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Sonia Price
Features Writer
12:45 AM 27th November 2021
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Now We’ve Reached The Age Of Content - Are We Satisfied?

 
Image: Pixabay
Image: Pixabay
Lately I find myself wondering - not unreasonably I think, “Are we living in a world driven by content?” That is the business of putting one word in front of another, sometimes, but often not, constructed into sentences with punctuation we can still recognise, for the pure sake of creating, well, content. Much of the stuff without ideas, purpose or heart behind it. But no matter - look at the word count!

There are acres and acres of this content, verbiage - whatever you want to call it. In the modern currency of content - the more words the better. And I really mean that. You can’t have too many words. Sadly the landfill site for a lot of this rubbish (not all) is our overloaded brains and wearied souls. No wonder my head hurts.

It seems that money is made and political careers elevated on elegantly crafted or often plain ‘crafty’ copy and speech writing.

Take the COP26 - ‘one minute to midnight’ moment. There was a theatrical quality in watching Boris commanding the world stage. He was in his element here playing out a kind of ‘king of the world’ role. All he was lacking was a terrifying black horse and a sword.
But when I walked through Ripon this week the shops are still full of planet-unfriendly crap. Tinsel to start with. I never thought to wonder what tinsel was made from until the environmental crisis. It’s made from plastic and we don’t need it at all.

Image: Skitterphoto
Image: Skitterphoto
When will someone in power - who can make a difference be brave enough to say : “We can’t keep knocking out this rubbish. Go home. Read a book. Plant some radishes, reconnect with your wife, lover, husband, other. Whatever - do something but stop making and selling this rubbish. Sit on your hands. You will do less harm. As leaders we will make it worth your while. There is something very much bigger at stake here.”

By the way Boris what happened to our super connected railway which was supposed to connect some of the most promising, economically viable people in the North of England to London? No matter. They’re used to roughing it. They’ll just have to get up earlier.

Image Pixabay
Image Pixabay
For all this planet- on- fire hyperbole with Boris playing his get out of jail card - There is still a bomb-disposal squad in the wings stuff. Does he mean anything he says? Oh well. If it is as bad as they say, at least the planet will go down in flames garlanded with tinsel. Like burying your old gran with her diamonds.

I am very aware that the word count for this article was somewhere around 480 words. Maybe a few more - maybe one less . I did my best .