Enticing extras: The siren call of our times

@wwaycorrigan

[Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.]

In today's rapidly changing world, the doctrinaires amongst us tend to suffer the most. Adaptability and flexibility generally trump the dogmatic approach.

With that in mind, whilst some of you may view yours truly as a contrarian and stubborn, I am willing to change my position on issues should the circumstances dictate or in light of irrefutable evidence that rubbishes opposing views.

A day in the life of an extra. At times it leaves one longing to watch paint dry.

Extra special

Thus, while I may have sworn to myself a few years ago that I'd never go back to ordinary extras work, lack of a steady income in uncertain times saw me renege on that promise. The "healing" hand of time and the steady fading of bad memories also played their part.

I hadn't done extras work for about four years so, in many ways, there was almost a novelty in the invitation to return. It's also important to note that the last couple of times I was on set I actually had minor speaking roles, a whole different ball game to being a partially seen (but not heard) extra.

Nonetheless, the warning signs of what was to come were there before I even fully committed to the gig.

'You have to be there at 5 am sharp.'
'Really, 5 am sharp? Is that the actual time or is that Colombian time? I'm a punctual person, so if you say a time I shall arrive at that time.'

However, experience tells me that arriving at the appointed hour for such things results in nothing more than a lot of standing around waiting for the people who count to show up.

'No, no. We're starting at 5 am. There's a covid-19 antigen test to take and if you're late, you won't be allowed in.'

I took the agency girl at her word. The "novel" covid factor made me think that perhaps now things had to start that bit earlier. New normal and all that.

Yet, off-setting this was the requirement to bring with me two outfit options. Previously, the wardrobe department tended to dress one accordingly, a slow enough process of course, especially when there is a good number of extras involved. This time, however, I was asked to bring an executive-style suit and something slightly less formal.

'After hours of waiting and countless replies of 'ahorita' to questions of when we'll next be needed — 'ahorita' being the Colombian word to mean anytime between now and never — we weren't filmed again.'

I shrugged off my annoyance at having really no other viable option but to take a hated taxi to arrive on time — the location being at the other end of Bogotá to my residence, 20 km away — and agreed to make my grand return as an extra. The fairly reasonable pay also played its part in my decision.

In fairness, arriving on time, the agency coordinator was waiting at the entrance. After filling out countless forms, we — the other couple of punctual extras and I — went for our rapid covid test. Breakfast was then served. Things were proceeding rather smoothly.

Fed and watered, we were sent to the wardrobe department to check our attire. My European companion and I, both of us given the aforementioned formal dress instruction, were told we were overdressed. The scene we were going to be in was a working-class London neighbourhood, so we needed to look more informal. Basically, how I dress every day if only I'd been given the proper information the night before. I don't like to drag across Bogotá the only three-piece suit I have for no good reason.

Once suitably attired, we returned to what the production team called 'base camp' — a partially covered parking lot serving as our eating and waiting quarters. Filming was taking place across the street, in a quaint, semi-enclosed pedestrianised area of the city centre.

The McDonald's effect

The standard, tedious yo-yoing then commenced.

'Come on guys, quickly, you're needed on set ... Stand there ... No, actually sit over there ... Walk over here ... Stop there ... Wait a minute ... OK, go back to base camp.'

At 11 am, my companion and I were actually used in a scene, wandering down a "London" street as a Swat team pulls up and rushes past us. After four or five takes, we were told that was it. Lunch was then served.

I asked those who had the appearance of authority if we would be used again and I was told we would. The thing is, there are many on set who like to think they have some sort of power but, in reality, they're mere minions. They tell you one thing with force only for this to be overruled by a superior moments later. In their defence, it often seems that even those truly calling the shots are playing it by ear.

'The experience becomes at best a somniferous sojourn, at worst an ire-inducing inferno.'

In any case, after hours of waiting and countless replies of 'ahorita' to questions of when we'll next be needed — 'ahorita' being the Colombian word to mean anytime between now and never — we weren't filmed again.

