The Mis-Reading of Reading

England truly is a strange little country.
Hemmed in on all sides by the sea and, where that is absent, by countries who, seemingly, don't want to associate with it, England is beginning to resemble an old-fashioned lunatic asylum in which the lunatics long ago took charge.
People talk at each other but hardly anyone listens to the few individuals who still talk with wise tongues.
If the insanity continues they too will soon be silenced.
On our little allotment down in South Gloucestershire Nosher and I try to insulate ourselves from the cultural insanity all around us by the simple expedient of getting on with our lives in peace and quiet, and tending to our crops.
But occasionally the idiocy of those who think they rule over us is revealed for what it really is: ignorant, asinine stupidity that expresses only their own desire to interfere in the lives of others without taking responsibility for the consequences.
Hardly a good example to set for others to follow.
And so, one afternoon, as we sat on our old deckchairs on the small patch of grass outside Nosher's shed, a topic came up which demonstrated this lamentable situation only too well.
It was Nosher who opened the batting.
'I hear that one of Gordon the Moron's Assistants in Idiocy, the Minister for Mis-Education, has announced that children should be encouraged to read more' he said gravely 'whilst at the same time local councils are closing lending libraries at an ever increasing rate because of the lack of support from central government. This is a clear case of political cynicism disguised as mere nonsense.'
We sipped our parsnip wine in silence while I mulled this statement over.
Up in the trees a Goldfinch was uttering its characteristic song, declaring its splendour over the plainer finches.
The sky was blue.
The sun shone.
The air was warm and a refreshingly cool breeze gently caressed the senses.
All, seemingly, was well with the world.
An observer looking at the scene would not, without possessing the necessary insight, guess that this was a culture in the throes of terminal decline.
But very few people in England today possess the necessary insight.
The government is not interested in people having insight, and it's debatable whether many of our politicians have any insight themselves.
And as for the mass media - it's all about sensationalism, pretentious intellectualism, and selling consumer products to an easily manipulable audience.
So the mass media are not interested in insight either, although they often claim to be. Insight does not make money these days (I doubt it ever did).
'The irony' I said 'is that libraries have tried to lose their elitist image by stocking DVDs and computer games, but the upshot is that they are struggling to get people to read more, and most of the books they loan out are trashy novels for mass-consumption. But the ability to read serious materials intelligently is something our democratic system depends upon, for without an intelligent, well-informed electorate democracy will wither and die. That is perhaps what the idiots who rule over us really wish to achieve.'
'But don't forget' Nosher sounded enthusiastic 'that our lending library system is capable of obtaining even the most obscure items through the inter-library loan system for serious scholars, so when a library closes the few who do use local libraries intelligently are effective suffering discrimination.'
'That is not what the government or the mass media are interested in' I countered 'discrimination apparently only happens to the ignorant and mis-educated masses or to disadvantaged ethnic minorities. Those intelligent, educated people who do not have the advantage of being members of a university library, yet who cannot afford to buy large quantities of books in order to fulfil their civic duty to maintain themselves as educated and well-informed members of the electorate, are effectively discriminated against when their local lending-library closes down. If the government or the mass media were at all seriously interested in making sure our democracy survives, that is what they should be concerned about. Instead they twitter on about disadvantaged minorities and translating Shakespeare into the clumsy, ugly, attenuated vernacular of rap so that it our cultural heritage is debased even further.'
Nosher sighed and looked up in the trees at the Goldfinch, still twittering away.
'It's a pretty bird' he commented 'with a voracious appetite and great vanity.'
He paused for a moment as if considering his next words.
'Just about sums our modern consumer culture up: relentless greed and uninsightful narcissisism.'
More from www.overthegardenfence.blogspot.com soon.
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