The Twitter situation continues to make headlines (see below). As if the police did not get the message from the judiciary about the slender chances of convicting noxious use of the platform, another Twit was arrested, a 17 year-old, for making unpleasant comments, this week. It gets worse; a granny in some cafe was allegedly accused by the waitress of being stinky. The granny was so upset that she dialled 999 and the plod duly came out to the restaurant to remonstrate with the waitress and the management.
I wonder how the police have the time to do this. Shouldn't they be looking out for real criminals? Of course, as far as I know, no crime had been committed. The only way you could get nicked these days for this sort of thing is to publish a criminal libel, that is, communicating to a third party a libel about another which alludes to a criminal offence. Of course, if you come from certain minorities and feel in any way slighted, the cops will be all over you with condescending bounty. Had this granny some sense, she would have either put up or shut up. If she demonstrably did not smell she could have sued the cafe for slander. Of course, this option would have cost her money and the chances of winning would have been slim indeed.
This is play-ground stuff. He hit me, Miss. She pulled my hair, Miss. I am unsure why some people have lost the ability to stand up for themselves and must, at considerable waste of time and resources, use 999 as a first resort, but I have a theory.
People lack meaning in their lives. There is no focus. Most have a second-hand set of experiences gained by watching television. Deep down they know this is not real, but it makes them delude themselves for a moment that, having watched a program about Norway, they know about Norway.
Norway and Women who stink? It's all part of the simulacra; copies of copies of life which suppress the ability to think. What you end up with is shock and surprise. People are now so far removed from reality that almost anything can bring on an attack of the vapours. People buy chicken in Tescos, but it it does not convey the reality of animals whose existence consists of being injected with antibiotics, caged in squalor, so that their short, uncomfortable life can end in a shrink-wrap package with a picture of a jolly farmer on them.
People object to fox-hunting but that merely shows how arbitrary they are about animal suffering. If they really cared that much the meat industry would have collapsed long ago. It did not, because the comfort zone of dissonance is sufficient to protect them from anything that smells bad.
When the veil is lifted, for a moment, perhaps in a cafe or a public encounter, is there any wonder that the reaction is utter shock?
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