…Plug?
The Diminished Wealth of the Late MJ
1-Jul-09…
A headline in today’s Metro…
“A bit strapped: £143m Jackson had just £400,000 in cash”
…to which I can’t help but comment…
For most non-global superstars, £400,000 could set you up for life!
If You Notice This Notice, You Will Notice… etc
You will often find these days, above or near a hot water tap, a sign reading something along the lines of…
Caution! Hot Water!
To which I would comment… isn’t the fact that it is a hot water tap suggestive of that?
“If You Don’t Ask, You Don’t Get”
Not true!
I have often “got” things which I haven’t asked for.
Lost, for example.
Or a cup of tea.
(although I am often asked if I want a cup of tea… does that count?)
So the truth of the matter is…
If you ask or if you don’t ask, you may or may not “get”.
But perhaps you are more likely to “get” if you ask…
Or not.
Whatever.
“Politeness Costs Nothing”
So they say!
But what if you drop a tenner on a busy street, and then wait politely while everyone walks past, until there is a sufficiently people-less space for you to bend down and retrieve your tenner, so that you don’t get in anyone’s way during the process of retrieval, during which time (which, if you are in London or New York or Tokyo or Berlin, during rush hour, may be a matter of hours) someone else has noticed your tenner and shoved everyone else out of the way to nab it for themselves, or said tenner has become so trampled upon that its state of defacement and general tattiness have caused it to become “non-legal tender”?
Then your politeness has cost you a tenner!
“Good” Vs “Happy” – aka The Utilitarian Quandary
As you will see from my comments thereupon, this blog entry…
“To Happiness or a Good Life?”
…has got me thinking about my core principles. To whit…
It would seem that I am (broadly speaking) a Utilitarian! Meaning that I believe (generally) in “the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.” This may perhaps seem somewhat wishy-washy, and the author of the above blog entry has even suggested that I should “leave my principles at the door,” to which I have responded, “Isn’t Utilitarianism a principle?”… and so far, at the time of writing, this is where our comment-based discussion stands.
But I would like to state herewith that I taketh not this principle lightly! I believe it is a very noble principle. And I believe, far from precluding any sense of moral “goodness,” to be a Utilitarian is to stand firmly by the notion of doing good… it is (in my opinion) by no means comparable to Hedonism (as perhaps may be hinted or suggested at), which is about the seeking after personal pleasure and happiness, but may well, for its adherents, necessitate a degree of personal sacrifice, if said sacrifice leads to (or is perceived or deemed to lead to) the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.
The author of the above piece (who is, amongst other things, a highly principled Christian fellow) has, upon my suggestion that Jesus Christ was (perhaps) Utilitarian, responded the He most certainly was not! Christ’s primary principle was that one should do good, from which personal pleasure may (or would, upon entering the Kingdom of Heaven) arise, but only as a secondary outcome. But I would suggest (and haven’t yet directly done so to the aforementioned author of the above, but no doubt will do so imminently (or if not, then indirectly, via his reading of this blog entry))… what is the point of “doing good” – apart from some vague religio-spiritual notion of “Goodness” – if one’s good actions do not lead, directly or indirectly, to the ultimate happiness of the recipient(s)? Could it not be said that the point of “doing good” is, in human terms (and from the more humanistic Christian/moral perspective), to increase happiness? One may help an old lady across the road, give money to or work for a charity, feed the starving, clothe and house the poor and destitute, etc… aren’t such actions (and many more similar ones) likely to lead to the increased happiness of the recipients? Or at least the children of the recipients, the grandchildren of the recipients, etc?
Hmm… I’ve just thought of an argument which opposes the above… I have, generally speaking, been talking about the human perspective… but what of the non-human? What if one believes in “the greatest good for the greatest number of living beings”? Can “good,” in this context, equate with “happiness”? By which I mean to say, can non-human living beings be said to experience “happiness”? And if we come to the conclusion that they (or at least not all living beings) cannot be said to ever be “happy” or “unhappy,” does this preclude such beings from being amongst those to whom we should “do good”? Should (in a Utilitarian sense) our “doing good” only be directed towards the overall goal of increasing the happiness of humans?
That’s put the Schrödinger’s Cat amongst the poisonous radioactive vials…
U Know UR Getting Old When…
U use txtspk ironically (at best)… or you don’t understand it (at worst).
You can’t get to grips with modern technology… or you don’t want to get to grips with modern technology. You miss how things used to be done. You miss your vinyl, your tapes, even your CDs; and even though you can see the practical benefits of MP3s, downloads, etc, it’s just not the same.
You start to become a nostalgia junkie. More than 50% of your brainspace is now taken up with memories, and you yearn for all aspects of how things used to be – even the bad stuff.
You commence a desperate journey to relive your childhood pleasures. You start to seek out music, films, places, people, books and computer games you once knew – via the Internet, Facebook, iTunes, etc, if you aren’t yet that old.
Youths make you feel nervous… even if they are perfectly nice, quiet, polite youths.
People in their twenties look like teenagers… and 50/60-year olds don’t look nearly as ancient as they once did.
Getting drunk is losing its appeal. Is a day of feeling sick, knackered and nursing a headache-from-Hell worth a few hours of expensive, possibly painful “fun”?
Going to the cinema is losing its appeal. “Why can’t those young folk just keep quiet?!” – “What’s the point of going to see a film if you are just going to talk all the way through it?!” – “I’m complaining to the management!” – etc.
You realize that complaining to the management of a cinema is pointless because they are just too young to care. Similarly re the supermarket, Boots, the train station, etc.
You’d rather be comfortable than fashionable – because the world’s not a fashion parade, you know!
You say, “In my day…” with not a trace of irony… !
“Hey, Idol! Can I have a pic?”
Billy Idol, that is. Who I dreamt last night I saw in the street, and who willingly offered me some classic Idol poses to record for posterity on my mobile phone – you know, a curled lip, a bunched fist, that kind of thing. It was a nice moment. It signified how some of the good things in life don’t change – like the platinum blond spikey-haired bonce of the aforementioned 80’s rocker (which may or may not, in reality, still be the “do” of choice of Sir Billiam (which Smash Hits used to call him), but in my dream it was). And it brought back some happy childhood memories of listening to twelve inch singles of White Wedding and Rebel Yell wiv me bro’. And then, of course, there was the smug, tingly feeling at having casually/chummily called out to the ex-Generation X frontman, who had then unhesitatingly consented to my snapping of his visage.
And Sir Billiam didn’t look a day over… well… a few years younger than he actually was…
Yes, I know, it was only a dream and all that kind of gubbins… but I got to share a “nice moment” with one of my childhood heroes! 
… Now I wonder if I can find that twelve inch of White Wedding on YouTube…?
Billy Idol – White Wedding (Parts 1 & 2 – Shotgun Mix)
Oh yes!
Revolution!
How many dissidents, radicals and extremists are hiding beneath conventional, conformist exteriors? When the revolution comes, how many business suits will be replaced with suits of armour? How many of us would die (or at least put ourselves at great risk) for a cause, a belief, an idea? How many of us believe – really truly believe – in something beyond ourselves? How many of us even have more than passing thoughts and drunken corner-of-the-pub “debates” about things beyond our immediate sphere of mutual influence? How many of us would be willing get on a “soap box” (or equivalent literal or virtual plinth) and shout to passing strangers about their perception of the truth? How many would openly and vehemently disagree with our “superiors” about their decisions and the source of their “superiority”? How many of us, come the revolution, would take up arms (literally or metaphorically) and fight for a new order or system or way of living? How many truly and passionately care about the big stuff…??
