and omnivorous supermarket chains pretending to conserve the earth’s resources. Pretend Universities cater to pretend students paying astronomical fees for pretend courses. On streets sometimes patrolled by pretend police-folk , pedestrians are dodging a peloton of pavement-cyclists who are en route to their death-denying session at the nearest Leisure Centre.⁽¹⁾ The Germans have the precision engineers , the Japanese know about electronics and how to organise a production line but what does this country have ? We have celebrities , management consultants , the people who think up jingles for adverts and the money-laundering Financial Services. This is Bullshit Britain in the age of Big Brother.

In my youth , the essence of typical English hobbies - stamp-collecting , pottering about in your garden or allotment , pigeon-fancying , train-spotting , crossword puzzles - was how little they cost. For a brisker world of Business-and-nothing-but-Business , this could never do. ‘Free’ time now requires the insertion of a debit or credit card at every turn , whether booking an online holiday or a night out at the Opera. Direct debits wing their virtual way from our account’s roost to the cellphone network and broadband providers who account for free time’s successor , screen-staring time. That distant youth who discovered Jack Kerouac soon took up the habit of solitary roaming over moors and mountains. He hitch-hiked to arenas in which you dressed down , as for a dirty job in the garden or cellar , in ex-Army attire (often still camouflaged) and a pair of cheap boots. In the wake of pretending to encourage ‘healthier lifestyles’ , retailers of ‘outdoor’ clothing and equipment now offer a plenitude of choice to those whose idea of leisure is to get out into the hills. There are gortex walking boots and anoraks , multicoloured fleecy jackets , branded sweatshirts and trousers , tents , ropes , stoves , gloves and sleeping bags. Those once-free spirits have been led to the market place as consumers par excellence. After all , those whose weeks are spent thinking up jingles for adverts need some weekend relaxation out in the great beyond.


Wig

⁽¹⁾ See the Virtual Rambler #6 , The Leisure Industry.

Archive

Virtual rambler #1 – Posturing, 9^th March 2010
Virtual rambler #2 – Managerialism, 17^th March 2010
Virtual rambler #3 – Nostalgia, 27^th March 2010
Virtual rambler #4 – The Alpha Male, 13^th April 2010
Virtual rambler #5 – General Elections, 3^rd May 2010
Virtual rambler #6 – The Leisure Industry, 15^th May 2010
Virtual rambler #7 – Guide to The World Cup, 15^th June 2010
Virtual rambler #8 – Human Nature, 12^th July 2010
Virtual rambler #9 – Communities, 13^th August 2010
Virtual rambler #10 – Worlds Apart, 6^th October 2010
Virtual rambler #11 – Dawdling, 22^nd November 2010
Virtual rambler #12 – ELVIS, 24^th December 2010
Virtual rambler #13 – Transience, 4^th February 2011
Virtual rambler #14 – Regional Accents, 15^th April 2011
Virtual rambler #15 – The Afterlife, 21^st July 2011
Virtual rambler #16 – Bizspeak, 27^th August 2011
Virtual rambler #17 – Night Walks, 3^rd October 2011
Virtual rambler #18 – Bob Dylan & Charles Dickens, 8^th November 2011
Virtual rambler #19 – Another Nutty Professor, 16^th December 2011
Virtual rambler #20 – Customer Choice, 17^th January 2012
Virtual rambler #21 – Wearing Shorts, 18^th February 2012
Virtual rambler #22 – A Brief History of Progress, 17^th March 2012
Virtual rambler #23 – The Myth of Sisyphus, 16^th April 2012
Virtual rambler #24 – Natural History, 20^th May 2012
Virtual rambler #25 – European Self-Importance, 26^th June 2012
Virtual rambler #26 – Sweet Dreams, 25^th July 2012
Virtual rambler #27 – Excess, 20^th August 2012