We’ve lost our Truths

Richard Halloway

The facts are no longer presented by the journalists – but rather on social media platforms. 

I heard an interesting journalist from the Philippines on Hard talk  BBC – Maria Ressa

She claims the role of technology and social media that many spend so much time on, produces a manufactured consensus and manipulation of the public on a massive scale and are buoyed by a propaganda machine. Democracy is dead and social media killed it. 

  

In his book Stories we tell ourselves – Richard Halloway, former Bishop of Edinburgh, writer, broadcaster and cleric, writes that we should use self examination of ourselves and our structures, and challenge ourselves. 

There should be power to artists: artist interpret rather than force ideas. 

For instance Tony Blair’s belief and decisions tell us about a person’s psychological state rather than the external world around us. We are very hypnotisable by false prophets, look at how cultured Germany was led astray. He advises that we be compassionate to others stories.

Maria Resso

Ressa claims that these media platforms are behaviour modification platforms. This eco system allows lies and hate to spread faster than facts. Then there isn’t integrity of facts or elections. We are seeing a return to fascism because liberal democracy hasn’t delivered. People were angry. The trickle down effect hasn’t worked and caused a perfect storm. 

It used to be the journalists were the gatekeepers and agreed on the facts. Now instead of the journalists as the gatekeepers, we have the tech companies.  

Ressa states there has now been the growth of a kind of fascism - its okay to kill and when we see our human rights being pushed back. She feels she must do the right thing for democracy and truth. Has democracy failed us and if so, what can we do about it? Ignore social media ads (!), ignore tabloids news, ignore the debt marketed at us. 

Rather we must listen to the artists!

I see the only answer as small indy nations who have any chance of fighting back to all this. Hope I’m not deluded! To protect us from global threats and global companies.

Famous Gig Images

Snowpatrol

Now I attend and take photos at Celtic Connections festival each January. I’ve been so fortunate to take photos at some awesome gigs – from the intimate folk clubs, the open air festivals, the packed concert halls, the iconic Glasgow music venues. 

There is challenges at all, being unobtrusive at the small venues and dealing with lighting and other pit challenges at the bigger events. One of my first big outdoor event was the band Snowpatrol at Bellahouston Glasgow. It was a perfect sunny day and there is that adrenalin rush being at the front of the huge pumped crowd. 

At the SECC Glasgow we were lined up by the security and after a wait, we were led to the pit at the front of the stage. We stood there looking at the angles, the lighting, the stage and the audience. Photography is often about a lot of waiting, re-checking camera settings and being ready for the star's entrance. Suddenly Elton John appeared waving at the side of the stage. 

Oh i miss those live gigs, folk clubs and festivals! ... and hope they will return again one day very soon. 

https://pkimage.co.uk

Elton

Paul McCartney

Stevie Nicks

Laura Marling at the Old fruitmarket

Mogwai

Rough and Rowdy, Bob Dylan

'Considered, elegiac and richly allusive, this austere gem may be Dylan’s best album in 40 years' Bryan Applyard , Sunday Times july 2020

This is his first album since Tempest 2012. I read a wonderful review – “So Bob, you’re 80 next year; what have you to say for yourself?“ the overall effect is austere, serious and pared down. It is a mesmeric and magnificent piece of work. 

"The songs vary from romantic to surreal. His rhyming is as ingenious, playful and varied as ever.” Lyrically Dylan is operating at a peak not seen since his albums Blood on the Tracks and Blonde on Blonde. 

SONGS:   Key West (Philosopher Pilot)/ Black Rider/  Crossing the Rubicon/  I sing of love/  I sing of betrayal,/ I Contain multitudes/  False Prophet/ My Own Version of You. And the Lovely romantic ballad – I have made up my mind to give myself to you. Dylan writes, “Can you tell me what it means to be or not to be.’

Another link – the assassination of John F Kennedy at the center of Murder most foul, and in a sense of the center of entire album, suggesting, as it does, a dark cloud, which may be death or may be Trump, from which there is no escape.

On the Lyrics on Murder most Foul - “Visiting morgues and monasteries/ looking for the necessary body part” with Freud and Marx looking on. Plus others -   Edgar Allan Poe, William Blake, the bluesman jimmy reed, Elvis, Presley, Allen Ginsberg, jack Kerouac, Dizzy Miss Lizzy, Tom Dooley. This is an assertion that culture comes first, history is a footnote; a long one, but a footnote nonetheless. Culture, like the individual, contains everything, right or wrong, good or bad. Everything is double-edged. 

"Whitman was similarly obsesses with the assignations of his friend Abraham Lincoln. His two most famous poems – ‘Oh Captain! My Captain! – “When Lilacs last in the Dooryard Bloomd” – are about the terrible moment.. 

"The album celebrated the noble conviction – Whitman’s conviction – that you can’t sing about anything without singing about everything. With this album Dylan announces himself as Whitman’s child.  As a way of saying we contain, like Whitman all contradictory possibilities. 

“I’m not what I was; things aren’t what they were.” Back to when he told journalists, you cant put me in a box.”  The backing is sparse but precise,  and beautifully exact in its evocation of genres – ballad, blues and so on.. also a kind of list of American musical forms.” Whitman’s attempted to contain the entire country.  

Lockdown Images

We live north of Glasgow, close to the Campsie hills, Mugdock country park, Craigmaddie reservoir, Loch Ardinny and only a short drive to the Trossachs and Loch Lomond.. Sometimes perhaps we don’t appreciate the sheer variety and beauty of the landscapes around us. During lockdown for 3 months Mugdock park car parks were all closed, to our dismay, and we weren’t allowed to drive, except for essential trips. The daily walk was a lifeline! (for our dog too).

We are very fortunate to enjoy the Scottish ever-changing and subtle light. During lockdown Scotland enjoyed weeks of the best weather – clear and fresh sunny skies – which was perfect.

For the first time small birds returned and the air seemed to sparkle and I thought, this was how the world used to be before the pollution with our air, road and rail traffic. There was a quiet stillness which was both odd and also reassuring.