…and not soon enough if you aks me!
I am not a fan of Christmas. Not only do I dislike the modern festival, complete with three month build up and ridiculous commercialism, but I hate the fact that a “Christian” festival has been nationalised and rammed down our throats to such an extent that every body feels the need to suddenly pretend to be pious and religous! Seriosuly, I know muslims that celebrate Christmas! What the hell is that about?
Christmas is a Christian festival that was created in the 19th centurty when the Catholic Church decreed that the eponymous midwinter festival was now officially a celebration of the birth of Jesus (who almost certainly was not born in December, never mind the 25th!). For most of the rest of that century nobody really gave a monkey, until the Victorians started making something of the festival. The majority of the traditions we now associate with Christmas, the tree, the decorations, the food etc was all started in the latter half of the 1800s by the middle and upper classes of Victorian England and hence the rest of the Empire.
I am not a Christian, so I do not ‘celebrate’ Christmas. I, like many other non-Christians, partake in the festivities surrounding the tradition but I do not hold it sacred in any way and would have no qualms about selecting any arbitrary day to celebrate family, togetherness and peace to all men. These are not Christian ideals, all of these ideas were celebrated for hundreds of years before Christianity and will continue to be celebrated for hundreds of years after Christianity. I just wish everybody would accept that Christmas, as it exists today, has nothing to do with Jesus. We shouldn’t all be forced to take time off work and we should not be subjected to the nationalising of a religious holiday to the point of causing offence to every non-Christian. If I were a Muslim, Sikh, Jew etc I would be similarly outraged.
The fact I am an atheist means I am also outraged at the increasing nationalisation of Eid, Ramadam, Hannukah, Diwahli etc.
Today is the final of X-Factor, ITV1′s flagship television programme and mainstay of the lowest-common-denominator era of throwaway tv.
Last year saw over 11 million members of the British public tune in to see Leona Lewis win a recording contract worth an estinated £2million. This year’s prize is a guarenteed £1million recording contract and a shot at the Christmas number one single – an honour that will almost certainly be achieved. Three contestants battle it out on prime time Saturday evening television, three contestants that I wouldn’t book for a pub sing along, in front of four of the most ridiculous judges I have come across. An article on the RadioTimes’ website gives a fantastic insight into what is happeneing to television in this era of low creativity, low expectations and low standards of delivery.
I want quality, entertaining, educational and original programming, not these cheap to make, cheap to air, profit chasing, public mocking shows.
I know I am sounding like an old man, but please will someone somewhere fix this. Or I might just switch over for good.
Why is it that sometimes we are the architects of our own downfall? Why is it that even when things are amazing and perfect we sabotage it? Why is it that we are never happy unless the world is collapsing around our ears?
I wish I knew the answer to those questions. I think it would make some things a lot clearer to me. Sometimes I wonder if there are answers out there, or whether there are things we will never know? I am a believer in knowledge. I bel;ieve that if we know enough about our universe and our history we have power over it, not in the metaphysical way, but in our own lives. If we can predict our actions, our responses to stimuli, based on past experience and a knowledge of our surroundings then we can control it. It is why I am a rationalist, I think that everything cann be explained away. That ever question has an answer and that answer is fully understandable and comprehendable by man. There is no need for someone to pull my strings.
However, if there are no answers then what is there? I say that every question has an answer, but does every answer have a question? Is that even relavent?
I guess these late night rants….
**We interrupt this programme to bring you the latest movements (literally) on my corridor**
Kara has just appeared at my door (note to self – shut door) to discuss random crap, giggled and then went to the toilet – which happens to be 2 feet from where I am sitting. She is remarkably quiet. Chris isn’t!
**End transmission**
…where was I? oh yeah, late night rants.
I’ve actually forgotten what I was going to say, so I think we will leave that there.
Night.
I have been watching a show called Jake 2.0 recently. It is about a NSA tech support who gets accidentally infected with nanobots/nanites. These nanobots give Jake superhuman strength, sight, hearing etc as well as the ability to interface directly with computers. It is a really good show. The characters are excellent and the storylines involving. It was cancelled after one series!
There are many other quality shows that were cancelled prematurely, Firefly and Enterprise for example.
I hate the fact that broadcasting and production agencies never give a show a chance. One bad week in the ratings and *chop* goes the axe. I would rather see quality television with poor ratings than Big Brother anyday!