'Below The Line / Beneath Contempt': Act 5 & Epilogue

'Below The Line / Beneath Contempt'

Act 5

Scene 1:

You'd have be stupid not to see that the British now hate everything, especially one another

The genie is out of he bottle and it's hard to see it going back in. How has it got to this?

Their hatred will defeat them.

When will reality dawn for these pugnacious, yobbish little Englanders?

The only thing that gives an inkling of support to the theory of a divine being is that sometimes, just once in an oddy-knocky sometimes, one of these fuckers gets both barrels in the face

Funny you should say that I'm learning how to shoot this weekend.

Inciting hatred should see you locked up.

Haven't the mob done enough already?

trouble is the mob are too stupid to know they are stupid.

That's what the mob always thinks. It never notices it's become a mob.

It's kept them safe for their entire miserable lives.

The mob has always been here and isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

These b*****ds need their wings clipping. They do not speak for England.

Exactly this and well-put, too. Wolves in sheep's clothing, the lot of them.

They are literally shameless.

They don't know what shame is, and if they did they still would not care. They are poisoning our society

Its easier to believe simplistic, hate fuelled, "solutions".

History is littered with examples.

Its also why those that promote those awful "solutions" to look forward, not back. (Mustn't check history...)

Let's hope the UK gets a good kick in the bollocks the only thing that'll make us see sense.

That's just what we need in a complex situation: macho slogans!

Scene 2:

If you asked a hundred British people what are British values, there'd be a hundred different answers. There's no such thing.

Come up with what you think British values are then... or is easy critisicsm all you can do?

British values? Pah. Monarchy. Elitism. Inequality. Hypocrisy. No ta.

These are not my British values.

What are British values ? Do they include cold indifference to the suffering of your fellow citizens, even at Xmas?

Easy we want our cake and eat it.

Please tell me there's a cake.....

There must be a cake........

95% of the cake going to 10% of the people .

A few slices of the cake are given to the regional managers ( the politicians).

The rest of us are cattle.

Most people would like more chocolate cake as well. . .

Cake and what, eat it? No.

I'm curious, what is the point of having cake and not eating it?

But once you've eaten it you no longer have it.

There is society, but there's no agreement on what are British values.

I can think of a British value, its called fairness only we aren't a fair nation anymore.

I dislike the idea of people of a particular country having particular values. Some people are good. Others are bad. Some are greedy. Some are generous. You can't pigeonhole everyone.

I wasn't aware we had any values. I am happy to swear though!

Hypocrisy, that's the one value on the up ...

There are values that all of us should uphold.These are not particularly British.

Art, comedy, music and creative Britain. The NHS. Suffrage. Civil liberties. The post-war settlement. Social housing. Human rights Act. Democracy. Environmental protections.

So I am unclear what is specifically British about these values.

And what would allegiance to these values mean?

What you are pushing is your values and calling them human values.

I might agree with most of your values I'd say but I would describe them as human values, your projecting your beliefs on to others and expecting compliance.

My values are libertarian, republican, cosmopolitan and European, not 'British'.

Besides there are no such things as british values just human ones.

Oh for crying out loud, that old trope again?

Delusional view of the left again.

What about the old imperial version of England though ?! Bah !

I dislike the idea of collective values,bt if anything, we are a nation of thieves.

Brutal and ruthless exploitation of everything that moves and everything that doesn't move through unlimited global free trade of people and goods.

Fundamental British values.

Afterwards you can pig out on all the cake you want...

What the rest of you in Little-Buggery-in-the-Swamp do isn't really my concern

Bloody well put Mr Flabbybum !

your bum really does look big in this.

Hey WobbleBottome, have you met my friend hyperbole? I think you two might get along.

oh mate, gotta say it again that's bloody funny! thanks for sharing it. maybe I need to get a life but still class eh

You are wrong again. Your views do not deserve further comment.

Well, that's almost a response.

Scene 3:

All hail the legal labyrinths, designed, layer by layer, to befuddle and break down everybody so that nothing is ever really achieved but the illusion of progress can still be made by increasing the height of the labyrinths themselves.

To which law are you referring? Please be precise as I am tired of reading groundless nonsense.

People don't want anything except to be able to live, work and feel safe. These are no longer considered 'rights', but instead seem to have become privileges.

Despite being one of the wealthiest nations on the planet, we have homelessness on the rise, families in poverty and people desperate to work unable to find it.

We have a huge "service sector" but hardly build anything anymore.

Our public services that we

were once so proud of are being gradually dismantled by successive governments of every hue.

The wealthy are the outliers in British society: they are educated separately; they dominate certain trades and professions (the City, the media, Politics) - trades and professions from which ordinary Britons are now excluded. They do not participate in the culture of the majority, and often opt to live in "exclusive" communities. Their "values" are often strikingly different from those of ordinary Britons. Crucially, they increasingly keep what they think of as "their" money offshore.

