We know the wind is blowing in the barley and in the boardrooms but we do not know which way the wind is blowing - or at least as I write this we don't. The EU Referendum decision, upon which so much depends, has yet to come - but either way, we will have to learn to live with it. There is no certainty in life (death and taxes excepted) and one thing a study of past authors such as Leatham have taught me is that patterns do tend to repeat and the 'issues' do tend to be similiar if not the same over all the generations. Which does suggest to me that we are those condemned to relive variations of the past because we never seem to learn from them. Or not enough people learn. And those who learn are, like Galt, simply 'realists without hope.' That is my thought for the month. Whatever your political persuasion, or none, whether you vote or don't - something will happen in the wider world and nothing will ever be the same and there's very little any of us can do about it on personal level. If the world could be changed for the better by money or influence do you not think it would have been changed by now? Poverty and hate-crime offer just a couple of examples of where we all claim to want the world to be better but somehow it just never happens. While refugees or migrants suffer and die in their thousands, 'mass' killings and football hooligans in the 'developed' world play out their own personal luxury of 'freedom brought by democracy.' I am brought time and again to question just what 'developed' actually means.
In case you are getting uncomfortable (and let's face it, we really should be very uncomfortable about the state of the world and our own place in it if we have the privilege of even a modest 'lifestyle' in the 'developed' world - which I'm guessing you do if you've the time and energy to read The Gateway - I'll shift focus to the other elephant in our room this month which is The Kailyard. Perhaps the seeds of one lie in the other? Intolerance and prejudice towards authors or styles of literature (or fiction) may seem to be trivial with all that's going on in the world, but they are nevertheless to my mind, indicative of our general malaise - our wrong sightedness. I am leaving a lot of subtext here for you to read. I deliberately don't want to 'spell it out' because I'd rather you thought - really thought - for yourself about how the issues in Gateway have any relevance to your life and the world as you perceive it. If you can't see any, perhaps you need to learn to look a bit harder. If you can, perhaps you will become, or already are, a realist without hope. Perhaps like me, you would self define as a 'utopian realist without hope.' I don't think I've invented the term but it's not as popular as any of the mass movements be they political or religious (or cultural) we find ourselves swamped with in the world today. Or should I say 'worlds' because I feel daily more convinced that the multiple/possible worlds theory is alive and well - and we are living in the midst of it. We don't need to search for other planets, we have all the worlds we could ever need right here in front of our eyes. The past is a different country, the present is a plethora of worlds and the future - well, if the past and present are anything to go by, it's just going to be another variation of the same. With more extreme weather! Put that in your climate change pipe and smoke it. Rab Christie Comments are closed.
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