An Issue of Great Social Import

Obviously, she blamed modern society in general and the media in particular for the crisis she discovered, if not invented, and put herself forward as the person able to rectify this problem no-one else had noticed or concerned themselves with.

What she did not acknowledge, lest it damage her chances of gaining substantial amounts of research funding as well as the academically crucial publications and conference invites, is that the media follows its audience, it does not lead them.

So her claim that there is a substantial existential crisis about the nature of British Cheese was more or less ignored. Although her thesis was later greeted with incredulous headlines in that selfsame media she condemned as creating the crisis one slow news day sometimes later. However, once that particular news cycle ended, so did her moment in the limelight without anyone else really noticing.

Surprised at the sudden loss of media attention she rationalised it as a conspiracy by the media barons to cover up their personal involvement in what she saw as the great cheese scandal. After all, Rupert Murdoch himself was once photographed eating some cheese at a reception he hosted for the government of the day. Obviously, she claimed, it must be a conspiracy – why else would the media baron hold the party and why else would politicians attend an event offering free food and drink and a chance to get closer to the media?

Consequently, it was not long before a bunch of ‘activists’ were at somewhat of a loose end since capitalism had – yet again - failed to collapse when they said it would. They decided that here was a cause equal to their campaigning talents, once she had explained the great conspiracy to them in simplistic enough language for them to fit on a placard.

And so the great campaigning organisation UnCrackered was born. This mass movement took to the streets with demonstrations of up to nearly two demonstrators at a time. The organisation bore witness to some of the most egregious forms of capitalistic exploitation of cheese and other dairy-based produce wherever and whenever they could (excluding signing-on days, of course). For these activists know that it is only through direct action in the face of the general population’s apathy that great social change comes about.

We others, who only stand and stare, must also be prepared to put ourselves on the line to support these activists whenever we can. We must bravely step forward to both Like their F-Arsebook posts and to ReTwat their Twatisms no matter what the personal cost to use, lest we one day wake up to life without cheese.

 

[Books by David Hadley are available here (UK) or here (US)]