Where We Stand
Politics has never been more rotten, more destructive of the people’s wellbeing. From an impartial distance, this is surely unarguable.
But who keeps this distance? From where I stand, democracy (reflecting the people’s choice), and freedom (of the powerful to enrich themselves and do what they like), have become especially poisonous. To the biosphere as much as to the human race.
I’m not trying to persuade anyone. My only influence is casting my one vote when invited. Till then, I’ve no idea which way I’ll lean, if at all. Here in the UK, politicians have collectively done great damage over the last few years. They focus on winning for self and party, not making a better world for everybody. Not sure if it has ever been different. There may or may not have been rulers who heeded Lao-Tzu and his talk of the Tao, in the Tao Te Ching, two and a half thousand years ago.
In the last few years, we were offered two referendums. The Scots were invited to vote for independence from the UK. The whole UK were invited to vote for independence from the European Union. In each case, politics being what it is, they were offered a choice of which falsehoods to plump for. No thought was apparently given to huge constitutional issues. The voters were certainly not told what these were. Even the politicians hadn’t thought them through. Four years later they still haven’t been resolved, because no solution has been found, nor ever will, that isn’t damaging.
Needless to say, I have no remedy to suggest, only a humble opinion, that in our system here, the unelected House of Lords, supported by the unelected Civil Service, under the unelected monarch, can supply enough expertise, wisdom and impartiality to keep the country running in our global emergency.
Queen Elizabeth over her 68-year reign to date has advised fourteen British prime ministers and numerous Commonweatlh heads of state. Her unelectedness is of no account other than tradition. Many other countries, including France and Ireland, have elected presidents whose role is to stand above political bias.
As for the trade of politics, what is it but “show business for ugly people”?
Here’s some further reading, with excerpts, offering wider perspectives on the pandemic:
From the Church Times https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2020/25-september/comment/opinion/people-need-alternatives-to-fear :
Drawing on but expanding the insights of St Thomas Aquinas, Finnis identifies the seven basic goods as life: human vitality and health in its widest sense; knowledge: considered as a value in its own right rather than a means to an end; play: engaging in different enjoyable activities for their own sake; aesthetic experience: the appreciation of beauty; sociability: friendship with others; practical reasonableness: using one’s intelligence to address the challenges of life; and religion: pursuit of ultimate truth, whatever our conclusions about it may turn out to be.
The article goes on to show how each of these seven basic goods is potentially threatened by the pandemic.
From The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/18/james-lovelock-the-biosphere-and-i-are-both-in-the-last-1-per-cent-of-our-lives
The BBC recently interviewed James Lovelock, aged 101, as to his view of where wwe stand.
Q: Is the virus part of the self-regulation of Gaia?
A: Definitely, it’s a matter of sources and sinks. The source is the multiplication of the virus and the sink is anything we can do to get rid of it, which is not at the moment very effective. This is all part of evolution as Darwin saw it. You are not going to get a new species flourishing unless it has a food supply. In a sense that is what we are becoming. We are the food. I could easily make you a model and demonstrate that as the human population on the planet grew larger and larger, the probability of a virus evolving that would cut back the population is quite marked. We’re not exactly a desirable animal to let loose in unlimited numbers on the planet. Malthus was about right. In his day, when the human population was much smaller and distributed less densely across the planet, I don’t think Covid would have had a chance.
10 thoughts on “Where We Stand”
So here I was, ruminating on your previous post, thinking about what to say and what not to say. And now here’s another post to ruminate on! One of these day I’ll catch up.
At least with Lovelock we’ve encountered him before and already went a few rounds. Not sure I remember what the final outcome of that was, though. Pretty sure it wasn’t glowing affection.
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“what to say and what not to say”—I know what you mean, having had to ponder this at every step when writing my last two posts. They are meant to challenge one’s everyday perceptions and judgements, without setting a cat among the pigeons or poking a stick into a hornet’s nest. Which is doubtless impossible. ‘Nuff said.
Re Lovelock, I checked previous posts and discussions we’ve had in the comments. There was one I published in June of last year, called “The End of the World is Nigh”. It was centred around a YouTube video by some semi-crackpot as recommended by a blogger of my then acquaintance, who’s now become a mega-crackpot denying every current danger as part of some great conspiracy. He refuses to wear a mask on principle and his latest excuse is that our leaders across the world have got possessed by an evil spirit. I’ve obviously withdrawn the post.
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Hmm, not sure how I feel about my transplanted posts being ascribed to “nobody.”
On the one hand I’m inclined to take comfort in anonymity as Emily Dickinson suggests:
“I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Are you – Nobody – too?
Then there’s a pair of us!
Don’t tell! they’d advertise – you know!
How dreary – to be – Somebody!
How public – like a Frog –
To tell one’s name – the livelong June –
To an admiring Bog!”
On the hand:
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Bryan, I’ve just found out what you are referring to, Never noticed this before. It’s my fault of course but I haven’t yet worked out how to fix it yet. I need to invite you to join as a user, and you to accept. Unfortunately, WordPress has gone through a major update: has this affected your posting too?
At the moment I cannot find a mechanism to send you the invite. Watch this space!
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No worries, Vincent. I think my main concern was that you might have redacted my name due to some sort of bad blood between us that I was unaware of. (But I knew that probably wasn’t really the case.)
Mostly I just wanted to give you a friendly poke to see how you’re doing
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Thanks, Bryan, a friendly poke was exactly what I needed. As to how I am doing, an answer will come in a new post, drafted complete from a scribble in my new notebook the other night. I’ve been too lackadaisical to type it out and publish. till now.
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Erm, that promised post, originally a thousand words dashed off, non-stop following a dream containing a narrative for once originally titled “Nobody’s Fool”, has failed to manifest a whole week later. It refuses to jell, its state resolutely liquid refusing to be contained. Plenty writing, scanty publishing. I guess that may be one of the things we share in common at this stage of our lives.
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“moira was one’s portion or part in destiny which consisted of good and bad moments as was predetermined by the Moirai (Fates), and it was impossible for anyone to get more than his ordained part.”
Maybe the most we can do is live authentically according to the gifts we received and the truth we have discerned. We may think that some individual has power over the many. But if the collectives individuals did not consent to accept the system that others fabricated, it would crumble.
Take for instance Facebook. The masses have recently ceded their power to a computer program which was created without a moral dimension.
It is up to individuals to act within the possibilities that are available. To truly accept his fate means seeking the means he discerns to make his mark for the good.
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Thanks for the information about the Moiriai: practical advice through myth, as in parts of the Bible. Your point about power and consent is well made, and I’ve no intention of conveying a pessimistic view of the future.
But isn’t it that most of us don’t withhold consent? Isn’t it that power, in all its forms, offers us bribes, with the dream of a better life, flimsy and false though their promises may be?
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One idea which I quickly caught onto when I was raising my children was that they were easily distracted. I could redirect their attention from negative behaviors by presenting what is known as a ‘shiny object.’ I see this principle at work in our political systems but it is used in the opposite direction, Some attention grabbing story distracts us from the mundane pursuits which may reveal error, enact justice, or calm ruffled waters.
I am afraid we were given the gift of free will before we had the discernment to use it well. So we learn by trial and error hoping that enough time will be allocated to develop wisdom.