Cynicism Killed the Cat - A Plea for Optimism!

Cynicism's had its day; it's time for pragmatic optimism. I'm rallying the troops and you're the first for the press gang!

Cynicism's had its day; it's time for pragmatic optimism. I'm rallying the troops and you're the first for the press gang!

Every day we hear the moaners doing their thing; recent gripes-with some justification, I grant you- range from the Guardian's Owen Jones attacking the whole Metropolitan police service to @ibehavelikeadickheadjustbecauseIamontwitter moaning about the shocking state of comedy on TV today. And then of course there's the scrapping of BBC3 as a terrestrial channel which last week had outraged people tweeting with a level of enthusiasm usually reserved for The Voice.

Well listen up Private, take the safety off your weapon and follow me over the top! It'll be scary, noisy and dangerous but if we don't do it now, all the decent, beautiful and special things about this world will be lost to a tidal wave of moans, groans and indignation.

Cynicism has its place in society, of course it does, but when it becomes the default setting for so many then I can't help thinking that the world is a much less interesting and happy place.

Let me clearly state that I am not trying to trivialise the many problems, issues and injustices in our society, or attack those who highlight these things. I'm just a bloke with a set of lips, who once in a while, would like to put those lips together with an upwards direction at the edges and perhaps lead others to try it as well: Like a modern day Moses parting the sea of excrement to reveal an ocean floor laden with golden nuggets of joy. To be clear I'm not egotistically saying I'm the creator of joy, I'm just the janitor attempting to move the poo out the way to show you where it is.

Stories of conflict and dramatic opinion are innately interesting to us as human beings, so of course it stands to reason that people will write and speak about issues in that manner as a way of engaging others. However, I personally have had enough of the gross overreactions, generalisations and skewed closed-minded attitudes that come with this endeavour.

If we believe everything that is spouted at the moment we'd be living in a world where the BBC doesn't care about comedy or young people, the Met police are some kind of psychotic mafia gang controlled by a mysterious godfather that probably runs the BNP as a side job, the NHS is a form of capital punishment, all those damn immigrants are still taking our jobs and only UKIP can save us, all young people wearing hoodies are still on the look out to mug us and the UK is now completely under water and we're all living in boats!

There are genuine issues there, but come on peeps, let's not get bogged down with generalised cynicism and uninformed reactionary opinion for the sake of a few more retweets or a better viewing figures on the online blogs and articles.

I'll make one specific point as it's very current.

BBC3 has been 'axed'.

The BBC is a brilliant, but often frustrating institution, that is doing its best to move forward and keep pace with the changing media world. However, you'd think that the Director General and the other bigwigs had eaten their own babies, such was the outpouring of disgust towards them from some people on twitter for moving BBC3 to online only. And of course a tweet isn't big enough to include the fact that 25% of 18-25 years olds (at whom the channel is largely aimed) watch programming time-shifted and online. This is expected to increase to 40% in the next year, so god knows what that statistic will be in ten years time. Those haters also didn't mention the fact that millions of pounds from BBC3 savings will be spent on programming for BBC1 and BBC2.

Yes, there are issues around the poorest people in the country who don't have home broadband and whose mobile data packages prevent them from streaming TV, but that doesn't mean the BBC bosses are baby-eating monsters. Yes there are issues around giving new comedy talent a place to try their ideas on a BBC television platform, but that doesn't mean the BBC will now stop taking risks to make new shows and helping new talent to progress. They may just have to find other ways to do it, although as BBC3 will still be available online, I'm sure there will still be content made for the channel. It might be a mistake, it might not be, but my point is that the issue is complex and worthy of thought rather than reactionary twitter rants.

Ultimately they're moving the channel towards a Netflix model and doing their best to make a frozen budget (from 2010-2016) stretch as far as it can in the face of a Tory government that would rather it was privatised along with the NHS and probably, if they could manage it, Big Ben!

There are problems in this country, yes, but even when examining the few things I have mentioned above, there is a lot to be proud of. I have five friends serving in the police, all of whom are great people dedicated to helping others regardless of creed colour or religion. My Mam has just had a hip replacement, was in and out in two days, the nurses were lovely, the specialist was skilled and it didn't cost her a penny. My next door neighbours from India have not even stolen a cup of sugar let alone my job and are lovely open friendly people. A group of young hooded teenagers who were pushing and shoving each other near me the other day stopped and held the door for me when I followed them through it and didn't attempt to mug me. My house that sits next to the river Clyde hasn't been flooded and finally, David Cameron hasn't managed to privatise Big Ben! Yet.

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