It was 8 pm when they finally told us we were done, nine hours after our one-and-only scene.

No doubt some will ask what's the fuss about? Isn't getting paid, fed and watered for practically doing nothing great? In theory, yes.

Yet, for me anyway, it's the sense of not being in control of your immediate time and surroundings. One is completely at the mercy of others with no indication of what you might be doing and when you may be asked to do it. There's also the vapidity of it all.

The whole atmosphere creates a sort of toxic tiredness. Any initial enthusiasm quickly ebbs away. The experience becomes at best a somniferous sojourn, at worst an ire-inducing inferno. A day on set isn't complete without at least one extra lashing out at a coordinator, not just verbally but even physically at times.

The number of extras involved plays an important role in these tumults. Fewer bodies about generally reduce the propensity to lash out. The production team is more likely to treat the hired help as human beings when there aren't many of them hanging around.

Nonetheless, anyone who does extras work with regularity either has low self-esteem or is in desperate need of the cash. I'm certainly not in the former category but sort of in the latter. Put it this way, I could tolerate it once or twice a week right now.

As a frustrated friend reflected, it's like eating at McDonald's. You get lured into returning, thinking the experience will be more fulfilling this time. Not even halfway through, though, you're disillusioned, even angry with yourself for having fallen for the tripe yet again.

That's it. Never again. Until the next time that is.
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Our freedom isn't being taken away — we never had it in the first place

@wwaycorrigan

[Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.]

Back in those halcyon days in the early years of the last decade, I published a blog post called Phantom freedom. If you're too busy to click on the hyperlink to read it, the basic idea was that despite today's more interconnected world (particularly in terms of travel, pre-pandemic of course), in many ways we are less free and independent now compared to our ancestors.

'Never in the field of human activity was so much damage done to so many by so few.' Indeed. (Graph from www.vox.com.)

Peak freedom

Little did I know that I was living through our time's freest period. Back then, it could be said, was peak freedom for the 21st century. Fair enough, one can excuse the current restrictions imposed on many aspects of our lives, being as they are a result of the damaging coronavirus monomania afflicting many across the globe, especially those in the agenda-setting, high-income nations.

The hope is that they'll recover soon enough and realise that there are other causes of death and destruction out there, that focusing too much on one threat results in the flourishing of others. One must try to be optimistic on this front.

However, for how long we'll be forced to prove in myriad ways that we're not a health risk to society to do just about any activity that involves mixing with others remains to be seen.

Whatever about the above, for better or for worse — and it's not at all clear which it will be — the kind of measures being proposed for the coming years in a bid for cleaner, greener living should finally — and thankfully — put an end to the crazy notion that we live in a free world. I say thankfully simply because it irks me when I hear people, particularly our rule-makers, utter that falsehood.

'It's difficult to be enthusiastic about these green new deals when those who do the most damage pay little more than lip service in terms of changing their ways.'

I must state that I'm all for living in a more efficient and greener way. In fact, I wager that if more people in the comfortable classes lived as minimalist a life as I do there would be much less of a resource drain on the planet.

Whilst it was written somewhat tongue-in-cheek, I already follow to some degree a number of the recommendations in my The Great Reset post from earlier this year.

Thus, the likes of pay-as-you-drive road taxes which countries such as the UK are proposing, that's fine by me. I don't own a car these days and it's unlikely I ever will (again, that is — I did have one for two years in Ireland when I was in my early 20s. Oh the innocence of youth).

When it comes to air travel, with carbon pricing mooted, this mode of transport looks set to become the preserve of the rich once more. Again, I've no major complaints about this. Most people — in the comfortable classes specifically — fly more than they really need to.

Road to ruin

The issue I have with many of these ubiquitous green new deals is that those peddling them, from what I can see, are inflicting greater hardship on the rest of us in a bid to reduce the harmful effects of their very own excesses.

'We all must work collectively on this' is the mantra when they've been the main culprits, the greatest polluters, the biggest producers of waste — and hypocrisy. There must be something in the air they breathe up on that moral high ground.

