Lives Matter!

BRIGHTEVERYDAY Lives Matter!

Lives Matter! How is that for an inoffensive compromise, or shall we take issue with that too?

Since White Lives Matter seems considered inappropriate, in diminishing the “Black Lives Matter” message, and significance, perhaps we can have a moratorium, and relax a little! How has this whole issue gravitated to such levels, causing great consternation, division, and mistrust?

Could it be that some celebrity aficionados need a new purpose and identity, endorsing their hedonistic, self-seeking, self-infatuation, extremism, or, do they seek division as an extension of their personality? Perhaps if they read a few books, and looked beyond their egoism, they may see a United Kingdom. That is the one who welcomed all creeds, colours, and emigres in the last, say seventy years; a nation of faith, of hope, and yes, charity; one of assiduous inclusivity and connectivity, indeed one who has an acclaimed Foreign Aid programme to be proud of!

We are a compassionate, nurturing, and inclusive people. Perhaps such antics, slogans and incursions align to the United States, singularly and assiduously appropriate, almost intrinsic, to that culture! A country rich in traditions, diversity, and opportunity, let us not countenance our valued institutions, the tenets of civility and social inclusiveness, besmirched by subversion, collusion, intimidation and ignorance No more facile victims with a taste for social disruption, no more celebrity aberrations, seeking a new media platform for their profanities, more often masking their insecurity, various complexes, and anger with themselves, indeed, the world. This is a free country and one which prides itself in tolerance, opportunity, social justice, and equality.

One could suggest those disaffected few, visit the rural Central African Republic, Chad, Niger, Yemen, Afghanistan and the many other countries, ravaged by famine, poverty, genocide, and war, and see what living is like for so many. Spend part of your fortunes helping others in need, not yourselves; visit those impoverished parts of the world, spend some real time there and show some generosity and spontaneity to those desperately in need.

A little humility and humanity may hopefully replace the spurious, metropolitan, fractious, ideology, one which seeks so readily to constrict freedom of speech and destabilize the moral standards of a tolerant and welcoming nation.

Why are good people demonised and compromised in free speech and self-determination? The great leaders in the Civil Rights Movement had a different ethos and understanding of justice, intervention, and protest. Peace and change, so eloquently charged and given, were entirely possible without confrontation, alienation, and deliberate challenges to accepted moral rectitude. You can move mountains with a collective passive energy and determination!

Compare that to a pathological trajectory of overpaid media and sports personalities and their disciples; huge, obscene wages and accompanying egos, they have little respect and propriety for a long-suffering public. Taking the knee and inflammatory arm gestures do not have a place in our open democracy, rather it is complicit with the disgusting abuse and contempt shown by sports stars and celebrities; the very same ones who sate themselves on an elixir of vanity and self-gratification. They promote gambling, often inflicted on the poor and dispossessed, on an industrial scale, shamelessly, feeding off the energies of “Globalisation” of their sports and the profligate greed and shame of their promoters; they are utterly remote from ordinary people whom they prey upon, rather they are part of a spurious machinery devoid of compassion and decency, and debase the true spirit of Sport. There are exceptions to the rule, and one would hope they denounce the degradation of professionalism and the proliferation of commercial pariahs, instead articulating a new ethos towards inclusiveness, fairness, and reciprocity!

In a display of divisiveness, arrogance, and entropy, one sees a rapid decline from an exalted, though often hedonistic, status of true sportsmanship, to something caustic, utterly destructive, and meaningless, spiralling and plummeting to oblivion; sliding into the abyss through decadence, ignorance and greed is not new to “evolved” cultures of the past! What happened to the universal simplicity and appeal of traditions in Sport and Media, the consummate professionals? Avarice, and mediocrity has usurped the power and traditions of much vaunted, esteemed institutions.

Perhaps some humility, less jewels in the crown, and no more branding will offer some restitution! An escape from the vulgarity of excess and sycophantic tribalism is surely an altruistic path worth pursing, relegating the premier league superstars, to a more sedate life of learning and understanding; the spirit of excellence and endurance are not about money and possessions, indeed one could denounce such aberrations as utterly meaningless, devoid of beauty, urbane significance and in denial of universality, love, compassion and the bountifulness of human endeavour. A life is not defined by covetousness, rather, it is a betrayal!

Postscript

Amongst the great and the good, there are the true stars, who in the face of the Covid-19 Pandemic, are saints, elegantly and selflessly dedicating their skills and energies with supreme diligence and sagacious dedication, without adoration!. From all corners of the world, narrating the profound, accepted, cultural diversity of our nation, they displayed a collective, unfailing courage, utter professionalism and an everlasting humility and humanity. They were and are real stars! Not a glitteringly grotesque sycophantic superstar amongst them!

No evidence, at any time, of giving the knee either during interviews, or pre-op, and no black or green power gestures, akin to a European movement of the 1920’ No sickening display of hedonism, or self-consuming egotism, instead, a sublime enduring effort across all groups, one typical of an informed and benign society; it defines who we are and sheds a light on our inclusivity, though imperfect as is it, full of prejudices and contradictions, it is most typical of the human condition, both profound and esteemed.

One should therefore, be watchful of the silent majority and the many eloquent, erudite trustees of decency and democracy; the ephemeral nature of the current “beast” although hideous and hostile, has certain limits, imposed by its very own base, degenerative, culture of ignorance and greed.

You are a dissolute adversarial minority; be aware, save lives and join the meek!