Tag: culture

NaPoWriMo 2022 Day 29

On By WinstonIn Enlightenment, homelessness, my blessed life, NaPoWriMo, Personal, Personal Responsibility, Poetry, Society, Values, VolunteeringLeave a comment

I have a friend named Gene who has been working for years to make the world a better place. Slowly, steadily and most importantly, deliberately. He has worked for youth employment programs, outreach programs, community health networks, school breakfast programs, non-profit housing… the list goes on. All of it with the intent to make life better for other people. He is one of my heroes, and this poem is for him.

A Better World

How many lives do we each touch,

As through this life we pass?

Perhaps a bit more focus there,

Than on things we amass.

It’s what we’ve done as we pass through,

That says just who we are.

The choice we make to harm or help,

Dark cloud or shining star.

All ethics and morality,

Are just a guide it’s true.

What matters is what’s in your heart,

Intent must come from you.

Now do you seek to lift someone,

Or only cause them pain?

If you would seek the former great,

If not please think again.

For in the end the life you’ve lived,

Is judged by those you touch.

So hold your anger, spread your love,

Your kindness does so much.

Not one of us can change the world,

There’s none of us that strong.

But every kindness great or small,

Still counteracts some wrong.

If each of us but try to make,

Things better for someone.

The world will change for that is how,

The greatest works are done.

Not one of us but all of us,

Have strength to shift the stars

If we all try a kinder path,

Might shift this world of ours.

Cheers, Winston

Potter Sees Rioters Everywhere… Literally

On By WinstonIn Global Issues, Politics, SocietyLeave a comment

In an article posted Friday, regular Maclean’s columnist Andrew Potter states that riots happen because riots are fun. According to the article, we are ALL potential rioters. Whether it’s Vancouver after the Stanley Cup, or Britain’s recent riots, it’s just fun.

Thank you for clearing that up for everyone Mr. Potter. Here the rest of the world was thinking there might be some problems that needed to be addressed. Silly us! Now that we know it’s such a good time, we can all relax and stop “over-analyzing” things. While the rest of the world was looking at cultural or societal issues, The Amazing Mr. Potter realized THE TRUTH.

To paraphrase the classic line: “We have met the rioters, and they are us.” Apparently, all of us desperately want to chuck a waste-bin through a window and take what we want. Smashing, trashing, looting, mugging and burning; these are the things we want. Not comfort, security, peace. According to Mr. Potter, we all want to riot. Just because.

Aside from being a rampant apologist and incredibly naive, I do have a couple of other issues with this. How exactly did he conclude that all of us would riot if we could? Did he develop this awesome ability to read all of our minds at once? Or, is he just making it up to support his premise. I’m going to go with option two

Contrary to Mr. Potter’s claims, when I look around at the people I know, I don’t see hordes of potential rioters. A couple of them might, but not a majority, and absolutely not all. Maybe his people have a different set of values than mine. Maybe they get together every couple of weeks, have some beers and lament that there aren’t any nearby riots to join. Just for giggles and shits. I don’t claim to know for certain, but his article makes it seem likely.

The bigger problem is that his argument avoids the real reason for riots. It’s called personal responsibility. Maybe he’s right and we all want to join this big party, but most of us choose not to. Not every fan in Vancouver chose to participate in that riot. Nor did everyone in London, or Manchester, Toronto. People don’t riot just for fun. They don’t riot to protest social injustice or corporate greed. I’m dead certain they don’t riot over a hockey game or a football match. They riot because they choose to.

When you make everyone a villain, then there are no more villains. Anyone who smashes shops, burns businesses, cars and homes, they are villains. The person who assaults, loots, rapes or murders under cover of a riot, is a villain. People who choose not to join them, are not, it’s that simple. To claim rioters just do it for “fun” trivializes not only their actions, but also their victims. In case Mr. Potter is too delusional to notice, the people who are killed, injured, or have their property destroyed probably aren’t having any fun at all.

Not all of us are rioters. Not everyone thinks chaos is fun. Even among those who might think that, most people have one thing that separates them from the rioters, and apparently from Mr. Potter. Most people know that hurting people for your own enjoyment is wrong. It’s not the mob, it’s the individuals who make it up.

Each person makes a choice. Some choose to riot. Some choose not to. Some choose to make excuses. I choose to not to.