Somewhat paradoxically, the UK government talks of 'levelling up'. It's about improving the lot for areas of the country that have traditionally been less well-off. Yet globally, if the many forecasts are to be believed, levelling up at current consumption rates is a road to ruin.

OK, levelling up following a green path is the idea. Nonetheless, it's difficult to be enthusiastic about this when those who do the most damage pay little more than lip service in terms of changing their ways.

The cynical view is that it all simply amounts to exerting greater control over the lives of the relatively powerless. And many, sadly, are either blissfully unaware of this or seem to have no problem with it at all. The future looks rather bleak indeed.
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'And your date of death is ...'

@wwaycorrigan

[Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.]

In a recent interactive video, the English comedian Ricky Gervais was asked which of the following he'd prefer: to be told his death date and live longer or not to be told it but live a shorter life?

Death becomes us all. But would you like to know exactly when?

The person who posted the question didn't specify how much shorter of a life it would be so Gervais, whilst debating the merits of each possibility, suggested five years. I would have doubled that, to make it more impactful.

A grim choice

As unrealistic as the question is — although it does bring to mind the old joke about a doctor giving a man more time to live because he can't pay his bill — it, nonetheless, presents an interesting choice, if one imagines a choice was compulsory.

Gervais said it was an impossible question. Basically, choosing not to know, he would take (five) years off his life, something he might be aware of on his deathbed — if he got such a luxury when breathing his last that is. But electing to know would, he said, give him no comfort at all.

In contrast, I've often thought it would be nice to know when I'm going to die. In fact, the choice above makes it somewhat of a no-brainer for me.

By knowing when I'm going to die and in selecting that option I get more life years, well for one I can budget and plan better. If I were to discover that I've fewer years left than I'd thought, well then I could be less frugal than I am currently.  

In these pandemic times and all that has come with them — restricted movement, more uncertainty than normal, the feeling that we're going through dangerous societal changes — finding out that I'm going to be around less than I thought, well I'd actually take that as a positive right now.

'Rather than the quite impractical live-each-day-as-if-it's-your-last approach, it's better to try to add a sense of urgency to what you do.'

I'm all on for a long life as long as I'm active and fully with it — as with it as I've ever been that is — right up to my last days. The idea of spending years bed bound, suffering from dementia or the like doesn't appeal at this remove.

An urge to live

Flipping the consequences in the above choice, however, makes it far trickier for me. That is, if being told my death date resulted in a shorter life, say by ten years.

For example, imagine I had to make the choice today, aged 36. In my head, whenever I do think about this, I figure that I haven't even reached the halfway stage of my life, barring a fatal accident.

So, if by choosing to know when I'm going to die reduced my time on this planet by ten years and I got an answer of, say 40, I'd be in a state of shock, to say the least.

For one, it would mean that I was "originally" only going to live to 50, far fewer years than I'd envisaged. Secondly, and even worse, by opting to know, my life has been cut by 20 per cent and I've just been left with four years to live.

That is, I certainly hope, a most unlikely example. Of course, one never knows, though. And most of us have plenty of sad reminders of this.

In a more general sense, that we don't know when the Grim Reaper will come a-knocking, that it could be much sooner than we think, lends itself to the saying, 'Live each day as if it's your last.'

That's fine in theory. In practice, it's rather more difficult.

Altering such an approach slightly so as to make it less dramatic — and less damaging, as it potentially could be if and when you discover it's actually not your last day — is to look to add a sense of urgency to your life (as our "friend" Jordan Peterson explained in a recent podcast interview).

This should help one focus on more immediate issues, to work towards attainable goals and worry less about things that are a long way off, never mind reflecting too much on past mistakes or regrets. It's an outlook I'm trying to adopt, with some difficulty, in any case.  

Live in the moment (as best one can — the powers-that-be are making that more difficult these days) with a glance to the future whilst never losing sight of past lessons learnt. As simple as that, eh?
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OK, covid's not the flu. But it's not yellow fever, either

@wwaycorrigan

[Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.]

