An Open Letter To Johnathon Dimbleby, Question Time and the BBC

Dear Mr Dimbleby

I understand why the BBC have chosen to allow Mr Griffen on Question Time. After all he is a democratically elected MEP and no matter how abhorrent this is it unfortunately gives him and his party the grain of credibility they have so desperately been seeking. But sir do you not agree that Mr Griffen's recent remarks about his fellow panelists show a clear attitude of offensive disregard for the respectful ethos of your program. Do you not find his comments beastly? If anyone else had made these types of comments they would be barred from appearing on the panel. When then is Nick Griffen allowed still to attend? Are you merely after a bigger audience share? Is the BBC using the controversy stirred up by the BNP to suit their own ends? Because this just what we expect from him? Is he somesort of far right clown? Allowing Nick Griffen to occupy this respected public pedestal is not only a mistake but it is my belief that his appearance is against the public interest when there are much bigger more immediate problems than Nick Griffen and the BNP which need our attention as a society.

I hope your ratings will be satisfactory.

James Hull

Utopia is Apples

Apple. In a Dickensian sense it's a spherical fruit grown in moderately humid areas of the world containing a brittle skin, crunchy moist center and according to conventional wisdom is something of a daily pediatrician repellent. In a Biblical sense it's the source of a hell of a lot of trouble. But in today's world the word Apple denotes a brand that may well define the late 2000's. I sit here on a apple mac with music playing on my ipod and it's like I've just woken up in a cold sweat and sudden start and suddenly realized I am completely immersed in Apple, they have me, I am one of their zombie slaves. This awakening began yesterday with a visit to the Apple Store. I have never been more terrified. It was a sleek steel utopia, the lines hard and the designs were at a juxtaposition with the dirty, misshapen, imperfect clientele aimlessly gawking at the sheer amount of technological prowess on display, the sense of wonder, that 'Apple magic' as I'm sure I've heard a million people say completely overwhelms you. Apple's trick is to make everything seem as simple as possible, it's all 'cool' it's a breeze, you don't need to worry we're completely in tune, harmonized with technology and nature, it's wants to comfort you and for you to feel comfortable. I write cool in inverted commas because Apple isn't really cool, it's beyond that, it's hyper-cool it doesn't even want to be cool, it doesn't need to be, it's beyond that. For Apple cool is a small dot very far away which assumes things can be cool and uncool. There's no cool or uncool in Apple world, they don't have time for that, there is (as one staff member had embezzled on his t-shirt) 'progress in progress.' But how impersonal this all is, I've never felt so awkward and inhuman in a shop which has apparently revolutionized the consumer experience. The staff reminded me of colourful instruction booklets that wanted to have a nice cup of tea with you and maybe talk about your day before you got down to trying to sort things out. This is all part of the Apple philosophy of course, they bounce and smile and ask how your day is and say 'super' or 'superb' or 'great!' or some other horrible marketing sales words, some nauseating synthetic vocabulary that is without true emotion or interaction, it's like you're communicating through an Apple logo. (Of course I suppose the staff are like interpreters for the Apple brand.)

The staff like the products are beyond our mere mortal comprehension. We're meant to ask, how does it do that! Oh it's so clever about the machines and we are also meant to think that about the staff. There are no spotty, surly men in sweaty shirts working here like in Maplin's or Curry's. No! It's crisp polo shirts and crisp hair, clean skin, smiles and greeting, robotic in nature yet seductive, so seductive, it's hard to remember that none of it is real, this is all just a marketing ploy.

That's when I woke up and realized I'm one of them, I'm a horrible desensitized gawking spectator of the Apple world, typing on my macbook and talking to my friends about how great it is. I'm like satan's little helper, have I begun to define myself through purchases, there is no doubt people are certainly judging me by them so does that not make them virtually who I am? Have I, have we, lost all our central notions of humanity and turned completely into representations of the consumer choices that we make. 'I'm a mac', 'I'm a PC', what does that say about us? What they want it to say, what marketing men want us to feel represented by, they made these fake associations for what is essentially just plastic and metal thrown together in some far off factory but some how these possessions define us as people! I don't want to be defined by what I choose to buy, I want to be defined by my own choices, the love for my family, caring for other people, being a good human-being not for using an i-pod!

You know I sometimes can't help but thinking that that bite missing from the Apple logo must have been taken by Eve.