I kept ABC on in the background last night to get a feel for the thing - they had a Red Carpet special – with a bubbly presenter interviewing all the stars as they arrived for the big night. Amazing how MUCH fabric the males wear and how surly they are, and how LITTLE fabric the females drape on, and how gushy they are. I really feel I need to use words like ‘fawning’ and ‘sycophantic’ at this point. The mutual admiration, air-kissing, preening, posing. The interesting thing is that most are not great people who have significantly improved the lot of humanity – they are often small-time time wannabes caught up in the fame-game, and adored by the significance starved audience in TV-land. (The one real star who won an award and who for years has honed his craft as an actor – and humanitarian; Paul Newman, didn’t bother turning up for his award).
Ironically today was Martin Luther King Day – a public holiday in honour of the reformer who gave his life for a grand cause. Very little airtime on the big networks for that – not with the ‘Globes on. Double irony, the main news item is about a series of crimes where homeless men have been beaten to death by teens... homelessness is a big issue in this global superpower!
It made me think again about how the powers of out age anesthetize and sedate us with a fantasy world that distracts us from reality – we live the Truman show! Do you remember Zaphod Beeplebrox – the president of the Galaxy in Hitch-hikers Guide To The Galaxy: “The role of the president is not to wield power but to distract people from those who do.”
Makes you think...
MLK's speech:
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
