Amused to Death

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
Gunpowder, treason and plot.

Don't give me all that shit.

What exactly is being celebrated tonight? On the one hand, you have religious bigotry on a grand scale, on the other, you have people celebrating a failure. And, on the basis that the latter is such a stupid reason, no one (even in today's society) could celebrate it, I'll focus on the first.

I'm cynical, but not cynical enough to suggest that everyone realises what they're doing. The gunpowder plot was a very religious plot, deriving from the usual Catholic/Protestant rivalry. How many people realise that they're actually celebrating a state murder for believing a religion that's exactly the same as the state religion? I may not be very religious, but that doesn't stop me from respecting other people's views. I won't celebrate any murder, let alone one where the intentions were to oppress other religions.


It's just showing how people don't understand history, don't understand the importance of why we are in the current state. Think, say, 200 years in the future today. Fireworks are going off, as per usual, but do people actually know why? I doubt people do know, let alone in the future. And you don't need to be a history buff, surely natural curiosity forces you to find out more? Obviously not.

In the words of Roger Waters, we are "Amused to death", that is, we have reached such a state where everything is given to us, we don't think any more. Yes, computers are a form of this, but to be honest, I think there are enough resources on computers to redeem it. But television? There is no one who can tell me that reality TV is thought-provoking (or entertainment, for that matter...).

But if we use history, and scan back through civilisation, you notice that the "slaves", "serfs", "proles", whatever you want to call them very rarely do anything about their state, allowing themselves to be oppressed. By now, we even have easy access to the information that would free us from this monotonous life, yet we refuse to seek it.

And even if you are somehow reading this, will you make any changes, or allow yourself to be "Amused to death"? I know that everyone allows this - do you?