The Virtual Rambler

Number forty six : 20^th March 2014

Under Control

Our existence is essentially balanced on the here and now , the ever-disappearing present moment. Human imagination protests this and seeks to open up both the past and future as accessible spaces in which to roam. Ahhh , the warm bath of yesteryear , its heart softened by nostalgia and its often grim realities waived in favour of a general fondness for those , including our younger selves , who preceded us. As for tomorrow , that’s when our pinched circumstances on queer street will be transformed. As a species , we became obsessed with the notion of progress , moving forward , forging ahead. In the evolution of Consumer World the only problems worth considering were those soluble through the spending of money : inconvenience , lack of choice , hair loss , heartburn , slippery paths. When development is in the air , who gives a fig for the present moment ? Queer street would be re-developed into the Boulevard of Fulfilled Dreams. Freedom is having the cash to meet your needs. Your last chapter would be spent on £100,000 a year with no work attached.

This sort of fools’ paradise was being projected during the post-war re-construction of cities and economies. It was an age of town-planning , economic think-tanks , full employment and social welfare reforms , each giving rise to a general sense of optimism about the future. Science and technology would continue to advance our understanding of the world we lived in , and control over it. The icon of this brave new age would be the computer. In their infancy , computers were large , valve-powered installations used exclusively by a military-industrial complex that remained as potent a force in shaping national destinies as it had been during the recent war. Hence the proliferating stockpiles of ever-more destructive nuclear weapons , in whose development the computer was instrumental. The chorus of popular anxiety this engendered was soon improbably augmented by a few scattered mathematicians whose equations suggested high levels of unpredictability intrinsic to all natural and man-made systems. Although a multitude of forecasters examined everything that moved , from the weather to the stock-market , instabilities were always just around the next corner. There have been numerous messianic sects whose leaders predicted a violent end to all earthly life on a forthcoming date. Some were so convinced of that imminent apocalypse that they gave up all their worldly possessions and followed whichever guru had inspired them to the summit of a local hill for an aerial view of doomsday. On descending that hill after an uneventful watch , we can assume their faith in both their guru and the power of forecasting was negligible.

There was no equivocation for those who were riding the chariots of power. Their blinkered belief in “development without end” brooked no mathematical or historical contradiction. As the bugle of free markets resounded across the globe , proliferating Faculties of Business issued their annual stream of half-educated young biz-speakers to join the locust swarm of Management that plagued the land. No institution would hitherto be free of its vision and brand identity , its officer-class in PR and Marketing departments who elected themselves into the chairs of mission statement control. They imparted their half-baked directives as insouciantly as First World War generals planning the next offensive. By now , desk-sized computers were the agency by which these half-wits cajoled all underlings into their endless meetings , e-mails , staff development and appraisal programs that served to further no aspect of any particular business but the consolidation and augmentation of the management body itself. Orwell's 1984 predicted a future in which the total state control of individuals was effected by covert surveillance and overt brutality but an earlier dystopian novel , Huxley's Brave New World , suggested a ruling order that preferred to coax its subjects into loving their servitude to constant consumption. Nowhere does the ludic appeal of our consumer society resound more vividly than in the ownership of personal computers and 'smart' phones. Like flies willingly drawn into a spider's home , devotees of the social networks and internet forums gape into their screens at every opportunity , eager to share the minutiae of their days and to surrender all the personal details of their lives to friends , contacts , acquaintances and state security agencies alike. Who needs Soma in a world of weed , websites and wine ?


Wig

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 and Charles Dickens, 8^th November 2011
Virtual rambler #19 – Another Nutty Professor, 16^th December 2011
Virtual rambler #20 – Customer Choice, 16^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, 17^th August 2012
Virtual rambler #28 – In Denial, 20^th September 2012
Virtual rambler #29 – The Way, 21^st October 2012
Virtual rambler #30 – On Rambling, 14^th November 2012
Virtual rambler #31 – Gazing Into The Abyss, 18^th December 2012
Virtual rambler #32 – Intellectual Gloom, 25^th January 2013
Virtual rambler #33 – Great Human Achievements, 20^th February 2013
Virtual rambler #34 – Autobiography, 20^th March 2013
Virtual rambler #35 – Your Good Health, 21^st April 2013
Virtual rambler #36 – Deconstruction, 20^th May 2013
Virtual rambler #37 – My Home Town, 19^th June 2013
Virtual rambler #38 – Ancient History, 21^st July 2013
Virtual rambler #39 – Possessions, 20^th August 2013
Virtual rambler #40 – Sporting Stoics, 20^th September 2013
Virtual rambler #41 – Free Time, 20^th October 2013
Virtual rambler #42 – Ewan Don't Allow, 20^th November 2013
Virtual rambler #43 – A Literary Nexus, 20^th December 2013
Virtual rambler #44 – Taking Liberties, 16^th January 2014
Virtual rambler #45 – More or Less, 20^th February 2014