Strangers In A Strange Land

Depression set in whilst watching ‘History Of Now – The Story Of The Noughties’ on TV last night. The rise of the Chav phenomenon...‘Big Brother’...WAGs and credit culture...what was there to rejoice in?
To make matters worse, the narrator constantly used the word ‘we’ when describing the public’s reaction to it all, which was supposed to create an inclusive feeling for the viewer, I know. But that was the problem, the idea that he spoke for me when he discussed the way ‘we’ became so enthralled by all that shit.
We didn’t go credit card crazy in a bid to own everything, or watch ‘Big Brother’, follow celebrity fashion, buy ridiculous handbags and think that what footballer’s wives did was important.
There may be others like us but what we think is irrelevant in the grand scheme of defining and shaping popular opinion, attitudes and behaviour.
Media saturation is inescapable unless you possess the kind of will and organisational capabilities that can screen out all that junk. Perhaps that’s a worthy New Year’s resolution: set about applying a filter system designed to ‘purify’ sensory input. I need some kind of defence against The Brain Eaters. But they’re embedded so deeply in the media...the news, newspapers and internet...They are everywhere, utilising the front pages of the world to burn their information onto my retina, to ‘entertain’, and inform me of developments in a culture that I despise.
The price we pay for not conforming to the behaviour patterns of clearly definable social groups is, of course, this sense of isolation and disgust with mainstream culture; the feeling that society is not ours, but something we are merely visiting.
I sometimes feel like a stranger in a strange land...a man who fell to earth but, unfortunately, cannot afford to build a spaceship that will get me off this planet.