I missed last week because I basically felt a little washed out – mainly for reasons that friends and family already know about but isn’t something I can share online.
Anyway, since then, I’ve added a post about understanding that being mediocre / one of the masses isn’t a bad thing. We are all individual and not all of us can be blazing comets of success (which is just as well because they can crash and burn). I admit this does address some of the washed out feelings I was having.
Another thing I want to mention this week is the “Racist Van” you may have heard about in the news and online [BBC News article here: External Link]. Specifically, I want to talk about “outing” immigrants. It really isn’t a bright idea and there’s every reason to believe that this is leading towards a Fascist outlook if not outright Fascism [Scriptonite Daily blog post here: External Link].
Why isn’t it a bright idea? Well, the UK Government is basically sending a message to the effect of “the enemy are among you” to the general public, already bombarded with them-and-us propaganda / comments about every factor of life: ability, income, number of children, sexuality, gender, religion, and on and on. The UK Government is saying, as with plenty of other policies made recently, that life would be better and easier for the rest of you who are barely scraping by if we could only get rid of this bad element. But how do we identify these people, these illegal immigrants? By the obvious that we can all see and hear: by their skin colour, by their accents, by their public religion. The Government hasn’t told us to do so but once the pot has been stirred, what else are we to do?
The thing is, while some people may be immigrants, they are not illegal. And there are plenty of families who have been here for generations. (Normans, Anglo-Saxons and Jutes, I’m looking at you. Go back to Normandy, Germany, the Lowlands and Denmark any time you like. It’s not like you were invited. I may come with you if I’m not Romano-British enough.) Illegal immigration isn’t some kind of badge to be worn publicly. As with disability, and homosexuality, and religion, and the ability to have children, and so on and on, these things are not always obvious. And, yes, like the disability thing, it could affect me should I stop being of use to the UK Government or the mob they seem to be trying to form. After all, I’m an immigrant, too (see here and here, amongst others), even if I speak with a Northern English accent and have a comfortably Anglophone name. Maybe it’s due another blog post or another story…
Also, no news on the Ink Plan.