Just in case the title of this post wasn’t enough warning, I must warn you that this post is rather navel gazing in content and may even tend towards being a bit hippy in places. I do apologize and I shall try not to make a habit of it. As with many other people I get a tad thoughtful around this time of year, partly it is of course the end of a calendar year so seems a good time to review but also it’s quieter at this time of year so I have time to pause and think. It’s a bit over 4 years since I started this blog, due to going on Old Holborns little walks, I’ve apparently written a very consistent .32 of an article a day since then and apparently some people are reading my random ramblings. It’s been an educational 4 years and I’ve become more politically active than I have been since either my student days or since going on CND marches with my parents. This growing activism has led me to moving ever further from my comfort zone, writing a blog is easy I just like to think no one reads it, going on a walk or demonstration you’re one of a crowd (albeit at times a small crowd), trying to leaflet the Olympics that was scarier and now it seems I’ll be fronting the Drinkuary beermat launch which I find terrifying (seriously if anyone wants to be the spokesman let me know). During all this, the direction our political rulers have been taking us seems to be inexorably down hill and by and large most people seem to be complacent in this. Though as I’ve commented before that tide may be changing, perhaps the British people are finally being roused and if so I pity those who become the object of that anger. So despite that seemingly inexorable direction we’re being seemingly quietly led, it seems more important to me know than it ever has to keep plugging away at what little I can do, if nothing else it means I can say I tried, for as the final verse of “Lesson of war” says:
“Things may be the same again; and we must fight
Not in the hope of winning but rather of keeping
Something alive: so that when we meet our end,
It may be said that we tackled wherever we could,
That battle-fit we lived, and though defeated,
Not without glory fought..”
That verse has rather stuck with me and bring me in a very obscure and rambling way to where I vaguely wanted to go, for me this year I’ve become increasingly aware of how well we’ve been divided against each other, how hate filled so much of politics has become on all sides. Perhaps it was always so and I just never noticed, if so then I suspect there’s no hope for any of us. On the “left” they still obsess over an old woman who hasn’t been in power for over decades, whilst celebrating regimes which killed millions, idolizing a man who burnt books, killed gays, dissidents and other undesirables yet accuse anyone they disagree with of being like another man who did the same thing on a much larger scale. Then there’s the Occupy movements obsession with bankers and that companies should pay the amount of tax that occupy decree regardless of consequence. The right seems obsessed with hating “scroungers” and immigrants. The libertarian wing seems to hate everyone if you believe the press and blogs written by anyone other than libertarians. Sorry for concentrating on the “left” so much there but they seem to wear their hatreds on their sleeves far more than the others. The problem I have with all of them though is the same, their arguments are almost always couched in terms of hatred of being against this that or the other. Their policies seem to be forged around the extreme’s “1% do this, they must be stopped”, this just strikes me as a huge waste of energy in most distributions the outlying 1% aren’t worth the effort you can’t get rid of them or do much to change those outliers concentrate where more good can be achieved. As the adage goes “Hard cases make bad law”, I’d suggest that extreme cases also make bad policy and especially when the policy and demands are couched so much in terms of hatred.
Which eventually and in a very rambling way brings me to Edith Cavell, whose statue stands on the north east corner of Trafalgar square near where Old Holborns little walks start. Inscribed on her statue are these words:
“I realise that patriotism is not enough, I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.”
Ever since I read those words on her statue they’ve rather stuck with me. Seeing the amount of hatred and bitterness in todays politics I’ve had enough, the ends can never justify the means and if we try to achieve things motivated by hatred and bitterness we’re going to poison the fruit of our labors before we begin (yeah this is the hippy bit sorry). We need to rephrase our words and our thinking so that we remove the hate and bitterness, I’d like to believe that everyone on protests and in politics are there because out of decent and compassionate motives, so why is compassion so invisible in our political speech and campaigns. It may just be the press, but in which case no one is getting their message across very well, but would it not be a better to start arguing for things not against them. I may be being naive, maybe it’s too much work, or maybe it’s already being done (but I’m not seeing it). Maybe if we started focusing on the end rather than the means we might find more common ground? Of course almost any argument for a thing can be phrased as an argument against something else, but surely it would be healthier and more constructive if we all started discussing what we were for not what we are against (after all the list of things we don’t like is almost always longer than the list of things we like). Surely such a change in tone and language might lead to more debate, less hostility, less antagonism and who knows perhaps the discovery of more common ground that will let us make real progress towards a better and more humane country for everyone?
I’m going to try and change my language and my thinking, and keep plugging away fighting to save what I can even if it scares me – because if it’s worth fighting for then it’s worth sacrifice and if it’s not worth sacrifice then it’s not worth the energy in fighting for it. I fear the time has more than come that we all got our hands a bit dirtier than liking posts and signing electronic petitions. Just in case all this rambling navel gazing wasn’t hippy enough for you I’ll leave you with this link – as if we want a better world we’re going to have to muck in and make it.
