Bite

[smokingboot]

Well, another night of just no sleep, and tonight looks to be a late one.

I seem to get about one of these insomniac nights a week, and would like to blame them for my foul mood this morning, but I can't. A quick log on to social media and an artist acquaintance of mine is complaining about the predominance of mixed race families in advertising. He's French, living in Tooting, has an Afro-Caribbean aunt, and yet talks about how even his 'non-white friends' consider it a joke to marry away from their cultures. I mentioned that I had a Scottish father and a Spanish mother, and asked him what's so funny about their marriage. He's gone remarkably quiet.

This is the same guy who reviled the money raised to console a little German girl jeered at by racists when her team lost to England. My response to his grasping resentment of all that cash going to pockets beyond his was simply not to buy his damn poetry book. It would be a greater struggle if his work was anywhere near as good as he thinks it is.

I have to chill out, I really do.

The question is, why keep the acquaintance going at all? My sensible head tells me that it is necessary for me to listen and read all sorts of attitudes, that the progressive left easily turns into a bubble of bullies who police everyone's thoughts and language, treating discourse as a burden that is below them, or a trauma they shouldn't have to face. I say this as a member of that community - or at least I thought I was. Maybe not. I recently conversed with an(other) artist who believes that control is more important than freedom, because he doesn't want to hear nasty things. What kind of artist is that? A very young one, I suspect.

So I don't tell either young or older artist to go to hell. I accept that today, maybe lack of sleep has exacerbated my hardly latent intolerance issues. I accept that the way to deal with it is to go away, leave it for a while, come back later and rethink. And I will do all this provided advertising-challenged artist doesn't say anything that ruffles my fur. In that phlegmatic spirit we all associate with Celto-Iberians, I am sure he has something sensible to say and look forward to a civilised discussion on the matter.