From Hero to Zero in Six Short Years

Re-watching the one hour BBC special “The Golden Games” about the 2012 Olympics.

It’s painful – physically painful.

It recalls a time, just six short years ago, when this country could hold its head up high and be proud of itself instead of head down and ashamed.

It was a time when we showed the world how to do it right instead of be a model of how things should not happen.

It was a time when people of vision created and shared something unique and truly magical instead of withdrawing behind hatred and insular arrogance.

It was when we said to the world, “Come join us, it’ll be fun” – and it was, instead of telling everyone to go away because we don’t like you.

It was when tens of thousands of like-minded people gave their time and energy for free to help our city and our country look good and to give everyone else a great time instead of railing against our neighbours and withdrawing from everything that means anything.

It was when we had influence and power and showed how to use it for good instead of being a mean-spirited nobody hiding in the dark fringes of civilisation.

It was a time when being British wasn’t embarrassing.

I miss that time, just six short years ago. I miss it terribly.

Straight Actors in Gay Roles

The BBC published a story about actor Darren Criss who announced that after playing the gay character of Andrew Cunanan in American Crime Story: The Assassination Of Gianni Versace, he wouldn’t be playing any more gay roles because it deprives gay actors of that opportunity: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-46660373

This really – and I mean really – pisses me off.

Apparently, when you are acting, it’s okay to pretend to take on any of the attributes of someone else *except* their sexuality (and, presumably, their skin colour).

That’s some sort of half-arsed “reserved power” that can only be exercised if the actor shares that specific attribute.

Utter bullshit.

That is NOT what equality is about.

Frankly, it’s fucking patronising and I hate that sort of condescension with a vengeance.

Revolving Doors and the Future of Humanity

If there’s one thing that convinces me that humanity has reached the end of its growth process and is now at a complete evolutionary dead end, it is our inability to deal effectively with an unpowered revolving door.

Tower Bridge has to employ people – at quite a generous hourly rate – to stand outside and ensure that visitors don’t just stand there, feebly waving at the “Push” signs on the door, or try to ram their entire family of five obese adults into a single door compartment, or try to push it in the wrong direction, or decapitate themselves as it revolves.

As anyone who has read my Facebook posts over the years will know, my opinion on the capabilities of my fellow humans has never been terribly high.

Watching the planet’s most advanced species get totally and utterly stumped by a few pounds of rotating glass door has sunk it to a new low.

Disastrous climate change can’t happen fast enough in my view…