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Saturday 1 July 2017

Dispatches from the Ruins

5 comments:

Scrobs. said...

Nice to see Oldham in full bloom...

Demetrius said...

The sinking exploding ship was HMS Barham, 27 November 1941, see Wikipedia.

A K Haart said...

Scrobs - it's the northern powerhouse in action.

Demetrius - crikey that was well spotted.

Clacket said...

Absolutely brilliant... Beautiful soundtrack. I’m older than the creator of the clip. It is to the point though and mirrors, echoes some of my concerns. But is it just a failure of imagination?

One thing we can always bank on are insoluble crises. Too much fear (a stampede of fears!). Not enough fatalism. Too much self-absorption. Not enough historical appreciation. Just by way of counterpoint, the awful early eighties were great for me. World equals oyster, for someone, sometime.

Do you think that in 500 or 1000 years’ time people will look at this and laugh at these quaint concerns, as we sort of condescend (in our ignorance) to those of our earnest predecessors? How far in the future can we legitimately look or concern our inconsequential selves? Probably three generations is my guess; which is not very long at all, in the scheme of things.

How do we try to live well? Or does it actually matter… That’s the crisis of confidence now and probably always, I’d hazard. Thought provoking stuff, as ever, though. Many thanks.

A K Haart said...

Clacket - I'm pleased you enjoyed it and yes - I suspect that in 500 or 1000 years’ time people will laugh at us as we laugh at the our fears of our predecessors. Are they widespread fears though, or are they political and social signalling where nobody takes the content too seriously?

Perhaps we are constitutionally afraid of catastrophic loss and should expect that fear to infect mainly the middle class.