'Kings of Hell'

An 'Altum Volare' Film

https://youtu.be/t6zOPSXHWSo

See:  https://www.youtube.com/@altumvolare3450

Hancock, like Steptoe and Till Death Us, were all essentially satires on the British system of social class, of poking fun at it, whilst trying to emulate or escape it. It was an attempt to come to terms with a post-war, post-empire Britain, by laughing at the ludicrous nature of it all. Having largely thrown off the stultifying chains, we now find ourselves in new ones, anchorless and directionless, where to be actively 'British' is likely to get you into a lot of trouble, if not incarceration. Where the white working class youth has become even less likely to free itself from social and educational barriers; where behavioural freedoms have resulted in family breakdown and a hundred thousand children without their natural parents. The prisons are full, drugs blight untold numbers of lives, crime is rife and young people in turf wars, stab one another daily. It is a toss up whether the lives and society at large depicted in the comedies, was better or worse than what is experienced today. Life without drama may have been dull, but it was probably safer and kinder.

Last night I watched a bit of a Tarrantino film about three girls out on the rampage and a serial killer. Is he reflecting reality or shaping it? The film industry has a lot to answer for in shaping modern social norms - I suppose some for the better but many for the worse.

These people (the 'Duke and Duchess of Sussex') only get the attention and money they do because we are stupid enough to be interested in them and their tittle-tattle. Their hypocrisy is our hypocrisy. Their celebrity is because we are in awe of it. This phenomenon, like envy, 'mocks the food it feeds on'. Rather like ex-Prime Ministers returning to the back benches (or retirement) these two have become vituperative threats to the image and perpetuation of the central institution of the British State and at its most vulnerable moment. The Hussey affair proves that to be true. Even that this may be a coordinated attack by secret forces, intent on doing it damage. and not the Russians either! That is why it is rather more than merely a family dispute, affording it wider political and social significance.