Saturday 14 April 2018

Weakness in numbers

The weather here is warming up to temperatures more in keeping with the time of year. This - as already said - has been the longest Winter in the living memory of people with short memories. It just feels longer.

Everything in the news is divisively messy. Should Theresa May have gone along with Trump and ordered British involvement in a strike on Assad (and, perforce, Russia) before Parliament gets back on Monday? I really don't know. I have deliberately not mentioned the RAF strikes against the Syrian government installations because I don't need a high blood-pressure argument right now. I can see both sides of the argument and I don't like either.

As the weather improves, small river-flies get trapped in the kitchen and bat against the glass in an attempt to get out and get on with their short seasonal life cycle. When they are in their ones and twos, I go to extreme lengths to release them into the open air, but then I remind myself what will be happening in a month or so.

Vast hoards of the little things will be attracted by our lights and swarm all over the walls and ceiling, then I will feel differently about them.

It is simple and straightforward to care for the life of one creature, but almost impossible to muster up the concern for thousands or millions. This is how genocide is carried out by ordinary people with families. The more individuals there are, the more difficult it is to feel empathy.

13 comments:

  1. Sooner or later every war and every dead body is forgotten. When people worry about putting their heads in the sand they are actually probably doing the right thing and we should all be doing it.

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  2. If you don't see the faces of your victim ...no empathy either

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  3. There is no answer to Assad. I wish I could remember what we expected of the Arab Spring. Can we really save ourselves from Trump.

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    Replies
    1. We didn't expect this. Child mass murder has been going on for centuries.

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  4. So many words... that was what made man superior. A fat lot of good it has done us.

    LX

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  5. Do you not think that words about 'trade' passed between Trump and May? Post-Brexit trade with the USA is essential, and a certain amount of blackmail might have been essential too!

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  6. Do we know the whole truth of the issue?
    I doubt it.

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    Replies
    1. There are a lot of known unknowns and even more unknown unknowns!

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  7. Dotard pronounced it 'Mission Accomplished' in one of his many absurd tweets. Um, no.

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