up with the curtain

we live in a world of showbizz, as I see it, that is. the most highly regarded entertainers are paid sums far in excess of ministers of state doctors nurses schoolteachers and professors. so let us sit back and enjoy it. an incredibly youthful smiling young man comes onto our screens and explains the innermost mysteries of the universe against a background of corruscating imagery few of us will ever see anywhere else in our lifetime. an optimal travel guide facilitates himself against sometimes staggering backgrounds while he unlocks doors and leads us through glimpses of sacred rituals usually reserved only for initiates. the elderly and the ebullient offer us entrancements of the impossible. vehicles we shall never drive. quicksteps we shall never dance. obstacle courses we shall never complete. a contest of bat and ball is built up to a climax of anticipation followed, as in some of the most moving classical dramas, by the inevitable almost anticipated fall from grace. post coitum tristis est. for a couple of coins we can read all about it, be touched by the indiscretions of the great and the good. trivia is magnified for the attention of the moment. and the daily politics? – for that has long been my constant entertainment – they let us see the squirms and grimaces of those we have elected to steer the ship of state. where are we going? fear not. we’ve been there before. even if we didn’t buy the t-shirt. but that was long ago and only the spoilsports will disturb the frisson of the moment with their pallid reminders. what’s next on the bill? good. bring on the tumblers the jugglers the shakers and movers.

francis cameron, oxford, 18 july 2011

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