Big money won.

i.e. capitalism and democracy have at best a problematic relationship.

The country has ridiculously high levels of income disparity, poverty, raging ignorance as the result of endlessly staring at screens, almost no sense of civil or social responsibility, the health system us a disgrace for an allegedly developed country and the political system is "democratic" in name only, but the system itself does not correspond to most people's idea of what the word means. The country is ruined. Already ruined.

owned by an oligarchy which is a law unto itself, a rabidly nationalistic press, a society which values military force above all else, where the arms industry is a fundamental part of the economy. The horror, the horror...

Most of the English Grand Country houses for instance were erected from profits made in the slave trade.

You don't want to peer too closely at the British (English) establishment, or how they made their money.

Scene 4:

On one side freedom is defined as self-determination and identity as belonging to a nation state. On the other side freedom is defined as peaceful cooperation and identity as belonging to a wider world. Right now these opposing interpretations are causing a lot of friction. Somehow we need to resolve this conflict. We're all human after all.

The solution is really quite simple. It's time to drag this broken system down by force. You think they'll ever let it go willingly? No chance.

They're used to getting their own way.

The pensioners of Thannet are rising up. Hilarious.

Its called democracy or did'nt you notice

In one sentence you have shown your ignorance in British democracy.

Democracy not your thing is it?

I think we're heading towards a trollocracy.

The rest of your drivel was utter hyperbolic nonsense.

The peasants are

revolting.

Revolting indeed

I dunno... with a little washing up and maybe some decent dental work, they'd look ok. But revolting seems a bit harsh.

Scene 5:

Hospitals will still be closed. People will keep shopping in the internet and the high street shops will remain boarded up. And the loneliness won't go away. Britain will not become as it used to be in the 1950s.

It's not about the past - it is about what's on offer for the future.

That ship has sailed, I fear!

I thought it is a buccaneer ship?

I think the iceberg might have more brain cells than everyone on this particular sinking boat!

Yeah fine. But please send a lifeboat.

But who knows? Maybe there will be a positive and outward looking Britain, not needing to blame anyone for anything anymore.

Find me some straw, I feel a clutching coming on.

Those straws you're grabbing....

Can we have the Black and White Minstrel show back? Now that would be real progress. Oh, and everything is political madness gone correct, or something like that...

Scene 6:

The whole economy is a pyramid scheme based on debt and fiat currency (basically banks loaning out money they dont have, it never existed, but hoping someone will pay it back).

Plenty of work for black magicians!

We dont want all the money , just a fair share ,decent home and to retire with food on the table .

I've worked and studied - when I've studied I've worked - for forty years.

I want to retire.

The rules are shit.

I don't want to be a wage slave for another ten or twenty years because careerist politicians are shit at making rules.

I want to retire so I can have a bit of life that does not involve sticking my tongue up some careerist's anus to justify their pathetic careerist existence.

But I can't. I have to lick the pus off Satan's scrotum in order to get virtually nothing for forty years' worth of achievement and loyalty.

I hope your prospects improve (sincere)

Work is fine for people who aren't very intelligent. Those who are intelligent should be allowed to pursue alternative careers and be funded well by the government also.

Your post doesn't make any sense -- "people with a higher need" OUGHT to be accorded priority or?

Are you brave enough to quantify the benefits? Do you have the IQ to do this?

Why? Somebody is going to have to pay for this. If not you, then society. Who else?

But taxes should be raised or cut to suit the needs of society as and when.

Dream on.

The people who are sick and tired are useless gits who have never tried to do anything with their lives, who are for the most part uneducated and unskilled and who expect money and a decent standard of living to be given to them on a plate. These people will never succeed, regardless of the regime they vote in.

The obligation side of the equation is covered by taxes. If you've paid taxes, then you have agreed to the social contract the government has laid down, part of which includes being able to access the benefits they provide.

We give money to charity in order to cover the social needs that our taxes used to be used for. In other words we pay twice for the same thing.

And really, all people wanted is for things we have to work. They want a good free social service public NHS, they want libraries, they want child centres, youth centres, public services, the pot holes fixed... they want homes, they want food. These are the things the government should be fixing not abstruse fine points of political and constitutional power.

BECAUSE half the country are worried about their rights, their childrens bloody fututre and the fact we have an exploitative and abusive government in power.

I just want my pot holes fixed, I need a home, I need food, I need...

.....why are employers just treating workers like SHIT IN THIS COUNTRY, because we have a shitty Gov, that here to protect the rich and F****k the poor

Britian has relied on cheap labour and bad working conditions rather than investment to compensate for its lamentable productivity for decades. It was one of the main reasons for post war industrial unrest.

If you're poor and grateful for any work you can get, and your employer asks you whether you like your job or not, are you really going to say no?

So what? Would you swap your life for theirs?

The UK is falling to pieces, pieces gobbled up by corporate hyenas whose only loyalty is to their greedy shareholders and whose only motivation is an obscene bonus.

