FED UP !

I'm fed up. 

I'm fed up with the lies and dissembling of our politicians, most being egotistical and self-serving and paying no attention to their electorates. The higher they climb the 'greasy pole' they worse they become.

I'm fed up  with the utter rubbish on television and radio. So-called 'music' that is, at best, a cacophonous row, endless repeats, or programmes about 'social issues'. Dramas that are nothing but political comment or the pretentious adventures of some juvenile director. Modern 'edgy' comedy, meaning puerile and scatological humour.  

I am fed up with being told what I cannot say. I cannot say 'nigger' but 'fuck' is perfectly acceptable. I cannot say 'yid', but I can say 'arsehole'. I can't say 'queer' or 'shirt lifter' for fear of being accused of 'homophobia'. Since when were words the province of the State to say which we can or cannot use ? Since when could we no longer express personal opinions without fear of prosecution ?

I'm fed up with having to be careful about what I say in case I might offend someone, whether they're standing next to me or are miles away. I'm fed up with the 'snowflake generation' who can't bear to be upset, so refuse to allow opinions to be voiced or speakers to be heard.

I'm fed up with 'experts' who are trotted out to tell me how to live my life. Don't drink alcohol, don't smoke, don't eat red meat, eat less sugar, salt, processed food, become 'vegan', lose weight, wear a condom, ride a bicycle, produce less carbon dioxide, use less plastic. Whatever happened to freedom of action and individual responsibility ? Have we forgotten that 'experts' can get it wrong ?

I am fed up with being monitored for everything I do. State surveillance, street cameras, credit cards, the internet, you name it. How many jobs now require a police check, just in case you once did something wrong ? My local council might even check what I throw away, in case it's in the wrong bin.

I am fed up with being told that 'abnormal' is 'normal'. Look at any dictionary. 'Abnormal' is what the minority, usually a small minority, do. Work it out. Homosexuality is not 'normal', nor is the strange garb worn by some who follow odd religious codes. Abnormal but not wrong either; we don't need to distort the meanings of words to tell the truth.

I'm fed up with being told that we must 'support' those who are 'less fortunate'; drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes, criminals of all sorts and the rest. They made their choice, they should live with it. Why should the rest of us be made to pay for their voluntary actions ?

I'm fed up with being hounded by beggars, whether on the street or the television; those who demand monthly amounts of a specific size annoy me most, but they all piss me off. Buy 'The Big Issue', give to a 'food bank', support a leopard, donkey, elephant or whatever, for 'only' so much a month. This isn't charity, it's big business.

I'm fed up with the way that 'celebrities', whom nobody older than 12 seems to know, are foisted upon us as if they are some sort of divine beings. I'm fed up with hearing of assorted honours and advantages being bestowed on 'celebrities' who have really done no more than their jobs, for which they've been handsomely paid already.

In fact, I'm fed up with 'celebrities'.

I'm fed up with being told that the latest 'noise' is really fantastic music and being expected to like it. 

I'm fed up with whatever the latest 'dance' is, the 'floss' or anything else.

I'm fed up with economics 'experts' who predict calamity, or fortune, without any semblance of realism but who express their forecasts as if delivered from the hand of God himself.

I'm fed up with hearing that tax avoidance is immoral and that I should not use legal means to reduce my tax bill. Avoidance is legal, evasion is not; to equate the two is morally and ethically wrong, and yet plenty of 'experts' tell us it's not.

I'm fed up with being told what hard lives our children have these days. Has everyone forgotten about children as chimney sweeps or that we all used to leave school, and go to work, at 12 ? No colleges and universities in those days; no 'gap years', just work.

I'm fed up hearing that so many are 'in poverty'. What ? Does no one have any notion of what 'poverty' is ? 8 to a room in back-to-back terraced houses, that's poverty. Having no food or water, no clothes other than the ones you're wearing, holes in your shoes, if you have shoes, that's poverty. Not being able to afford the latest mobile 'phone isn't poverty.

I'm fed up with finding the places of my youth now populated by people of alien cultures, to such an extent that I don't recognize them and feel like a foreigner in my own land. I'm fed up with being told that I have to adapt my ways to those of immigrants, rather than vice versa.

All-in-all, I'm pretty well FED UP !