From Skateboarding Ducks to Dead Ducks

Herbie the skateboarding duck (c.1976-83) was the subject of an item first broadcast on the Midlands Today insert to the BBC news magazine programmeNationwide on 24 May 1978.
Herbie, an Aylesbury duck, was bought by Jacky and Paddy Randall of Croydon for their children Mikala and Colin. The film, presented by reporter Alan Towers, includes footage of Herbie waddling along the street, joining the family at breakfast and attacking the Randalls' terrier. Part of the film is a four-second shot of Herbie apparently skateboarding by himself on Colin's board. This image seemingly captured the public imagination, and the BBC received many requests for it to be shown again, which it frequently was.
The clip also appeared on other TV stations around the world, many of which also produced their own variations on the theme.There was also renewed interest in the clip in 1983 after the death of Herbie was announced, and it has been repeated many times since on other TV programmes

Image John Pettman (1955-2009)

How the world has moved on from flippant humour to a mixture of social hate and humour, It seems now we are a reactionary species more than ever, and the flight or fight mechanism has highly evolved into an instant reaction without thought or deeper consideration.This is being used to great effect by those in the know to direct and control through social media. 

Most media organisations, including independent ones which most of the population are unaware of, routinely use  'snippets' from social media as pseudo-opinions. These pseudo-opinions formed in the moment without any research are used and abused as examples of views and opinions to direct agendas. Indeed the very inclusion on every social media page, of a 'quick reaction like' button, speaks volumes to the ill-informed and mis-informed. Additionally  an instant decision button sounds very much like the Hate Week rants described in George Orwells' 1984. These are very useful. Recently 4.1 million people clicked on a website to completely abandon democracy in seconds; most of who had no idea of the wider implications, or even in some cases who or what they were agreeing or rejecting. In Airstrip One it doesn't matter.

The rants in the 1984 book were an effective way of directing and redirecting of hate towards one or more specified enemy,  and beware the enemy could be the person who is sat next to you ( or commenting on his or your Facebook page). This technique of flip-hate has long been used on a national and international basis by governments. How many people remember the pictures of the politicians shaking hands with despots in history which are conspicuously absent unless in depth research is undertaken and infrequently included in any assessment of a developing situation which can lead to war.

But War is Peace. We live in an instant pot-noodle-world where boiling water is added to a small specified topic in an instant without any historical or zeitgeist awareness.  People have been conditioned to accept or decline information in a simplified way. It is either funny, horrible wrong or right. there are many 'emoticons' on social media for this; but conspicuously absent is the emoticon 'whats the background to this story' or  I' want to research this before having an opinion'.  How long before the 'simply detest' button appears namely 'I hate you' in place of 'I hate what you said?' How long before the I hate button evolves in to 'do you want to go to war button?' 

On the 24 May 1978 the world was introduced to the humorous skateboarding duck news item and we were conditioned to laugh after the 'more serious stuff'. How many people today would click I' hate ducks' and 'I would cook it or kill it!'

This video was uploaded in 2009 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q38mSBfeVuQ . It seems even 17 years ago, when John Pettman died the world was already changing. Self Conditioning?

Today the 'more serious stuff'  has become extremely serious and the internet and social media are stuffed silly with equivalent skateboarding ducks in between hate speech, yet the masses have been conditioned to react immediately without thinking- much like the narrative in 1984. Does the fact that social media enables some minds to switch from ducks to despots so quickly mean that each are treated with equal unimportance and the buttons of hate are just around the corner; and who is the current despot anyway, -and more important isnt he/she dead yet...?

The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in. Within thirty seconds any pretence was always unnecessary. A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledge hammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one's will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic...

..And yet the rage that one felt was an abstract, undirected emotion which could be switched from one object to another like the flame of a blowlamp.

George Orwell, 1984