Pet hates
From the sublime to the ridiculous...
Advertising. Individual adverts may be amusing or cleverly made, but what I dislike is the whole ethos of modern advertising. It is everywhere, it interrupts, distracts and makes every attempt to force itself on us however much we want to avoid it (I'm thinking especially tv and radio ads and internet pop-ups here...). Genuine information is minimal, the majority is hype and irrelevant imagery. It is rarely honest, and aims to create desire regardless of our actual needs or wants, playing on popular prejudices and insecurities.
Celebrity. No, not the celebrities themselves, but the whole machinery of publicists, photographers and press that delight in building people up and, the next moment, cutting them down. The celebrity industry creates a false sense of inequality between people, and forgets that celebrities are simply human, their individual lives and achievements no more and no less interesting or admirable than that of millions who go unrecognised. I take my hat off to anyone who can survive that kind of exposure with their spirit and sense of reality intact.
Demonisation. The mentality that labels a person or group of people as 'the enemy', and makes a virtue of wiping them out. The images of the groups we demonise rarely reflect their true identity, being formed of stock prejudices and stereotypes. It is a way of avoiding any real attempt to understand them, and hence of avoiding any responsibility we may have in a situation of conflict. I do not believe that war is ever a good solution, but I would have more respect for those who command them if they could let us understand and see the humanity in 'the enemy' - and could then say that war is necessary - instead of glorifying our wars as a battle against evil.
DVD Region Restrictions. Just - why? When videos were developed, there were different colour systems that weren't compatible. Then we develop a new technology that doesn't have to be limited by such differences, and the industry deliberately adds in blocks to restrict the compatibility of discs and players... aargh!
Fashion. A fashion is nothing but an induced epidemic - George Bernard Shaw. Fashion insists that we buy things because they are 'new' or 'the in thing', regardless of their beauty or usefulness, and then demands that six months later we discard whatever it was in favour of the next fad. It glorifys the sheep mentality, and wants us to look down on people who think for themselves and decide on their own tastes.
Internet Browser-specific Coding (aka Internet Explorer). Another example of self-interest in the industry working against accessibility. Whichever browser you choose, it seems there are going to be some sites that don't work correctly, and the dominance of the idiosyncratic Internet Explorer means that many sites are coded for it regardless of whether they work well - or indeed at all - in other browsers. I don't particularly like IE, and I get tired of sites that force me to use it. As a webmaster I get even tireder of trying to code my sites so that they look the same or at least passable in all browsers *grumbles*.
Intolerance. The inability to understand a different point of view, or to accept that there can be different opinions or ways of living as valid as one's own. When I hear someone proclaim that their religious path is the only way, or that their way of life is the 'natural' one, alarm bells start ringing. To my mind, both God and nature are far more complex and their manifestations far more varied than we can comprehend or - often - give them credit for.
'Reality' TV. It isn't reality, and in many cases appears to be nothing more than a glorified peep show. Whether or not the environment is artificial, the camera always has an influence on what it observes, seemingly most often to make people speak or behave in ways I find extremely irritating. Reality shows like Big Brother seem designed to showcase the worst aspects of human nature, and do little more than act as vehicles for those who want a moment of 'fame' on tv. Infamy would be a better term.
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