Jealous of the World

An almost cosmopolitan week, witnessing visits to no less than three nearby major population centres in the space of five of your solar days.

And bearing in mind I was meant to be working, it was almost like having my old life back again.

Well, not really.

Anyway, it was once again a delight to have some time to spend just sitting a while, and to watch the young humans scurrying about.

The original theme of this entry was to further elaborate on previous commentaries, and their ambivalent attitudes of pity tinged with sheer bloody envy when observing yer youth of today. Envy because of the technologically-enabled ease with which they can acquire pretty much anything they want to with absolutely no effort at all, and pity because this has rendered them spiritually bankrupt.

(And if the last few days are anything to go by, we can add "morally bankrupt" as well, for another juvenile crimewave has occured under my own roof. Naturally, I have little inclination to discuss details in this particular forum, but you would have thought that a man who is prepared to offer a home to another man's bastard child deserved to be treated with greater respect).

But that's another story.

In addition to the above was going to be comment regarding the current state of yer Internet, and the bewildering array of sites and blogs which has recently pummelled me into online silence. Having eschewed a writing career in the Real World due to anxiety of influence and other self-esteem factors, it is the case that I am once again hopelessly adrift in a datastream of mewling thoughts and mediocre opinions.

And, of course, cowering in the shadow of better men than me, who seem to have more time to apply to this sort of thing.

Damn them all to hell.

Well, that's what I was going to write about anyway. But it all just sounded like the delusional rantings of an embittered old man.

So I didn't.

The Catharsis of Spurious Morality

I'm watching "Shameless".

No doubt you find this situation greatly amusing.

Since I've been on an extended petulent sulk since 23rd December last year (for reasons too pleasingly childish to explain here and which are still awaiting their much-anticipated conclusion), I've been privy to some fine examples of modern television.

So far this evening I have managed to endure "Come Dine With Me", "Coach Trip" and "Emmerdale", but then had to take myself outside for a walk while my dignity recovered.

But "Shameless" is a special case.

For even by the loose standards of today, this really is a rare example of morally bankrupt filth, happily (and deliberately) wallowing in its own turpitude.

Which actually rather bothers me, in more ways than one.

Having been brought up suckling on the wholesome milky teats of Doctor Who Monthly in its younger days, I was always taught to find laughable the antics of Mary Whitehouse and her crusade against media wickedness.

So it is rather ironic that I am teetering on the verge of middle age, advocating a serious reappraisal of morals and ethics in broadcasting. Not along odd and disturbing religious lines like Whitehouse's NVLA (or Mediawatch-UK as it is known now), but just out of good old-fashioned DECENCY, dammit.

I'm not on a crusade to protect the children either, which is the usual excuse. (But this probably wouldn't be a bad thing. Maybe if somebody had been trying to do that, Ms Monoid's child would not be banned from a local shop for theft, and I would not be shamed and embarassed by my tenuous association with her).

Am I merely a middle class snob? Well, yes. I'd be the first to admit that. But as "Shameless" is basically "Brookside" with on-screen copulation, it's not a question of tut-tutting about the "common people".

What is required at this stage is actually something quite basic and - yes, have a laugh - old-fashioned as Good triumphing over Evil, and the concept of just desserts.

Simple as that, really.

Anyway, "Shameless" has finished now. And the best bit about it was the plug for the Samaritans at the end.

Whether that was for people affected by the issues, or for people affected by the lack of a moral compass, we shall never know...