Alan Coleman

I can’t help but pick up on the latest tabloid hysteria, what with millions of examples left strewn across London on a daily basis. It is rubbish, which probably says a lot more about the people who read the stuff and cast it aside for someone else to pick up, before and after work.

Anyway, this entry isn’t about free papers and rubbish, it’s about one particular episode that quite literally screamed up from the gutter about a month ago. You may remember, apparently a soldier had been turned away from a Hotel in Surrey because it was the establishments policy not rent rooms to servicemen.

Oh how the hysteria caught hold! From Talk Sport to Radio 4 and from the Metro to the Sun. Shock horror, the death of respect and the end of decency! What have we come to? Why oh why?! You could just see Jeremy Clarkson spitting with fury over his stupid fucking walnut dashboard. My Brother even rang me up to ask me why, like I had the answer.

The rhetoric still continues to this day, most if it aimed at how servicemen are treated in the USA, the cheap travel and the whooping high fives in the shopping mall. This isn’t the States though, and young working class men in Great Britain join the military to serve in one of the finest armed forces in the history of warfare itself, not to pick up the odd free Chai Latte at Starbucks. There’s more at stake in the military than the trivialities of daily civilian life.

The thing is, there must have been some reason in the past why this decision was made at the Hotel in question. Someone just didn’t pipe up at a meeting on Monday morning and suggest a blanket ban on servicemen based on short hair and a slightly awkward appearance. No, more likely it was a decision based on a culmination of events probably involving alcohol, violence and the Police. Anyone reading this who has served amongst the ordinary ranks will have a good idea of what went on, and are probably smiling at the thought of it. In short, they didn’t behave themselves.

And as any soldier will tell you, not having to behave properly is one of the more enjoyable aspects of service life. But you can’t have it both ways. And it’s precisely the reason that these people are barred from these kinds of places that makes them so successful in their chosen profession. No?

And what of the outraged Daily Mail readers with their rose tinted idea of soldiers as the last great hope of British decency and service? Are they going to throw open the doors of those cherished little B&Bs down in the Cotswolds? Or how about allowing a Platoon from 3 Para to have their Christmas party in the local Crouch End Gastro “Boozer”?

Don’t fancy it? No.

Tabloid newspapers: You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.

All my favourite writers are American, as is most of the music I listen too, in fact it’s difficult to think of a culture outside of our own that has given my life so much pleasure. I re-read Steinbeck’s work over and over in the same way that I’ll be listening to Sonic Youth in thirty years time. I love the place, even though at the age of thirty five I’ve never been further west than the Gower Peninsula.

In terms of culture, technology and history they’ve given us so much to be grateful for. Yet when it comes to the task of government they have always failed to live up to expectation, now we’ve reached a point where even the idea hope has about it an air of failure.

Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Obama. These names have never been capable of anything more than the repellent self interest of their own celebrity. But after everything, even after the Bush family and giving up hope of the Whitehouse ever being able to live up to Jed Bartlett, I still refuse to believe that America can’t produce a set of individuals capable of government.

After only managing half of Wolf Creek last week I wasn’t in the mood for being upset by yet more violence. As it happens, along with sex and drugs, violence is one of this films underpinning themes. So I just sighed and got on with cringing at those realistic sounds of people punching each other in the face. Horrible.

The main story involves a group of middle class friends in Florida who have pretty much no direction in life and who only have sex and drugs in common. And there’s plenty of it too. Much of the film seems to be shot to make the viewers feel as if they too are part of the permanent state of high indifference.

The story has about it an inevitable sadness that is always going to end in disaster. The disaffected American youth, living a chaotic life of no direction and reliance on drugs for escapism. This scenario gives the film a dark sense of tragedy that begins during the opening scenes and worsens towards the end.

There are messages for Americans throughout this film. They are mostly about the relationship between the embedded culture violence, lack of education and drugs. In one of the final scenes, Marty’s brother appears with a T-shirt with, Dare to resist drugs and violence?, written on it. Most of all I think the message is about respect. The idea that everyone, even those whose lives societies look down upon, deserves an amount of respect. Even if it’s something as simple as saying their name properly.

This is essentially a Teen movie for grown ups. It’s disturbingly sexy, at times upsetting but also very funny and endearing. Also, it has a superb soundtrack that really adds a sense of menace to the sweaty Florida backdrop.

Essential viewing for anyone disillusioned with the formulaic nature of Hollywood, or for anyone else who wants to see a great film.

“Today, millions of Americans are saddened by the death of Terri Schiavo. The essence of civilization is that the strong have a duty to protect the weak. In cases where there are serious doubts and questions, the presumption should be in favour of life.” – President George W Bush.