Cheers, Winston

Amy Winehouse Was More Than “Back To Black”

On By WinstonIn Media, Pop Culture, SocietyLeave a comment

Whatever else Amy Winehouse may have been, regardless of how she may have lived, she was a person. According to Stephen Marche writing in Maclean’s magazine Aug 9, that doesn’t matter. In a burst of self-indulgent idiocy of truly epic proportions Mr. Marche not only pretends to know the “real” meaning of her album “Back to Black”, he insists her talent was of greater value than she was.

Among his more egregious violations is the claim that by placing deep chimes in the middle of the song “Back to Black” she “rings the bells in her own memory”. He then goes on to say the song was a “funeral elegy to herself”. He draws prescient meaning from drug references, to create the impression she knew she was going to die. He doesn’t quite accuse her of suicide, but close to it.

Even these conceits are not extreme by Maclean’s standards. Indeed, many of those who have chosen to cash in on her death have presumed to know her mind based on her public persona. I understand. That’s the type of article the public wants, and it’s their job to give it to them. No, Stephem Marche had something much more vile and insidious in store.

He quotes an interview she gave to Rolling Stone magazine in 2007. “I don’t want to be ungrateful,” she said. “I know I’m talented, but I wasn’t put here to sing. I was put here to be a wife and a mom and look after my family.” What was this loathsome hack’s response you may ask? “What self-conception could be more in error? What statement could be further from the truth?”. That is his response to this young woman’s desire for a normal life. She wanted at some level to step back from precipice at the end of the path she was on. He accuses her of throwing away her talent. Of being so talented, she had no understanding of how precious that talent was. In this there is an implied obligation to share. An objectifying vocal slavery requiring her to sing at his whim regardless of her wishes.

But it is in the final line of his article we find by far the most telling insight into his grotesque and distorted psyche.

“Sometimes 33 minutes can be worth more than 27 years.”.

If Stephen Marche truly believes that 33 minutes of music is of greater value than Amy’s life, he should be put on a pedestal in a museum. The plaque would read, “Here stands Stephen Marche. The Defining Example Of All That Is Wrong With The Cult Of Celebrity”. Nearby would be baskets of spoiled fruit and rotten eggs for patrons to throw at it.

p.s.
The premature end of Amy Winehouse’s life is truly a tragedy for her family and friends. So are the thousands of other lives lost to drugs and alcohol both literally and figuratively every year.

Cheers, Winston

Can Media Be Responsible?

On By WinstonIn Media, SocietyLeave a comment

I’ve been reading again. This time about the evolution of media and it’s role in society.

One of the points made by the author regarded the Rwandan genocide in 1994. They state that elements within the government used some local media to incite violence. So far, so good. The article goes on to say that Radio Mille Collines incited the violence that lead to genocide. The author then asks, “Could this happen again? Or will media take this opportunity to meet it’s obligation to inform and educate about our global interdependence?”

Excuse me, did you really say that?

This entire issue is one of diminishing of personal responsibility. First we have “elements of the government”. It’s a little vague, okay we’re still using obvious human references. The line about the radio station inciting violence, sort of, but not so much. Radio stations in my experience are buildings containing offices, studios, content and other broadcast related goodness, but not a trace of sentience. To do any high-end inciting, you need sentience, and for that you need people. People to spew information, disinformation, propaganda and just plain naked hatred. Radio Milles Collines was just a radio station. It was the people in front of the microphones who incited the violence.

Which brings us to his question about “media”. The problem of course is that media is not a discreet entity. Media is a generic descriptor so vague as to be utterly useless in this context. As a non-entity, questions of obligations become moot. The entire concept is just one more excuse for the devaluation of individual motive. If one is involved with anything which might be covered by the umbrella term media, they apparently need to start proselytizing about global interconnectedness. Right now. Not necessarily because they care about it, but because some random other has decreed an obligation.

This is manifestly (phrase breaches profanity policy for this Blog) umm, wrong. So very wrong on so many levels.

Use of media carries no inherent obligation. The content is at the sole discretion of the person creating and distributing it. If you feel that a particular message should be paramount (ie. global interconnectedness) then it’s up to you as an individual to convince other individuals to follow your lead.

In the long run, you don’t need media in any of it’s guises to incite a genocidal mob. All you need for that is people. That’s really what is at stake here. We all want to believe that it’s about the government, the radio station, the media, but not about the people. Because if it can be about the people who crafted the message that incited a genocidal rage in average Rwandans, then it is about all people. It is about us, and no one wants to admit to that part of themselves. It’s so much easier to put all that on a generic, non-entity like Media.

Cheers, Winston