'Stop comparing covid-19 to the flu. It's much worse than that.' 

So goes the retort from those who view the coronavirus pandemic as a significant threat to much of humanity, responding to those who say it has been over-hyped and disingenuously documented as the chief cause of death in many cases.

To have a covid-19 shot or not, this is the question.

The truth is out there

Depending on which side one lies — that's one's position in this context, not, um, "untruths" — evidence and experts can be sourced to "prove" one's argument.

Basically, if one believes that covid is very serious indeed, then opposing views are dismissed as mere conspiracy theories. 

It doesn't matter if the experts quoted by those crazy conspiracists had previously been respected professionals. That they are now against the mainstream — or at least those dictating policy — means they're pursuing a particular agenda or they're simply wrong.

Conversely, should one think that this pandemic has been blown out of all proportion, then those on the other side are seen as naïve, completely consumed by the irrational fear and panic being promulgated.

The natural position for a journalist or analyst should be scepticism. Just because something comes with the official seal of a government or international body (read the World Health Organisation here), it doesn't automatically mean that it is unquestionable. 

Prepare yourselves for this, but such authorities don't always get things right or tell the truth, whether that's done innocently, ignorantly, insidiously or otherwise.

Alas, as much as one might like to follow the X-Files mantra of 'trust no one', in today's highly interconnected, interdependent world, we can't independently check and verify everything every time.

On a very minor level, I trust the staff at the panaderías I frequent to prepare my perico (coffee with milk) and bake los panes de chicharróna hygienically. When travelling on an aeroplane — remember those days? — we place confidence in the engineers et al. who built the craft and the pilots flying it to get us to our destination safely.

'It's understandable and should be acceptable that some people don't want a covid vaccine. Yet what we're seeing is a global plan to ensure such folk are discriminated against.'

With that in mind, during this pandemic where we have a number of competing narratives doing the rounds and a lack of consensus in the scientific community, about the best one can do is observe one's immediate environment and act accordingly.

  
Personally, I was in close contact with two people who a day or two later got quite sick from covid-19, one older than me, one younger. They weren't hospitalised but it did hit them badly enough. 

That's two people I know who got ill. There's a good chance I've been in contact with others who also came down with the infection of which I'm not aware.

Considering the supposedly highly infectious nature of covid, I've either been quite lucky and just haven't taken in enough of a viral load or I have some sort of immunity already.

A vexed vaccine

This then makes me question why I should be forced to take a vaccine against something that, it seems, doesn't affect me that much.

OK, you might say there's no compulsion to take the vaccine. In theory, yes. But one looks set to be at a distinct disadvantage in many walks of life without having proof of covid inoculation, international travel being the obvious one. Effectively, without being vaccinated I am currently banned from visiting my family in Ireland.

To this end, it irked me enormously to hear the UK Conservative MP, former Secretary of State for International Trade, Dr Liam Fox, whilst calling for restrictions to be eased, argue that those who don't get the vaccine shouldn't expect the same access to travel and other public events as those with the jab.

Speaking on Spectator TV, he said, 'People who don't get their immunisation can't expect, for example, to have the same international travel as people who do get it. That's always been the case. If, for example, you decide you didn't want to get a yellow fever jab you couldn't go to certain countries in Africa. So the principle is no different than before.'

However, Dr Fox, it actually is rather different. Or at least should be viewed differently if people were thinking straight.

Unlike yellow fever, we know that covid-19 is quite a discriminatory infection. Many of us have little to fear from it and some of us, as mentioned above, may already have naturally acquired immunity. Also, yellow fever's death rate is substantially higher than that of covid-19.

Thus, it's understandable and should be acceptable that some people don't want a covid vaccine. Yet, what we're seeing is a global plan to ensure such folk are discriminated against.

Throughout the pandemic we have seen how rather than unite to tackle a common problem, humanity has been deeply divided, be it in relation to lockdowns, mask-wearing or, now, the vaccine.

With such entrenched positions, the covid wars are set to last for some time to come.
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