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All
Touch And No Contact
Cliff Richard sang a song once, 20
years ago, It’s so funny, how we don’t talk anymore.
At the time, it seemed to me as just another love song, although
maybe a cut above the rest as it was Cliffy. Now I’m not so
sure. Not because I’ve become less of a Cliff Richard fan. If
anything these days I’m more. The other day I even enjoyed
listening to a Barry Manilow CD. Reaching your 30s does funny
things to a person apparently.
But it’s not just me. The fellow
downstairs from me does the same thing as me and he is a
fashionable young man who couldn’t be past his mid-20s. He
listens to an ‘oldies’ radio station at high volume; just
like me in my car. What’s more, I know that the young
listenership of these kind of programs is growing. Why? There
is, after all, a wealth of super pop music out there and other
youth related styles. It’s not for lack of new music that
these young people are listening to the music of their parents
and grandparents.
The reason is this: Content. Everyone I
have spoken to on this issue raises the same point. A lot of new
music is more about the marketing potential than the expression
of a genuine idea or emotion. This is nothing new as every
generation accuses the following generation of having lost the
plot.
Now why does it matter who listens to
which songs? Surely I’m just wasting your time here; you could
be reading a magazine, watching a movie, surfing the net or
taking part in a host of other pastimes available to you. I
choose music to approach this subject because it is my passion
and pop music and culture are a sure indication of how a society
is meeting the need of its participants.
Back to the song: It’s so funny,
how we don’t talk anymore. We don’t, do we? There was
another song from around the same time by Rough Trade that went,
All touch and no contact. This, if anything, is more
appropriate to my point. Everything we do these days sees us
being touched in many ways by messages. Many of these messages
are obvious, the billboard that says drink this or smoke that,
but there are many messages that are more hidden or insidious
like the T-shirt that has a picture of a particular sports star
wearing a brand of shoes.
Now here’s one you probably never
thought of: the movie with the star and the people who have that
certain ‘look’. This film is no more than an advert for
itself. The script for this movie is not written by someone with
something to say. It is written by an investment corporation.
Movies are big money; invest so many million to get a return of
so many more million - if the pitch is right and the pitch must
be right because investors hate to lose. A marketing exercise
pure and simple, all touch and no contact, we don’t talk
anymore.
As well as being a Disc Jockey, I do
film reviews for a local radio station. This means that I go see
at least one new release a week, sometimes many more. I have
traditionally been a fan of the Hollywood movie. It’s good
entertainment pure and simple. I like pop music for the same
reasons. Right now though, I’m not so happy. A great many of
the films that I go to see and the songs that kids are asking me
to play are contentless displays of self-affirmation as part of
a particular lifestyle or image (I’m doing my level best
not to be a stick in-the-mud here). Their message, if there is one
at all, is a very poor second to image. But these are the
touches that are being clamored for more and more.
It’s a drug of sorts, partaking of
the contactless touch. The thrill has no lasting hold on the
soul so you need more and bigger touches to feel that you still
belong. This is the very thing that pleases the corporate
investors. You want more and so you will see more, do more, pay
more. When we buy these things, we send the message: novelty
sells and content is unnecessary to the whole experience.
Corporations, of course, oblige. If movies and pop songs were
all there was to this then maybe things wouldn’t be so bad,
but they’re not. Remember, they are an indicator of our deeper
lives.
Americans have long been the butt of
jokes about having a therapist or support group for everything.
And this is, in itself, sad. But why do people need these
therapists and support groups? Simple. They feel that in some
way their lives are empty. This is not a thing to be laughed at
or brushed aside lightly. It used to be that the dispossessed
were a small group of people who were easy to marginalize and
forget. Now, I believe that it is the whole of society that has
become dispossessed. We are all in the margins of a few investor’s
ledgers.
All of our lives are full of touch with
no contact and we most certainly don’t talk anymore. Stop and
think; when was the last time that you had a real conversation
with a friend or loved-one (therapists and support groups don’t
count here), not about passing issues but told the stories of
who you really are and what is happening to your heart and soul.
