It’s summertime, the weather in London is fine and everything in the garden is looking good; a sea of blue agapanthus against a backdrop of white jasmine. Yet I have never felt so uneasy about life.
I hope this is because old folk like me worry more but I believe I am being rational. In the 1960s, encouraged by the Coke advert, there was an optimism that the world was just one big village and – if we had that iconic red can in our hand – we could all sing together. Today I am painfully aware of how fractured our society is in the UK and everywhere else, except perhaps Australia and New Zealand. A while back two friends told me that they were going to buy a house in Tasmania. They never did but it looks tempting now.
We cannot wish away the conflict in the Middle East. The horror for innocent people caught up in this is hard to comprehend. Their lives are being destroyed and we cannot do anything to help. This is not a war that is suddenly going to come to an end. In fact it seems to be getting incrementally worse, month by month and it has spread to Belgium and France. I worry for the UK. This is pessimistic but realistic. There is one heartening aspect. The UK’s place in or out of the EU is an irrelevant side-show in the context of what is going on in the wider world. If there is a recession, if taxes go up, if there is higher unemployment – at least we live in a functioning democracy. There won’t be tanks on the streets or militia rounding us up.
I intended to write about something completely different, that will have to wait, but I just wanted to get this off my chest.
A friend on my mother’s has recently been to Jordan to help Syrian refugees. Perhaps there is something that can be done….
The issues we face are large, the scale seems larger with social medias influence. The change from the 60s is clear too; liberal economic policy has seemingly fractured community in favour of big business and the lucky few.
Steady the Buffs! Yes, this democracy is indeed surprisingly healthy, surviving even the absurd anti-elitism and easy dissidence of the well-governed. As to terrorism: for all its horrors, they are small compared to those that afflicted the 20th Century. Even the Middle East is at the messy but necessary business of deciding which wins: dictatorship or responsive government, all against the background of a struggle between theocracy and modernity.
In the UK, nihilistic creeds have certainly got a grip on some young people, and a dangerous cynicism infects many of the brightest and best. But there’s always a battle for the culture, and we foot soldiers just have to keep at it. (Well, I see you as more cavalry material, but you may accept the point.)