The Great Debasement

It seems that with a lot of things nowadays you get less and less good stuff and more dross which you do not want. Take the BBC for example. The BBC symbolises or used to symbolise all that was good and solid and permanent about the world. Many moons ago it would have been possible to have nearly an hour of viewing for every hour of television. The only interruptions were the credits and between-programme announcements. Pretty good value. Watch any programme now and you will find that it invariably starts late because we are treated to tiresome in-house 'advertising' for other tedious programmes on other Beeb channels with the sound turned up full blast for good measure in case you didn't hear. Once you've got through all this, both at the beginning and end of the programme you want to view, you find you've only had 50 minutes instead of an hour. I am convinced that they are currently working toward 45 minutes so that their actual content matches other 'commercial' channels. The cost of a programme to us is thus increased by about a quarter, for absolutely no extra value.

Everywhere we turn it seems that there is more and more 'content' and less and less meaning. This is one of the disadvantages of instant mass communication by anyone and everyone, including me. Is it a bad thing ? Possibly. We are overwhelmed by so-called 'information' which in fact is simply noise, and loud at that, when we should be seeking out meaning, information that will help us live our lives, be happier, healthier, wiser. James Lovelock proposes that all essential human knowledge should be gathered together in one place - perhaps even in one book, as a repository of wisdom for the remnants of humanity trying to preserve civilisation in the event of catastrophic climate change. What a book this might be. But what to put in it ? Should it be limited to science and technology, or should it also contain all the great works of human literature ? Should it also remind the survivors of how many species their unconscious actions have wiped out, showing them in all their great beauty ?

Difficult questions and no answers. Some would say that the Internet already serves Lovelock's purpose. I suppose it does, up to a point, but it is too dependent on fragile electronics and data storage systems. Better as a Great Book, I think.