Russel Brand Was a Shagger, The Blind Generation, and Other Nonsense
Russell Brand was a shagger
The shocking revelation of the week, the year, the decade? Russell Brand shagged women. And not just one. Many.
His MTV or Big Brother programs were hunting grounds. Where he would make contact with women who came to see him. In concerts, in clubs.
But then, was this not the job description, the skill set, the entire CV. Promiscuous.
He was not front-paging because of his wit. He did not play his own character in many movies because of his emotional depth. Whether in “Get Him to the Greek”, or “Forgetting Sarah Mitchell”.
He wrote about it. Boasted about it. He gave interviews about it. He spoke about it, on stage, at The O2. Women, and men, smiled, laughed and clapped. Or ignored it entirely.
To make sure that there could be no confusion, he was Shagger of the Year 2006, 2007 and 2008 in the Sun. How shocking the revelations of this week!
Because the label on the tin was spot on? Maybe, that’s what was confusing.
Gen X, the blind generation
Gen Z doesn’t seem to take to the wonderful society we – Gen X – have built. Even more than the avocado munching Millennials, Zoomers seem apathetic, ambitionless, not engaged. They came up already with #quietquitting, #lazygirljob… They don’t seem to do politics.
Is it down to some strange generational DNA mutation? Some societal flaw triggered by … Covid, Social Media, socially frozen societies, … Billy Eilish? Maybe.
But whichever way your heart leans, it all starts with the lack of vision of Gen X. Coming into our own in the late 80s, 90s, we inherited a dynamic and trajectory set by the Boomers: computers, peace, incremental wealth. And brought it to a halt.
War, famine, disease, death? No issue, we have the playbook™. Identify subject-matter-experts, organise a meeting, discuss, confirm that none really has an answer, so that we will have to establish a process™. You organise the meeting. Not the solution.
If it is a Big Problem, then you create a charity. Sorry, an NGO.
What vision, what dynamic, what ambition could any of this give to Gen Z?
Inherit, nepo kid, all is going to be OK. What is the future proposed? Just listening, reading, watching, we Gen X seem somehow still proud of our “achievements”. What exactly over the past 20 years?
For Europe, this is an obsolete energy infrastructure, nuclear power used as a depreciation variable, windmills sprinkled willy-nilly over the landscape, and solar panels. And still not enough energy. By far. #sadface. Still, we had hydrogen, plasma, … even nuclear. But that would have required some investment into the future. 15 years ago.
Our social infrastructure disgracefully decays, at a faster rate than population ages. Health systems live off legends now 50 years gone. They are overwhelmed by vested interests and exponential needs. They are kept standing by sheer belief. Education plummets. Our societies are kept under control with the age-old “Panem and circenses”. Institutions slowly calcify, bleached like a coral reef.
Our societies are kept upright by the echoes of dead ambitions in marble corridors. We, Gen X, drained them of reality through a lack of vision. Maybe we were led to believe that we inherited perfect societies. Truth is, what did we do that would make Gen Z feel inspired? The Millennials showing around the corner seem chips of the old blocks, all careers and charities.
We still have around 10 years to change that if we want our kids to inherit something.
My body my world
Overturning Roe vs Wade in the US marked the end of 50 years of access to abortion. 50 years should have been sufficient to pass the relevant US legislation, especially with presidents such as Clinton and Obama.
Abortion, whichever way you lean, comes down to the way you fundamentally look at your life. Do you own it? Or do you owe it to something else? Society, family, etc…
On a program discussing End of Life, a Health Minister off-handedly remarked that doctors knew more about pain than the patient as they dealt with it every day. Either they go through hell, or it was the patients’ pain. In which case the relevance of his and their esteemed opinion is exactly 0.
How much is your body your decision? All of it.
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