Mr Benn, where are you now?

ORDINARY LIFE IS EXTRAORDINARILY SPECIAL, CHERISH IT/SEARCH TO EXPRESS YOUR INDIVIDUALITY/MACHINES SHOULD SERVE US, NOT CHANGE US/PRESERVE YOUR VALUES/LEAD BY INCLUSION, DON'T RULE BY FEAR/REAL FREEDOM IS LIBERTY AT NO ONES EXPENSE/OPEN YOUR MIND TO A WORLD OF POSSIBILITIES//

These slogans/statements come not from a Situationist text or a Manic Street Preachers record, but from a children's TV program broadcast by the BBC during the late 60's and early 70's called Mr Benn; a conventional chap in his bowler hat and suit. He'd visit a costume shop try on a costume and have an adventure in a different place each week, what ever world he went to he would change for the better. Injustice and selfishness did not exist in Mr Benns world. Society was all of us and we must take care of everyone. Naive fucking liberal lefty I hear some people cry, well maybe or maybe not, at least he cared about the future. I have distant memories of watching Mr Benn as a kid, but obviously at a young age you don't consciously understand the message, but now in reflection and with the knowledge of how powerful a tool television is for giving out messages to the subconscious I believe that Mr Benn was as much an influence on my teenage and adult years as The Clash,Crass and Herbert Marcuse.