Write your guide to setting healthy boundaries in relationships.
This prompt could almost be asking me to write one of those self help books that people love if they agree with them and dismiss as rubbish when they don’t. The truth, of course, is that the self help writer is making money by saying, ‘This is what I would do, and you should as well.’ If you are like the writer you will find it helpful, if you aren’t you won’t.
How can I write a guide to relationships when I only have a narrow range of them? If, as seems likely, we are talking about romantic relationships, I have only had one and that’s the one I am in. Would you really take any instructions from me from such a small sample size of experience? Of course not and neither should you. Every relationship is between two unique individuals and they have to find their own unique paths to strengthen their bond. People who set themselves up as purveyors of advice or as counsellors are applying guesswork at worst and some measure of instinct at best. They may be lucky and they may help, but that will be more because they are similar to you, not because they have any great insights.
Talk to the other person in the relationship, get to really understand them on the deepest level and don’t listen to anyone else outside of that relationship.
The Newer Dogs James Bolam was never going to be an easy actor to follow, so when Denis Lawson was brought in as Steve McAndrew, a Glasgow cop, it was very much a case of waiting to see how he fitted in. His first couple of episodes played with the idea of the new guy […]
New Tricks: An Appreciation Part 3
In the early days of this blog I was going through a full rewatch of New Tricks, the BBC series. I wrote at length about the original cast in parts 1 & 2 of the appreciation, along with deep dives into a couple of stories. Part 3 reflects on the later years of the series, where the original cast were gradually replaced by a few set of Old Dogs. If you loved the series or don’t know it and would like to see what the fuss is all about, here’s a taster. Look under the New Tricks header and you will find some great little articles.
Do you think humans will ever colonize Mars? What would life there actually look like?
I really hope we never colonise Mars because if we do it will be for completely the wrong reasons. We will be doing so because incredibly rich men are intent on winning a competition that means nothing to anyone else. The Moon was only landed on so that one of the two super powers at the time could declare victory. Mars would not even have that flimsy justification.
If we look towards Mars it would only be self aggrandisement that drives it. The rich, in league with politicians, social media and the mainstream media, are destroying the environment on this planet and no doubt see Mars as Planet B, a get out of jail free card, to which they and their acolytes can escape. If they get there, they will no doubt try to make that planet more inhabitable, whilst not caring at all about making this planet less inhabitable. It reminds me of Hans Christian Andersen’s story of The Emperor’s New Clothes. We are the crowd being ordered to see how amazing the appallingly rich are, even if we know the truth.
Space travel has no purpose and no justification in our increasingly desperate times. Anyone who supports it is, almost certainly, doing so because they are actually looking at it as a measure of human progress. Superficially that is an appealing idea, but on closer examination it contains none of the idealism of the 1960s, merely the selfishness and cynicism of the 2020s. We are a worse species now than we were 60 years ago and a Mars trip, costing trillions that would be much better spent on saving this planet rather than exploring another dead one, would merely confirm that.
What’s your favorite meme?
Certain memes have developed currency in the past couple of decades. The woman shouting at the cat, the baby with the clenched fist, the man with his girlfriend turning round to look admiringly at another woman. The fact that almost everyone reading this will instantly know what I am referring to, indicates how these pieces of visual shorthand have become part of our shared experience. These memes are almost certainly unique in that they are the only true point of difference between the very largely offline world of the 20th century and the very largely online world of the 20th century.
This blog post I am writing is like the diary people kept for centuries where they transcribed their thoughts, their hopes and their fears. Anything that came into their minds could be written down. So far, so similar. Of course, most diaries were not shared with anyone else whereas a blog is designed to be shared with as many people as possible, but the principle is the same.
News used to, and for some still does, come in the form of printed papers. The fact that the two are still inextricably linked can be seen by the number of articles which appear in both versions. Of course, online news is constantly being updated. Actually, that’s not quite true, online news like the abomination that is 24 hour news is nothing more than clueless self important journalists gossiping in real time! It’s the worst thing that has ever happened to public discourse and I will never change in that opinion.
Word and Excel (other versions are available) are incredibly powerful but they are simply updated versions of older technology. AI is simply a version of advice that can be useful and can be anything but, like advice from any human being!
So, we return to my initial premise. The humble meme is genuinely the only innovation that exists in the online world and nowhere else. That’s got to create a reaction!!
I have been revisiting this set of posts, most of which were written 5 years ago and I am really pleased with them. Their mix of political, social, cultural and personal history is really good, though I say so myself! As I went through them, tidying up the odd thing, I realised that I hadn’t bought the music together under one roof as it were! So, I have put together a Spotify playlist for myself and anyone who might be interested. It’s well over 100 tracks and when I add the Christmas tracks to the end it might be nearer to 150!! If you read, and enjoy, the 9th entry, you can find the rest in the section Musical History. Happy reading. Here’s the playlist.
New broom, the same mess to sweep up Despite the wave of optimism that greeted the election of the Conservative party under Margaret Thatcher the previous year, it turned out to be a very grim year for the UK economy. Inflation reached almost 20% by the end of the year whilst unemployment was rising inexorably […]
My Musical History Part 9
David Pearce - Popular Culture and Personal Passions 