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Worzels World - Straight Talking in a Topsy Turvy World

 

 

I’ve got a mate who reckons that it’s about time to shape up or ship out. He reckons we need to do some straight talking to a few crooked people because if we can’t square things up, everything is going to turn pear shaped.

There’s no doubt about it, the world at large is way out of shape. Ship shape and Bristol fashion it is not. And I believe Bristol is not what it once was either. It seems to me that everything these days is upside down, inside out and generally out of kilter.

Every now and then I fall prey to the temptation to take the world seriously even though I know it can do no good. But rather, this too is probably detrimental to my health and well-being. After all, just about everything is these days. I'm certain it can only lead to depression and I can't afford the doctor or the drugs.

It is all too easy to become bewildered and confused, with leaders who lead by an example of dishonesty and theft, and of people who are in love with pettiness and mediocrity. Everywhere is incompetence and delusion, the downright sad, the tragic and the tawdry. And that's only in the women's magazines and the daily newspapers – the reality is often much worse.

Depression is considered a sickness these days but I contend that if you're not depressed now and then you have no understanding of the reality of the situation. When on occasion the enormity of the worlds problems become one psychological straw too many for this particular metaphorical camel, rather than reach for the medication I prefer to recall the many strange and amazing things I have seen during my decades on earth and muse upon the topsey turvey world it has become.

Exploiting the resources and labour of others is lauded to, but woe betide anyone insensitive enough to make a racist or sexist comment that cannot impoverish anyone except perhaps the person making it.

Once money was used by people to buy things, now it is a commodity to be traded.

It is obvious to the student of history or anyone who has simply lived long enough that there is a subtle thread of irony weaved into the rich tapestry of life. In these later days it has swollen into a fat rope of absurdity.

We live in 'the information age' which is, in reality, a misinformation age

The entertainment industry, rather than giving people what they want, instead, through hype and hoopla, persuades punters to accept what they are given.

The news media whose job it is to objectively inform, strive primarily to titillate and amuse.

It's tough going straight in a world where the crooked prosper.

If an individual is caught committing the heinous crime of exceeding the speed limit or failing to wear a seat belt they will feel the weight of the law upon them. If a

government department or a District Council break the law and fleece people of millions of dollars worth of real wealth, none are held to account and new laws are urgently drafted to make what was formerly illegal, legal. Wrong is deemed right by government decree.

Once spies were used to gather information on foreign nations to detect threats to our sovereignty. Now spies scrutinise their fellow citizens on behalf of foreign powers. Of the many criminals that thrive in today's society, many are not so much subject to the justice system as part of it. Likewise it is the law-makers who are too often guilty of transgressing the rules that they and former legislators created.

These days those that rob the poor and oppress the downtrodden are not ne'er-do-well low lifes skulking about menacingly in dark alleys. They are more likely to be leading lights in the finance or public service sectors wearing suits and ties and ensconced in plush well-lit corporate offices.

This pervasive irony has suffused politics and religion. Bill English, recently elevated to the office of Prime Minister, says he is a Catholic yet he happily presides over a government that sanctions abortion, same sex marriage, usury and Sunday trading. As far as I am aware hypocrisy has yet to be included on the list of desirable Christian virtues. I wonder how long a society that has hypocrisy as a predominant principle can survive. I expect we will all find out soon enough.

This country’s moral leadership is no longer the domain of political or church leaders. It is rather left to sportsmen such as Sonny Bill Williams who unlike Bill English is prepared to risk his livelihood by refusing to champion the brand of a parasitic financial institution. Woe betide any sports person who gets drunk or takes drugs. Yet politicians and businessmen who lie, manipulate and rob people blind receive accolades and knighthoods.

When as never before we need people with hard minds and soft hearts, only soft heads and hard hearts can be found. Most agree that the world has gone completely crazy but what do any of us do to stop it? What can we do to make it better? We all watched the world go mad and went along with it.

It is a topsey turvey world, but despite the adverse, inverse and perverse that boils away around us, if we look past the ways of the evil and the delusional it is still a beautiful world and life itself is still holy.

I think it’s best to treat it all as a comedy rather than a drama. After all, our stay on this planet is temporary. It may be absurd but it’s a pretty good show after all. Who but a God with a great sense of humour could have written such a script? One way or another it is the best entertainment going. So lets do our best to retain what sanity we have left and make the best of it?

n prof_worzel@hotmail.com

As far as I am aware hypocrisy has yet to be included on the list of desirable Christian virtues. I wonder how long a society that has hypocrisy as a predominant principle can survive. I expect we will all find out soon enough.

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