The physical act of crunching cornflakes or other cereals
is portrayed as working an amazing alchemy on slothful human beings; the
incoherent, unshaven sluggard is magically transformed into a smart and jolly
worker full of vigour and purpose by the positive power of cereal. Kellogg
himself, tellingly, was a puritanical health nut who never had sex (he
preferred enemas). Such are the architects of our daily life. – Tom Hodgkinson
When we look at how something is presented through the
media it often takes years before you really see what is going on and then after
that epiphany everything starts to look stupid.
The book written by Tom Hodgkinson that this quote is taken
from, How To Be Idle, is a great read with some lovely insights like this about
the madness of the modern world and its fixation on cereals and health when the
evidence is to the contrary. Yet as people are making lots of money from a
product that has more nutrition in the cardboard packaging than its contents we
are entranced into this spell that we should be happy and healthy like the
actors in the advert.
Another point raised in this book is of days lost to
business because of illness; his point is what happened to people being able to
recover without popping a pill? Of course someone is making money out of you.
What about life being lost to days of business?
Now we are seeing this with the schools and education.
The idea that children cannot have a few days off without the law being broken is
ridiculous because we you see what goes on in a school such as when there is a
cover teacher taking a class then the pupils would be better to have done work
on their own at home BUT we are led to believe that any moment lost at school
is a disaster as if every moment of every day is of dire importance; this is
rubbish.
Many of the things being taught at school is more about
teaching people to conform than to think. A point raised by Matthew Parris in
the BBC Radio 4 programme Great Lives is that it seems that a standard
education is an impediment for a ‘great life’ as most of the nominated lives on
the programme were either self-educated, late educated or unconventionally
educated. May be the very fact that their education is different makes them
stand out from the crowd.
I am suggesting that as a great musician and artist you
MUST think for yourself and be different because you will not become successful
if you believe the way to make it is being on The Voice or X Factor, think
about it Adele, Amy Winehouse or Ed Sheeran made it without the talent show
circus.
So think for yourself, don’t take what the media gives
you and ask yourself why the education system is built the way it is and if you
are like most artistic people you will feel uncomfortable with the system,
simply because it was not built for people to become musicians it was to make
you someone more pliable.
Vic
