Post by Hells on Jun 1, 2006 15:06:17 GMT
Speak up > Faces of 4
Julian Rhind-Tutt (Dr. Mac in Green Wing)
'It's a hot sunny May morning and your 6' 2" Scandinavian girlfriend/boyfriend has suggested you spend the rest of the day in bed. Should you lie back and think of England in its unparalleled period of post-war stability and prosperity ... or, as I have had to do at countless local and national elections, say: "No, please excuse me, Eva, I must rush down to my local primary school where a selection of eccentric, rosetted sociopaths are waiting to beckon me into a cardboard cubicle, where I must mark a small piece of photocopied paper with an X, in order to reduce an unstoppable 11,000 vote majority to 10,999."? Who knows, it may irrevocably affect the colour of my recycling bags. It's a tricky one.
The dominant Channel 4 news story of the last two years has been a war ... ostensibly to secure the fundamental human right of a country to determine its own future. There are many compelling arguments about the unjustness or illegality of the war and how it was conducted. But I'm concerned here only with the larger aspiration of helping others to achieve freedom and equality, to eschew repression. This is a worthwhile struggle. Oddly, this struggle is rendered almost completely worthless if you can't be bothered to tear yourself away from Eva for an hour and stroll down to your local primary school. It all seems a long way from changing the world or defending democracy. But when apathy steals in on a sunny afternoon, corruption and decay will surely follow. I remember Eva once saying to me as she padded out to my roof terrace, the silk sheet dropping behind her, and lowered her legs for what seemed like an eternity into the warmth of the jacuzzi: "It's only through the strengthening of our own democracy that we can go on to defend the human rights of others"'
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Julian Rhind-Tutt (Dr. Mac in Green Wing)
'It's a hot sunny May morning and your 6' 2" Scandinavian girlfriend/boyfriend has suggested you spend the rest of the day in bed. Should you lie back and think of England in its unparalleled period of post-war stability and prosperity ... or, as I have had to do at countless local and national elections, say: "No, please excuse me, Eva, I must rush down to my local primary school where a selection of eccentric, rosetted sociopaths are waiting to beckon me into a cardboard cubicle, where I must mark a small piece of photocopied paper with an X, in order to reduce an unstoppable 11,000 vote majority to 10,999."? Who knows, it may irrevocably affect the colour of my recycling bags. It's a tricky one.
The dominant Channel 4 news story of the last two years has been a war ... ostensibly to secure the fundamental human right of a country to determine its own future. There are many compelling arguments about the unjustness or illegality of the war and how it was conducted. But I'm concerned here only with the larger aspiration of helping others to achieve freedom and equality, to eschew repression. This is a worthwhile struggle. Oddly, this struggle is rendered almost completely worthless if you can't be bothered to tear yourself away from Eva for an hour and stroll down to your local primary school. It all seems a long way from changing the world or defending democracy. But when apathy steals in on a sunny afternoon, corruption and decay will surely follow. I remember Eva once saying to me as she padded out to my roof terrace, the silk sheet dropping behind her, and lowered her legs for what seemed like an eternity into the warmth of the jacuzzi: "It's only through the strengthening of our own democracy that we can go on to defend the human rights of others"'
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