There's a great piece in today’s Observer by Richard Dawkins, it's a ramble through his week, his views, his interests and his frustrations. He's spot on about all the hoops we have to jump through every time we go anywhere near an airport. He links to a fascinating piece about just how impossible it is to cause a chemical reaction capable of bringing down a plane with the contents of one's hand luggage. In spite of this, every time we go to Stanstead airport, my girlfriend has to put a tiny bottle of moisturiser in a clear plastic bag before going through security - but they only tell you this at the front of the queue. After which she is then made to take off her flip-flops in case they contain explosives. I'm thinking of writing a screenplay for Samuel L. Jackson called 'Bomb in a flip-flop.' It's no more ridiculous than snakes on a plane except the resulting explosion would only be enough to blow the lid off a milk sachet/carton (what do you call those things anyway?)
We should all take a leaf out of Richard Dawkin's book. He doesn't rail against religion because he doesn't believe in god, I'm sure he's more than happy to let individuals believe whatever they want, just as long as it has no impact whatsoever on the rest of our lives. Reading his piece, he clearly allows this common sense to steer the rest of his life and he can't understand why the rest of us blindly walk into a police state every time the government plays the terrorism card.
When are we going to remember that we live in a democracy and that the MPs we elect are meant to represent our interests? We need to start blogging about meaningful things instead of - 'Check out this new twitter application', or 'I really like this new ad'. It reminds me of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy when the hairdressers and economists have the chance to set up a new civilisation and all they do is create money from leaves and then invent a blue hexagon and call it a wheel. We have a chance to change things, to exchange views, influence society rather than just exchange random tidbits in the playground of advertising, swapping today's equivalent of football stickers and other trivia. What a waste.
It's why I haven't blogged for ages. I'm genuinely disheartened by the all the pseudo Russell Davies blogs. He does it, that's his thing, he does it well. Please, the rest of you, blog about something you really care about, write something that matters, that represents who you really are rather than just some very narrow industry version of yourself. Have an opinion, don't just jump on the bandwagon and blindly follow the crowd. Don't be afraid to have views on real subjects and real issues. It will be a hell of a lot more interesting than all the cobblers that's flying around on most of the blogs listed in the left hand column of this page.
If the printing press had just ended up being used to print bibles, court circulars and village news letters where would we be today? The blog is the new printing press. We all have the chance to really take a stand and make a difference, even if we only write something of real value every few weeks, do it. Don't worry about your 'brand' - if your blog is full of youtube videos 9 out of 10 posts, make the 10th post count and send it round. Look at Zefrank, he manages something really exceptional with his mix of comedy and political insight. The rest of us can only dream of being that smart - but he's not afraid to have a real opinion and express it.
I'm going to stop ranting there, and I'm going to try and practice what I preach and fill my blog with things that matter, not just some narrow Alan Partridge - 'let's keep it light and entertaining' view of the world. Comments please.