All I know is that first you’ve got to get mad. You’ve got to say: ‘I’m a human being, god-dammit! My life has value!’

Scene 7:

Surely it is time to curb the mendaciousness of some aspects of the press. I am not calling for censorship but for more accuracy in their news reporting.

Whta do you call a country that muzzles newspapers?

A protofascist dictatorship.

But of that free press we also need a responsible press and certain elements of the press have recently demonstrated they are anything but responsible.

But with freedom comes responsibility

The key phrase the public needs to keep firmly in mind is: 'A press which has finally become unhinged, busted the doors open, and is now running amok.'

You can debate freedom of speech all you want but when you get to reporting factually incorrectly, you cross the line. If you think making stuff up is ok for media to do under the guise of freedom of speech, then you are in the wrong decade, and / or wrong part of the world.

The headlines of shame left nobody in doubt as to how much of a far-right-media-controlled dictatorship we live in.

Those newspapers appear to be doing everything they can to incite violence, we'll see where it leads in time.

an appalling abuse of power by the Editors. They have to take some responsibility for the state England now has got itself (very quickly) into.

Agreed. A publisher is responsible for a publication's content. Libel and hate speech laws are not on the books just to look pretty. It is the function of the courts to abide by them and implement them.

Their purpose is to report on and analyse facts. Not blatantly state untruths and harass individuals on invented pretences.

Also I feel like the gulf of understanding between the press viewpoints is widening and both sides are guilty. Hyperbole on one side is met by hysteria on the other and vice verse. I don't know how we can bring the tone back to a point that would allow any discussion.

Why do you expect newspapers to be impartial? They all have their agendas and bias, all of them. Just read a selection and make your own mind up.

Scene 8:

These are terrible times. Education has failed in this country, and stupidity and lies are in vogue.

When you boil it down to fundamentals it is all about education. What we are seeing is the triumph of the uneducated. The real shame of this is that we have neglected to offer a good enough, broad enough and universal enough education and we are now reaping the rewards. We have no excuse. The poor/uneducated have finally realised that they can instigate change; they simply don't understand what that change is going to amount to.

Why? By definition the stupid are not intelligent.

Anyway, it's OK, we can just get rid of the education system now. It's not like we'll need it, is it, really? Heading for a low skill, low wage economy as we seem to be. And we won't need liberalism either, we can just have rule by the fist, if you prefer. Bear in mind though that if you don't have to respect my rights, I don't need to respect yours. There's always someone with a bigger stick. I'll make sure it's me.

Perhaps a reflection that, despite all of the hyperbole, many people now think that true control lies with the banks and big corporations and that government is becoming ever more powerless to effect change?

Or maybe people are just so obsessed with the latest game on their phones that they can't be arsed about the actual world?

Courses in critical thinking needed here. And a much much better education.

Ah yes, the old misconception that a privileged education somehow makes you better than everyone else.

Very easy, and perhaps a little 'thick', to say "The people are too thick".

* Spend much more money on primary education, the stage at which is most people are miserably failed by our system.

* In Secondary school make civics, and a thoroughly critical attitude to the media and history, a compulsory and major part of everyone's education.

There are of course deeper questions about why some seek to dominate and others like to be "led" but such an education would put most such urges to flight.

Sadly it's probably too late now.

You can't educate pork.

Scene 9:

Genius - infinite riches in a little frame of art. Deconstruct that lot at your leisure. No good news anywhere

No good was ever going to come of it.

i cant even figure as to why you typed this guff, did it give you the horn ?

This entire thing is absurd.

It is the accumulation of waffle like that has crushed bedrock to sand.

I find the concept of 'mind' in this case quite troubling. I'd equate it more to an empty vessel waiting to be filled by the thoughts of others.

When you're constantly told what to think in simple sound bites, well people suck it up.

Well I guess there's so much material for satirists of all brands to work with at the moment. It used to make you laugh, but now it's about as funny as Hamlet meets Macbeth.

The trouble is the situation's so bloody tragic I think it's hard for the satirists and cartoonists to do ha ha ha. What they're doing is brutal truth.

Indeed, its often said art is used to expose the truth and as a means of protest.

Art rarely changes anything, at least not so as you'd notice. But it has a slow-drip effect, in giving people insight, aspiration, a glimpse of something better.

Looks good on first glance but, really, it's just meaningless waffle.

Boiled down to art merely being a conduit to allow posh-voiced no nothings verbally fellate insecure rich folk.

Stop painting us with the same brush - it's paranoid delusion.

You paint with a big brush. Too big I'd say.

i like the painting with the dogs paying cards , my dog cannot even play snap

You don't do card games, do you?

This isnt a card game.

Epilogue:

Cool story. Could've used some vampires though.

Jeeeze......whatever it is stop taking it

I came here for a laugh actually, its late and Im bored. There you have it.

Cognitive dissonance has kicked in.

The play is eventually concluded and everyone goes on to a club.