UGLY

"You're ugly"

Can their be two words that are more hurtful?

"He's ugly" "she's ugly" "he looks like shrek" etc etc. People seem to love calling each other ugly. You hear at least one person being insulted about the way they look everytime your outside. Everyone differs in degrees of sensitivity and everyone is different in what their sensitive about. So being called ugly may not bother some people. Some people may not care about how they look. it's just not that important to them. Other people however are not so lucky. Some people become so consumed with the perception of how they look it becomes an obsession. To the extent they feel they can't even leave the house. Their is a name for this: Body dysmorphic disorder. In a way it's unfortunate it's been named because it makes it sound like another thing people use to feel sorry for their selves and get attention. It will no doubt grow in "popularity" by the kind of people who say "iv'e got issues" even though they don't have a clue what it's like. It's a real shame that their being a name for it might cheapen this psychological illness. Because it's effects are far more devastating than you might think. This isn't just about haveing a bad hair day. Having body dysmorphic disorder means you constantly believe everyone is looking at you. Everone is judging you. All eyes are on you. And they are thinking about how ugly you are. Even if their not saying it out loud their thinking it. "I dont look like anyone else." "I look differant", "I look wierd." "like an alien." "How dare I even go out?" "my nose is bigger than anyone elses" "my whole head and body are misshapen" Such thoughts can make sufferers feel suicidal. Such a complete lack of confidence (and that's an understatement) manifests its self in body langauge, always prompting people to think the sufferer is "shy." It's unlikley that being called ugly a few times will make someone feel like this but rather one or more big bad events in someones life can trigger such an anxiety. And when someone is then told their ugly or told "you look like such and such" it feeds their anxiety. Even if someone doesn't seem hypersensitive about their looks it could be secretly knawing away at them. And it's the people who keep things bottled up who things effect the most. So the next time you go to say "you're ugly" or "you look like such and such" Stop, think-don't be a wanker.

The military-aaaarrrrgggggggggg

"Just miles from your doorstep, hundreds of men are given weapons and trained to kill. The government calls it the army." And so goes a quote from the simpsons.

Without the army there could be no war. A simple truth yet that seems to be a controversial and little held view point. At the most the media are questioning of the government but insist on constantly calling the army "our heroes" "our boys" and "brave young lads" etc. Another favourite of the media's is saying "our brave soldiers are fighting for our country" They are NOT fighting for the country at all. Wars have absolutly nothing to do with citizens. They are about politicians fueds over power and money. If politicians have a disagrement with eachother and want to fight about it they should be put in a ring and made to fight it out themselves! Sounds absurd doesn't it. But then so is war. If your son is fighting in Iraq he is out killing and blowing the limbs of innocent people including children. There is nothing honourable or brave about being in the army. And it's long overdue people got out of that absurd mindset. People allow themselves to be brainwashed by the media. If you are in the army you are a tool. Nothing but a Pawn in the governments real life game of chess.

Corporate owned youth culture

Being young used to be about rebellion. About challenging and changing the status quo. Now corporations seem to “own” youth culture. Rather than company’s following what young people like the opposite seems to be true. Company’s are telling young people what to like and worryingly people seem to be following along like good little slaves. Everything from bland, homogenised manufactured pop to whole TV channels are aimed towards young people and unfortunately they seem to be lapping it up. Truly this is the commercial, materialistic age. Channel 4 have their own youth programming block called T4 made up of squeaky clean presenters, loads of sponsors, Hollywood stars plugging their latest mainstream movies and manufactured bands miming to music. Surely if there is going to be a block of programming aimed at young people, showing things such as music it should include no holes barred music videos such as hard rock music and provocative, subversive programmes. But T4 shows manufactured boy bands such as take that and boyzone. Your never going to see Marilyn Manson on T4. Or E4, or any other Mainstream media outlet aimed at teenagers. A slot of programming for young people should be completely unapologetic and risqué but everything about T.V. programmes for young people scream out “we don’t want to offend” everything about youth culture is a plastic, commercial, populist joke. Like a kids show, T4 is on early on a Sunday morning, the very time teenagers are least likely to be up watching T.V. (after a night spent on a street corner drinking buckfast) It's timeslot and the fact T4 is produced by Andy Peters is representative of the fact T4 seems to be aimed at children-not teenagers. In fact channel fours youth programming seems to be aimed at everybody but teenagers-it’s so safe it seems to be aimed at kids and old people. Hollyoaks is very popular among the elderly. In fact I think that’s where most of its audience lies! T4 presenters are just as vacuous and annoying as the show itself. Channel 4 doesn’t have one discussion show to discuss the big issues in life yet when big brother is on they devote an hour of air time every day to discussing it. I’m not saying programming with adult content should be on during the day, I’m saying provocative programmes should be on at night for people to discover for themselves when they have a natural want for something subversive. And I don’t think things like T4 should be on at all. Why should kids and teenagers be forced to endure such rampant commercialism? When a person is a child and a teenager their brain is just developing, who knows what harm trash such as “Temptation Island” is doing?! The idea that teenagers have become complacent slaves to neatly packaged products specifically targeted towards them is an extremely depressing one. Are teenagers really content to sit and watch T4? I sincerely hope not.

Religion-Aarrrrrgggggggggggg

Religions stem from “holy books” such as the bible. Texts that where written thousands of years ago. Texts that proclaim the existence of a god-an all seeing, all powerful being that none of us can see and whom there is no evidence for. If we lived in an ideal world religion might be fine. People are entitled to believe what they want to believe. But have you noticed how religion attracts horrible people? People who want to have control over others. People who want to have control and influence over society. People who will not take part in a mature, civilised discussion-about something that they themselves believe in and the complexities that their beliefs cause! When authorities are making decision they consult religious figures-so called “community leaders.” As someone who is not a slave to religion I find this infuriating. Why the hell should people have a say in the law just because they subscribe to a certain belief. I was never more angry than when, after the 7/7 London bombings muslim “leaders” where invited to 10 downing street to discuss ways to stop terrorism when it was their beliefs that lead to the bombings and people being killed in the first place. Why should people be invited to meet the prime minister and have a say on policies because they subscribe to blatantly absurd beliefs? Those clever enough to be independent thinkers will ironically never have so much say. I think that’s one of the reasons people subscribe to religions-power in numbers! Religion causes countless confrontations, arguments, fights and wars while those sane enough to not believe sit on the sidelines watching. Religion has an unfair power over all of us. For example imagine what TV might be like if it wasn’t for religious prudes who insist on complaining. And how many times has someone got at you for saying “Christ” when it is their religion that has indoctrinated us into us saying that in the first place! And how can the word “Christ” be offensive when their symbol is “Christ” bleeding on a cross!