Nov 1
Being alive,
We are so egotistical. Even those who have the cushioning of faith in some sort of eternal life beyond this earthly quagmire live each day in a mist of their own immortality. It has been a stark reminder to me this week of my own fragility when on Saturday I had a small TIA. Enough for me to lose my sight for fifteen minutes; enough for me to feel apart from the world. Enough for me to realise how much those people around me mean to me. Enough to make me question my stance in life. More than enough to make me want to go out today, on this exceptional November morning and photograph nature as it prepares for another winter cycle.
I have been lucky enough to have spent part of my childhood visiting Grandparents & relatives in the most beautiful part of Ireland, and witnessing a world that has now been lost to my children. Communication was basic: poeple stopped and talked to each other, more honestly, more philosphically, with love and care about each other. The car did not rule; the phone did not intrude. Families struggled, and largely stayed together. Relationships had value. We now live in a world where communication is supposedly master and paramount – a world where we fail to communicate on a simple, basic & honest level. Relationships have become disposable. It scares me what we have left for our children.
I remember vividly the “Cuba Crisis”, and hiding under the bed at night in case of nuclear attack. Yet today’s kids seem oblivious to the machinations of our lunatic politicians. We cannot turn the clock back. Neither can we stop Capitalism screwing up our world and climate. The masters of industry and politicians are not listening – nor do they care. They have only short term gain as their vision. No plea of “what are you leaving your grandchildren?” will reach their money stuffed ears.
In the meantime, I will take photographs to at least remind myself of how beautiful this fragile planet of ours can be.
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Rest well, recover soon, and take it easy…
I hope you’re in good health now.
It seems to me that it would be very interesting — for me at least. You were expecting Russian nukes, yet now you put blame on Capitalism. Not to say I see the world in the black-and-white picture of Western and Soviet propaganda, and I understand it would not be wise to accuse Soviets in everything… I’m just curious about your idea of how does it work. And I would be very pleased to see some kind of clarification in one of your future posts. Say, a vision of an ordinary person, not a propaganda man. I know what is (and what was) the vision on our side of the Iron Curtain. I’m eager to know about the other side.
Oleg. My sincere apologies for not replying to your post before now. It has nothing to do with fears of MI6 bugging me! – and more to do with my inability to come to terms with technology. Chris has given me a kick up the arse, so I am trying to bring this blog back to life.
In answer to some of your question – what was our vision on the other side of the Iron Curtain… well I was brought up in a world which was considerably more innocent than the one we all now live in. Post-War Britain still held our politicians and royal family in greater esteem than they deserved. We were ruled by an “elite” class – who clearly saw their role in life as rulers. To a very large extent it was the “teenagers” (a new concept for the 50′s) who were the real driving force in social change, as well as the growing organisation in Trade Unions, which more laboriously brought about social change. Travel was for the elite & rich. Working class families lived usually within a small sphere of reference – and therefore rarely came into contact with other cultures – unless of course they were part of a fighting force, send out to kill “the bloody foreigners!”
As a child my holidays were frequently spent visiting family in Ireland – an even more basic country in the early 50′s, but now one of the most sophisticated one’s in the world. The only politics my father was interested in were those which immediately impinged on his family’s well-being – then that huge jump to global threats (the Cuba Crisis being the most noticable). My father and his previous generation had lived through the experience of two World Wars, and this had led many to question the wisdom of the British ruling class. In fact, many of the leaders had proven themselves to be complete buffoons (some things never change eh?), and had lost much of their “respect” among the working class.
Propaganda was generally believed. It was preposterous to think that the BBC was biased! It seems equally absurd now to think that it was anything less than a propoganda machine for the British establishment. Because Russia was untenable to most of us – we knew little of it’s culture: it’s history was presented as a litany of hardship and mis-rule, of brutality against it’s people, and the crippling effect of Communism as a failed philosophy. America was perceived as the saviour of Europe (even though they didn’t enter the war until they were forced to), with bottomless pockets of dollars to invest in us. Capitalism was presented in every aspect of our daily lives as the colour on a hitherto grey canvas.
Once teenagers began to question the regimen of their parents thinking, and their adherence to the “old order”, the world began to be a very different place. Not that either Communism or Capitalism was greatly influenced by this change – but ordinary people here began to ask questions of the so-called “social values” which were presented as being true, unquestionable. Once ordinary people began to travel more extensively this further broke down many preconceived ideas of other cultures. Russia suffered because it hid behind it’s Iron Wall for longer, therefore the image of Russia (and probably Russia’s image of us) remained largely within the control of the politicians.
Both Capitalism and Communism are blunt tools when used to shape the world. They do not take any real account of individuals, of our hopes and aspirations. They are both flawed by human greed. What we need, perhaps more than ever today, is a system which allows us to freely ask questions, and to search for our own answers – not be provided with prescribed answers, or fobbed off with weak explanations.
….However, our politicians remain the same