Fine words coming from a man who, as Governor of Texas, executed more people that any other State Governor in the history of the United States. Under his watch Texas ranked last in virtually every aspect of social service provision, including those for the mentally ill, yet first in executions.

Only an individual with an overly pious religious belief would fail to see any kind of connection.

My starting point isn’t so much about the absurdity of capital punishment, rather the intensely religious drivers that always accompany such state sponsored death.

And we are dealing with life and death here, it’s okay to laugh off harmless Church of England fetes and coffee mornings, but when religious belief intervenes on matters of war, economy and law – things have definitely taken a turn for the worse.

Religious beliefs blatantly ignore ideas based on common sense in the same way that an over enthusiastic union official will throw the rule book at an employer. It’s that all or nothing approach that is so damaging to societies the world over, whether it be Sudan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, China or the USA.

We may take the piss out of the C of E, with its laughable carry on morals and vague implementation, but in reality it is an incredibly tolerant church. Fundamentalists like Bush and Bin Laden the world over could do a lot for freedom and humanity in taking a leaf out of their book.

The most dangerous aspect of this phenomenon is belief itself, the idea that handing ones life over to religion and living by it’s requirements absolves the individual of social responsibility, or any effort involved with the thought process.

In this respect religion is the easy way out, decisions based on faith require no justification purely because a God is involved and that should be the last word. In my opinion the ability to believe, which is not to be confused with trust, is one of the big let downs of the human race.

It is the sincere belief of being right above all practical evidence that makes religion within politics unacceptable in a modern society. For the leader of any nation, let alone a superpower, to believe that divine intervention will prevail over matters of moral or economic policy is as ridiculous as it is terrifying.

The ultimate example of this is of course George W Bush, a man elected for his religious beliefs over intellectual or moral capacity. A man who honestly believes that he has been anointed by God, and can’t see that his success is courtesy of the surge rightwards in the form of conservative christianity in the U.S.

Blair is another example, he has gone on record as quoting the importance of keeping politics and religion separate, however is that really possible when you are so committed to a faith that forms a large part of your life? What is surprising here is that he is obviously a fairly bright bloke, but again we can see a pattern of inability to consider that he may be personally at fault, even in the face of physical evidence. When compared to John Major we can see that this is some of the reason for his success, but I believe that ultimately it will also form part of his downfall.

We have to remember also that a religion is almost always conservative, this occurrence presents an unfair disadvantage to non believers like myself who live in a democratic country. We have seen a Labour party steered to a right wing path by a leader who has distinct religious beliefs, the connection is definitely arguable.

Surely as a leader one should be free form religious persuasion and concerned with the practical, if boring tasks of fiscal and political administration. The whole concept of using that platform to dispense moral guidance driven through spiritual belief, which in this context must be treated as fictional, is basically unacceptable.

This week Hurricane Katrina exposed the obvious shortfalls in American society, demonstrating in the most dramatic manner how rampant capitalism stumbles so easily into an apocalyptic despair, and how like anywhere else in the world it’s the poor that suffer most.

I’m amazed to see those people who even before the hurricane had nothing, pulling the stars and stripes from the water and flying it aloft, the symbol that more than any other represents a nation divided. Despite my head shaking in a way I can see why, maybe people need something to believe in at a time of dire desperation, if everything is gone at least pride and identity can be salvaged.

The reality of their leader will surely tarnish any comfort the victims may derive from token gesture nationalism. George Bush, never the sharpest tool in the box, epitomises an America run exclusively by obscenely wealthy white businessmen for their own ends. A society that prides itself on raw power, free enterprise and widely held myths surrounding entrepreneurship and the lack of social class. The very same society that can launch astonishing military campaigns anywhere and against anyone who incurs their displeasure, yet is incapable of helping its own people on the doorstep.

Now the Bushmeister, talking slowly enough to prevent all that shit spilling from his gob, announces that he will personally oversee the inquiry.

Almost every American I have met has had about them the endearing qualities of friendliness, honesty and humour, and it’s for this reason that as a body of people I have always held them in high regard. A naive view maybe, but despite their slightly embarrassing demeanour I can’t help but see a general level of decency. With this in mind I refuse to believe that the people of New Orleans where left to their fate because they where black or poor, more probable is the idea that America sees itself as invincible and would simply not believe that it could spiral into third world chaos.

Despite all that’s happened it’s good to see that they haven’t lost any of their brilliant, if unintentional sense of humour.

“Don’t call us refugees. Call us survivors, or heroes”.