Progressively, as I got older, I used to think that nothing was as it seemed; the whole world was going mad….crackers…..ready for the “funny farm” and all that. Well, I don’t THINK that any more. Now I KNOW it is….. but more to the point, I think it’s ME “going around the bend” – and all because I have taken things too seriously for too long!
I mean, seriously, what’s the sense in taking seriously our culture, our governments, society’s pressure groups and officialdom in all its forms, when the messages we get from them all change with the wind and the mood of the time, almost daily? Have the most “unlearned” and unsophisticated of us been getting it right all along? Their mantra has been “just laugh at the world and roll along with the flow”! So what has brought on this burst of latent sanity and clear insight into how to handle the foibles of our modern-day society? It all started at a recent preChristmas party.
When our modern-day Aussie linguists tell us that something is “wicked”……they really mean that it isn’t actually wicked, but good, nice, pleasing even. And cool doesn’t really mean “cool” anymore; that’s “hot” now. But “hot” doesn’t actually mean “warm” (or over-warm) as it has for hundreds of years; that now means it’s good, nice, pleasing even. Are you paying attention? Did you get that?
Well, then we have the PC (political correctness) advocates. They’re close to the best comedy act around, often, these days.
A “chair” isn’t something we sit on any more. It’s someone (gender-neutral of course) who presides over a formal meeting now…….not a Chairman, a Chairwoman, or even a President (or “Lady President”, heaven forbid!). Of course, it’s simply out of the question to call a WOMAN a “LADY” (even though she might be….or might not be!). And (at risk of massive ridicule and bullying) a “girl” is no longer a “bird”, a “Sheila”, a “dame” (untitled of course) or anything else …..Other than a woman (even if she hasn’t yet reached womanhood status). But the crowning glory of absurdity in the Political Correctness armoury is …… we can’t even call GIN GIN “Gin Gin” anymore! Racism and all that wicked stuff, you know (or should that be “non-wicked?). Then we get to “our” Government spokesmen, officialdom in general – and economists and economic advisers, in particular.
For multiple generations, growing up, it was drummed into us that “saving is good, mounting debt is bad, surplus budgeting is the key to good fiscal management for individuals, households, businesses, and our governments”. It was good for everyone, wasn’t it? But no, not today. PostCovid (which scared the pants of just about everyone and sent many, including me, into periods of mental imbalance, it seems), borrowing and increasing debt are good…..or “wicked”, depending on your language preference. So now our public debt – that’s the spiralling amounts of borrowed money we DON’T give our governments after they have spent all the money we have given them – is to shoot up to astronomical levels (never reached before)….and that is good for us, now (or should I say “wicked”, again?). It’s all too much for a simple soul like me to take in and rationalize! I think I’ll just roll over and retreat into my genuine dreamland; at least the illusions are REAL there! By Colin Walker