A Sea of Troubles.

What with looking after Fiona, with her broken collar-bone, doing the work that she usually does as well as trying to keep my own projects going, I have been working harder than I have done for a long time. Like so many people, according to what one hears, I am sick of following the twists and turns of British politics - it takes too much time and intellectual effort. Most of us would like to live our lives 'above politics', like the Queen. The royal example however is not good, and a Head of State that cannot call conflicting parties back to dialogue is of no use. The fact of the matter is that politics have a profound effect on the lives of everyone, and it's worse it's going to get; they are an essential dimension of our lives, and while most spirituality directs our minds beyond them, the Lord's prayer kicks off with what is surely a political statement - 'thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth....', even if at the same time that Kingdom is 'not of this world'.

     The trouble starts where politics descends into a mere power struggle, as it always tends to do on account of the prevalent narcissism of the human race. Why should we be bothered with that? Well, do we want to be slaves? The life-blood of real democracy is the sharing of both power and responsibility, and resolving conflict through dialogue and rational argument; it begins and ends with the sincere quest for truth and justice. What then can one say to power when it becomes the mere expression of will to dominate and manipulate? Which is about where the present British Government evidently stands - and this the first occasion I have had to say this in my lifetime. 

     No longer even truly rooted in the political tradition from which it sprang, or even in the collective mind of its boot-licking members, it is being driven by a shadowy and ruthless unelected individual and clique, who even have the previously bumbling and ineffective Prime Minister in hand - not that he has been elected to that office either. They really seem to believe that redemption can only come by way of disruption and indeed chaos. Whatever happened to 'the party of business'? One day it will all make a good film - not yet though, for it is actually happening now, though one has to pinch oneself to realise it.

     Yet such a will-to-power cannot get anywhere unless it taps in to some deep and widespread condition in the minds of its victims. In the backgoround of the present drama is deep and widespread anxiety about the way the world is going, and this is an intolerable and paralysing condition. It is so much easier to take refuge in the past than to set out against the 'sea of troubles' that confront us now. How nice the 1950s of their childhood appear to so many old voters now. England was full to the brim with complacent self-satisfaction, and a rosy future beckoned with all the goodies of technology. Pull up the drawbridge; let us get back to the good old days! The odd gent with a posh accent, a plausible way of talking, a smattering of learning and preferably a double-breasted suit is all to the good. 

     But what's in it for the men with deep pockets behind it all? Oh for the days when one could be a real capitalist, with none of your damn social and environmental responsibility! The world will go to Hell if it must - but in the meantime let those of us enjoy it who are smart enough to do so! And if swathes of industry is destroyed, along with the livelihoods that depend on it, well the little people can just get on their bikes. Not, however, to saner parts of Europe! But the real rich of this world have better ways of making money than actual production, and they don't even know what real patriotism is, in the sense of putting one's country before one's own interests.

     Clearly all this must be combatted, but what can we poor powerless people do about it? Well, we can start by listening to people who know what they are talking about and recognising the facts of a world so very much more inter-connected than it was even in the 1950s. We can insist that politicians are called back from mere power struggling to facts and to real dialogue about them. No grand and specious merely national aspirations can possibly deliver the goodies we all desire in the line of the quality of life. 

     The way ahead lies not in less inter-connectedness, but in much more of it, deeper and richer. We must not give way to anxiety, paralysis and laziness, along with the preference not to think or talk about how we can possibly get there! Discussion, meetings, strikes, demos, online efforts, they all have their place, but we must not forget to listen to those with whom we disagree and must insist on non-violence; non-communication is always the prelude to violence, so when people will not genuinely talk to to each other, watch out! There is plenty that can be done, - get out there, you young people, and do it - it's your future that is at stake!