If I’m right here, your answer won’t be good. Almost all of
our relationships are becoming corrupted, and we are letting
them, for a reason invariably more economic than anything else.
There is a major gap in our social
needs that is only getting wider as more and more of us fall for
the corporate line that we are being spoon fed. It's all image
and no content. People feel as if they must be perfect in every
way before they step out the door to connect with others. I
don't know how long this can go on before there is a kind of
revolution. The stirrings are already there in the violence at
those summit meetings - not to mention rabid gunmen. We, as a
society of individuals, are coming unglued. All of these
anti-social behaviours are a result of the lives that we lead.
The business owner who believes that he
has no investment in the people he employs and the employees who
allow (or are forced to allow) their needs to be whittled away.
The man who finds sport or his car more interesting than what
his wife, kids and friends feel. The woman who feels that there
is greater solace in a glossy magazine or tv talk show than
meeting a new person. These are now much more the norm than the
exception.
So what is the solution. Many a
therapist, religious leader and self-help expert have presented
their ideas, and some of them are good. But what I suggest is
perhaps more grass roots. Talk to your neighbor. Ask how he or
she is, really is, not just politeness. Use the telephone and
call someone who you haven’t rung for a while. Write some of
your stories down and let others read them (or even better send
them to Tintota). Be prepared to face who you really are and how
you feel, and here’s the tougher bit but where the rewards are
to be found - share these things.
Make changes in your life so that the
things that you have and do are supporting you, not just
reinforcing a certain image or financial need. Leave a boss who
refuses to value you as a human being. Boycott products and
companies that are profiting from contentless products or other
forms of human misery. Teach your children to do the same, to
choose products and services that have a lasting message and
value rather than novelty that will fade in moments. This is the
only way to send the message to the corporate investors that
peddling rubbish is not a healthy thing to do for the future of
society (or in this case their pockets).
Most people feel that leaving an
unsupportive employer or displaying their feelings is a weakness
that is tantamount to suicide in our society/economy. Yes, this
is an issue. But not nurturing yourself is surer suicide, not
just for you but for your children. Bosses who don’t value you
don’t know the meaning of the word loyalty. They will
downsize, overwork and make you redundant to suit their
short-term profit desires. People who bottle things up explode
in anger or collapse in illness and depression. Do you want to
be living an unhappy, unfulfilling life, one that requires you
to spend time and money on therapists, support groups and
divorce lawyers? As a society, the revolution cannot be far
round the corner. People can only lead pointless empty lives for
so long before they bust out. Maybe we can make this revolution
easier by starting it earlier in our own genuine ways.
Don’t make the mistake of taking the
easy road. I recently watched a documentary on tv about a family
who had to go without packaged food for a month. It was most
fascinating and scary. These people just couldn’t cope without
frozen meals. They had to learn how to cook and eat as a family.
They hated it and seemed disturbed when the diet of ‘real food’
made them lose weight - something that they plainly needed to
do. We are all to blame for the way our society is. Society is
not something that gets passed down from on high. It happens as
a result of the everyday choices that we make. Launch your own
revolution right now. The more that you let others package your
life for you, the more you let them profit from you. MSG is a
flavor enhancer not flavor. Life arises from living not
consuming.
Gill Scott Heron once said that “The
revolution will not be televised.” This time I think that he
might be wrong. As soon as there is a new trend, the marketing
men will take it up, gut it and sell it back to us as they have
done since at least the 1950s. We must be very careful that,
this time, we don’t let this happen. Don’t let your new
leaders be paid massive salaries. Even better, shun the new
self-proclaimed leader. Ask yourself what it is that you want
and need and how you can help provide for the needs of others
around you. I think that you will find that this will require
little to no real financial expenditure, just a bit of time,
honesty and caring that will repay itself amply.
Let’s make Cliff Richard’s song
just that again, a nice love song, as we get to talking together
more.
- Benedict Roff-Marsh
Kangaroo Point, Queensland, Australia.
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