Monday 18 May 2020
A change had occurred
A change had occurred, something new had intervened. He could no longer evolve the great feeling of solitude, where he had felt as though alone before nature and humanity, for somebody stood at his side or behind him. The isolation was abolished, and he was soldered to the little banal life, threads had been spun round his soul, considerations began to bind his thoughts, and the cowardly fear of harboring other thoughts than those his friends harbored clutched him.
August Strindberg – On the Seaboard (1913)
As I write this blog post and publish it online, the act of writing and publishing it changes me slightly. Not much and not in any quantitative sense, but there is a change because I made choices I’ve never made before about words and ideas I’ve never before thought or written in exactly this way. At least I hope that’s the case. I’ve made similar choices in the past, but not exactly the same choices.
If you choose to read the post then you will be changed too. If you choose to leave a comment that’s another change which reflects back on readers who read your comment.
Yet it isn’t easy to accept that we constantly change in ways which are never repeated. An aspect of this is that people vary in their attitude to the essential dynamism of life. Some wish it wasn’t so and look to various authorities willing to delude that it isn’t so. Hence the main political division between political and apolitical. Left and right are part of the illusion.
We see it all the time throughout the coronavirus debacle, the illusion that we can prevent change. Yet ironically these attempts have almost certainly created greater and more damaging changes than if we had been more pragmatic.
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4 comments:
Interesting point you make here...
I often read the Biased BBC site, and sometimes get cross and comment. The next morning, I re-read the results and wonder if I really meant what I wrote at the time.
It's not getting sozzled and ranting, but it seems a bit of a habit at the moment, as the press isn't really helping many people, just getting in their way.
The biggest change from this unnecessary and destructive lock-down is I now have zero trust in anyone purporting to be an expert (Ferguson et al). Also politicians, all of whom seem to be either corrupt or incompetent.
So, from now on, I'll trust myself alone - mistakes are inevitable, but they'll be mine. If my choices affect others in my family, I'll admit any errors are mine too.
2020, so far, has shown clearly that trust is wasted on public figures, most of whom have demonstrated their stupidity and blind faith in following dubious advice and moronic rules. The only slightly amusing thing is that 2020 used to mean good (vision)!
Thankfully I have retired and are therefore a bit cushioned from the economic meltdown the majority are experiencing. I'll help my daughters financially until they can recover income, but otherwise I'm staying "out-of-the-loop" (as long as my pensions are paid).
Good luck "out there" - you'll all need it.
Yes, preventing change is important for them, but on the other hand the "authorities" - on both sides of the political spectrum - seem determined to push through some remarkably similar changes. All want to increase surveillance; all want to recruit experts who know better than us; all want to involve the state more deeply in people's lives and in economic enterprises; all want to provoke some sort of hysteria or an emotional reaction to things that our grandparents took in their stride; none of them want to talk straight.
I incline more to cock-up than conspiracy in explanations, but it makes you think, doesn't it? It's almost as if this "crisis" was very welcome in some quarters.
Scrobs - I used to read the Biased BBC site, but gave it up when I stopped watching the BBC. No point stoking the frustration I thought.
Ed - my trust has gone too, although it was threadbare to begin with. Politicians are not easy to assess. They generally come across as either corrupt or incompetent but that seems to reflect the pressures and influences which put them there, one strand of which is voter stupidity.
Sam - it does make you think and it is almost as if this "crisis" was welcome in some quarters. I think there is an engineered aspect to it in that the political and economic damage is also welcome in some quarters and even more damage would be equally welcome.
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