Politicians...
Theres an analogy I like to use, and believe me, when I find and analogy I like, I raise it, feed it, and repeatedly force it on unsuspecting members of the public.
Here's my Martin Luther King moment... kind of... well, probably not.
We the people, we are on the shop floor. We do what we can do get the job done. We have our little gripes with the boss, piss and whine when we notice the vending machine is fresh out of quavers, and by god do we love a dress down day. Jeans at work.. mental!
So this is our lot in life, even providing occasional beads of contentment.
And as is the case in almost any organisation, the decisions that effect us are rarely made by ourselves. More so they are made by those who have never set foot on the shop/office floor. Those who have no idea of the detriment and dent to morale when said Quavers have actually been culled due to 'management' seeing them as having a negative effect on production. And we have to accept this blind organisation.
This article isnt going to be about cheesy maize snacks. I promise.
So again with the Daily Mail already, but fear not. Im not criticizing them on this fine morning.
It is more the fact that they have published a very thought-provoking (though typically biased) piece on euthanasia, and more to the point, how current documentaries seemingly 'romanticise assisted death and dying.' Not my words, but the words of TORY MP, Nadine Dorries.
Guess what Nadine. You will NEVER have a say in my life or indeed my death.
So... you know... NER-NER NER-NER NEEEEER-NER, etc.
An already completed BBC documentary entitled Terry Pratchett: Choosing To Die (one of the more misleading titles of late, Im sure), is to show on-screen the last moments of a British motor-neurone sufferer who has chosen to die graciously in the Swiss Dignitas clinic - http://www.dignitas.ch/index.php?id=117&Itemid=166&option=com_content&task=view .
Pratchett, an Alzheimer's Disease sufferer and humanitarian, stays at the bedside of the dying man throughout the end.
Now Mr Pratchett is being heralded as a 'cheerleader for assisted suicide' by medical professionals, politicians, (oddly) human right campaigners, and of course religious leaders.
Why the reaction? Well, to support euthanasia is apparently a big 'fuck you' to the sanctity of life.
What gives anyone the right, other than the individual in question, to deem what is a breach on the sanctity of life.
These.. lets call them 'lifers' (I like that).. need to go and spend, say, a week at the home of someone who is so far gone into their terminal illness that they'd be lucky to have enough breath left for their final 'Amen'. They want to take a long, hard goddamned look at the person lying before them. Frail, broken, immobile, waiting. Just waiting.
These lifers may want to then take a look at the sufferers partners, the dark indelible rings under their eyes, from hours of around the clock care and worry.
They should take a look at the photos on the mantlepiece, the faces of those who not only love the sufferer, but will have to file the memories of the person at their worst, alongside the good ones, before the machines, the tubes, the pills, the vomit. Before a day felt like a painful lifetime.
Yes, life is sacred. Even when its tearing life apart.
Allow me to present a scenario.
Imagine a boardroom. You have the religious reps, the medical reps, the politicians. An axis of assholes.
Lighting a cigarette, the medical rep takes a puff, inhales, exhales - ' We just cant have this euthanasia in place, legally or otherwise. We just cant. The diagnostic industry has already taken a dive. If more people start ending their lives with dignity, thats less people to buy the drugs we produce. And Ive already had to sell my Jag, I'm not parting with the Bentley too.'
Politician, zipping up and sending the 15 year old prostitute out from under the desk and back to the lunchroom - 'Fear not, it will never happen. With the war going on, death is everywhere. Theyll cling on to life in all forms, bereft or otherwise, if we keep showing people how expendable it is. Leave this with me, we will keep things so bad and futile in Britain that bare bones life is all these people will be able to hold hope in.'
Religious Leader, rubbing hands together - 'And if you can all make things soooo bad and keep that standard, they will literally be praying to cling onto the the fragile shards of belief they have left. Dont forger to say a Hail Mary on the way out. Everybody wins.'
Now, this may well be an exaggeration of reality. I mean, I forgot to mention they were all stroking cats at the time, and talking about highly expensive and improbable methods of death for certain secret agents.
But underneath all the posturing, and heralding of the 'sanctity of life', could there be more mainstream motives such as money in keeping assisted death illegal? I believe this would require a whole lot of investigation. Maybe even months worth.
So we have basically gone from originally not accepting the idea of euthanasia, to now not even giving it a fair representation in the media in case it is too glorified.
Well, do we not glorify death anytime we publish a news article about a brave young soldier who died saving members of his platoon? Yes, we do. We have to, as it makes the government look better. 'Congratulations, sorry about the coma. Here have a posthumous George's Cross.'
Of course, THIS method of death is acceptable. Youre dying for this flea-bitten piece of shit country, in a war thats not ours, started by a government that were never acting in our best interests.
Isnt patriotism a beautiful thing.
Its these same assholes who will decide how we die in other forms of life too.
Migration to Switzerland, anyone?
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