Cnoc-a-Phobuill

It was with baited breath that the crowd outside Tesco waited the revealing of the sculpture. It was with a certain amount of surprise then to see the Golden Calf upon the top of it. I must apologise here for being provocative, you see the notes on the day, as well as the artist who made it, took every opportunity to instil in us a notion that this is ‘not the golden calf that the Israelites worshipped’.

I could not help but think ‘why be so defensive’, let the sculpture be what it is, surely art demands that people have the freedom to interpret it with their own eyes?

I think the Sculptor deserves much credit for a wonderful piece of artwork, and the bull on top is representative of a local beast as well as the former mart. Maybe though the golden bull atop the sculpture means more than simply meets the eye, and maybe it is symbolic of all that we have become in this world.

If religion was the opiate for the masses in the world of Marx, then consumerism is now the number one drug of choice for the West. In vivid picture form, the golden calf/bull at Tesco’s seems to symbolise what retail outlets have become, the new centres of worship and communal gatherings. It’s no mere coincidence that places like the Trafford Centre in Manchester have a huge temple like feel, with a cavernous central cathedral area, and often these new worship centres host the priests of this ‘new religion’, the celebrities.

In our nation, Sunday attendance at church was once the normative practice, attendance has floundered somewhat in the changing face of society, and it is now the shopping malls that win the feet of the faithful. It is the global retailers and merchandisers who now have 7 day a week commitment, church membership swapped for loyalty cards, and black ties and hats replaced with corporate uniform bearing names such as Adidas and Nike. The holy books have are replaced by Bella and Best, and the altar exchanged for the cash checkout. The cry of kneel and pray has been superseded by the mantra of ‘chip and pin’. We are in every way, still very religious.

So is this harmful, this slide into greater and greater material dependency? Short term the answer may well be no, but long term I think the effects are going to be devastating for our nation.

We consume and dispose, and very rarely recycle; it is cheaper to buy a new DVD player than have the old one repaired, especially as retail giants like Tesco and the Dixon’s group can command low prices from the supplier. We become more and more individualistic and we have to a large extent lost our sense of belonging within our communities. To try and find commonality and meaning, we gather at these giant retail parks where the pew is replaced by the parking lot. We crave even more, and we demand lower prices, more choice and yet everybody wants a ‘bargain’, why else are outlets like charity shops and EBay such a success.

The big corporate retailers will defend themselves by declaring that they are only meeting demand, but a study of men like Edward Bernays, the blood nephew of Sigmund Freud reveals that the demand has been created rather than met, it was Bernays himself who said "If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it”?

We are being controlled, and our group mind is not now focused on values such as family and community, but moves impassively as one great connected consciousness through the ever increasing retail shopping malls.

So what should our response be to the ongoing onslaught of this relentless marketing and consumerist machine? As always in revolution, personal cost is high, for how many of us are willing to pay more for the things we can get for less. We no longer see ourselves as co-operatives, each person is simply out for the best deal possible, and I do not claim any moral high ground, for I myself shop at Amazon for ease of delivery and low prices.

What we can do though is support our local community in all the many ways it appears. We can support our local retailers, (and I do include Tesco as a local retailer who have become a genuine focal point for the community, like it or not). So why not buy your bike locally, and not at Halfords in Inverness, and those tins of paint actually cost much the same if not less at MacDonald’s as opposed to B&Q, and remember our neighbours are the staff in Dingwall’s shops.

So let us drive for the improvement of Dingwall and surrounding areas by our enthusiasm for local projects. Let us support our community councils and residents associations by listening to them and maybe even joining them. We can support our youth ventures by volunteering instead of despising the younger people of our community. We can support our local councillors by applauding the good work they do, realising the dilemma’s they face, encouraging them as they place social action above political allegiance.

We can in fact stick two fingers up at the golden calf and say that we will not become a centre for consumerist greed, but we will celebrate the rich cultural diversity and inherent creativeness that this part of the world and its people contain.

I imagine the Viking invaders all those years ago had to fight many battles to establish a secure place to live, let us continue the fight in our day against the golden calf of consumerism, individuality and marginalisation.

# posted by Dave Lynch @ 12:24 AM