It's been a while folks. That's down to the beginning of term - new timetables to get used to, new resolutions on the writing/working/childcare fronts. For a teacher and parent September is the time for new year's resolutions, and I am resolute.
So far I'm keeping my deadlines, but we'll see how things pan out.
ANYWAY. What I was going to talk about was a chat I had with my daughter this morning. "If you had a time machine, Mummy," she said, "Would you go back to the past or into the future?"
And instantly I said "The past." And when she asked why, I realised that I can't see the future as being in any way better than the present. How depressing is that? It feels as though we are caught in a downward spiral of human intelligence. While technology is advancing and more and more wonderful things are possible as a result, the power and ambition of the human mind is atrophying almost in tandem. I personally am having a great time, my family is healthy and happy and, it has to be said, relatively privileged. However I am aware that all over my country and all over the world the mismanagement of affairs by stupid, misguided or evil people means that, needlessly, humanity suffers. Meanwhile dogma has replaced thought, and leaders believe that only their way is the right way, and they will brook no opposition or contradiction. This is particularly true when said leader is possessed of an evangelical religious mindset. Like the leader of the 'so-called' free world, the architect of Guantanamo Bay and the man who is trying to steamroller back the Geneva convention and the concept of human rights. At least the fact that so far he's failed means that there are some out there who don't lie down and invite him to tickle their tummy.
I don't see how we can climb out of this morass of bigotry and stupidity. As countries and religions feel threatened and harassed and lash out at each others, the fact that washing around the world are nuclear weapons and hair-trigger sensitivities makes for an uncomfortable peace. And when you get superpowers allegedly threatening other countries that they will 'bomb them into the stone age' if they don't do as they're told.... well, it makes me fear for my children's future.
At least we know that there was a lot wrong with the past. Better the devil you know than the devil you don't. I wish I felt more optimistic. I started making my plan of what I would do if I were in charge. You have to be really hacked-off with the status quo when you start doing that. Trouble is, I wouldn't start from here... Maybe I'll put that up tomorrow. For now I'm going to go and spend some time with my children, who are cleverer than most world leaders, as well as a damn sight more personable and better looking.
2 comments:
So, I'd like to suggest a possibility - not something I'm taking a firm stance on, mind you, but something I console myself with whenever I get gloomy about the future. Here it is: Maybe the truth is that things are so much better today than they've ever been that we can now finally see how screwed up things really are. Maybe we've finally reached the level of social consciousness where we can be worried about all the things you very accurately point out. Maybe until the very recent past (relatively speaking) the social elite wouldn't have cared about any of this as long as their coffers were being filled and the rest of society would have been too numbed by the crushing nature of their lives to really give a you-know-what. Maybe the fact that we finally have advanced enough on the Maslowian pyramid to really care about these things is a sign of progress. Maybe it is the beginning of the cure.
Perhaps a Pollyanna-ish thought, but I cling to it as the only hope.
Lable
Yes, I think in a way you're right. We are more 'self-actualised', and the niceties of international diplomacy are known to us much more thnan they would ever have been in the days before 24 hour news and televised wars.
In a way there's something of a backlash against stupidity here - lots of brain stimulation games and activities marketed widely. Unfortunately it'll be the people who don't need them who'll buy them. Like the healthy foods and the gym memberships.
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