I (and a few million others) am suffering a bit of a spiritual down-turn about the way things are going right now. I knew it was going to be at least a year of rubbish, but I didn't realise quite the extent to which our endurance would be tested.
I found myself yearning for a bit of banter with other humans at the pub yesterday, but this is becoming next to impossible. All the bar staff now have to wear masks and there is no sitting at the bar itself allowed any more. I sat at a table on my own and was eventually joined by someone who only goes to the place to read newspapers in silence as he drinks coffee. Most regulars have stopped going there for obvious reasons. It made me realise the truth of what I have been maintaining for years - that I don't go to the pub to drink, I go there to socialise.
Then there is the current state of U.S. politics. Before anyone tries to tell me that it is none of my business and I should not get involved, I will say that it is the world's business. If the best that the Democrats can come up with to fight Trump is Joe Biden, then things have reached a very sorry state. If the best they can do to hoodwink the electorate is to push him as a Trojan Horse, then that shows the universal lack of respect for any politician who is not a billionaire.
This morning I listened to a protester calmly talking about how the ancient woodland he is camped in is being cut down to make way for HS2, and you could actually hear the chainsaws in action as he spoke. Boris Johnson is making the most out of Parliament being decimated by his own rules about Covid, even though neither he nor any of his ministers actually understand them.
Only now have they realised that there is going to be an acute shortage of basic skills when we finally cut the ties with Europe, and that they will have to import them from other countries if our standard of living is going to look anything like it was before Covid. Unbelievably, they have included musicians on the list of people to be prioritised for visas. Musicians! What does this say to all our own musicians who have been put out of their jobs overnight with no prospect of paid work for the foreseeable future?
They are about to make trespass a criminal offence and the excuse for this is to stop rogue travellers from cutting down trees (!) and leaving tons of rubbish on private land for others to clear up at their own expense.
The truth is that the police have always had the power to evict and arrest people causing criminal damage and illegally camping on any land, but they are too scared to approach these self-styled outlaws. Soon, any rambler who strays off an ill-defined footpath could find themselves with a criminal record which will last for the rest of their lives, with all the social disadvantages that come with the conviction.
I would like to think that they have just not thought this legislation through, but the scary thing is that I believe they have thought it through in great detail.
Any decent government would strive to make things better for people who are already suffering such intense misery as we are now, but we have no decent government and no prospect of one for years to come.
We're all on a ride we didn't choose to ride on. Where it's going to end is beyond our imagination since we could never in a million years have dreamed of this! How very sad - all that's honorable and true are lost, with nothing to support a healthier and better new generation. Wish we could go somewhere else...they don't want us here, anyway.
ReplyDeleteActually some have chosen part of this ride...not COVID, clearly but many voted for Trump and the majority voted for Brexit. There are also people who are saying COVIS isn’t that serious, don’t get your information from “main stream media” and don’t get a vaccine because ....well just because.
DeleteYou forgot to mention man made climate change nay sayers, Tom.
I like this comment, Traveller. There's a lot of truth in it.
DeleteI have no idea about how serious 'COVIS' is any more than I do COVID. Where do you get your information from?
DeleteBloody fat fingers is all I will say.
DeleteI am not clever enough to guess what you are talking about.
DeleteIt's the uncertainty about how long covid will go on that is most difficult. Even if we knew it was going to be another full year, that would be better than thinking it will be six months and then finding it isn't. As for the other official vandalism, "spiritual down-turn" is spot on.
ReplyDeleteThe official line is that we must expect to live in fear of serious illness and death for years to come, even if a vaccine is developed by next Spring.
DeleteTasker has the word John. The word is uncertainty - our whole life at the moment is based on that and it is scary. I am of an age where maybe it is not so important but I have a son, grandchildren and great grandchildren - so there is still plenty of scope for me to feel just as you do.
ReplyDeleteThere are two groups who have the most to worry about - the old and the young. The ones in between will get off the most lightly. They very young don't count in this case.
DeleteThe Dems could have come up with a younger, more exciting candidate, but in the end, we have Biden. He may not be the best choice but he is best for the time. We need the antithesis of tRump, which is a decent person with experience in leadership, a relationship with our allies and is better able to deal with the world problems that we face. He will also not put crooks in his cabinet and Putin won’t have his ear. Most of all, we do think he can win. I did not vote for Biden in the primaries, but I will vote for him in November. If he loses, we and the world may not recover.
ReplyDeleteNostradamus may have had a point.
Deletehaha lol
DeleteYou couldn't make it up.
ReplyDeleteIf, six years ago, someone had written a novel with all this in it, it would have been thought too far fetched. As each week has gone by since June 2016 I have gone from total disbelief to despair.
My American friends said they would vote for a chimpanzee if it stood opposed to Trump so I suppose they must be very happy with Biden. I feel the same about Boris Johnson.
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DeleteIn week one we said it could not get any worse, then it got worse week by week.
DeleteI get the feeling that democracy is slipping away and right wing dictatorships sliding in, in many places around the world
ReplyDeleteBeware false patriots.
DeleteYes, Ollie, it is a fine mess.
ReplyDeleteWho got you into it?
DeleteWell no matter which ways you write it we are in a humankind mess. Then of course the latest news, that man, accused of 70 odd bullying interruptions into a discussion, has Covid now. I trust it will not be serious, though if a cynical thought rose in my throat, it would point out the convenience of such an illness to a failing president.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest I think we should focus on the coming of Brexit which is lurking round the corner.
Without wishing to sound too righteous, it would be better if Trump stayed on the election trail and be overwhelmingly voted out of office. Brexit has now turned covert. We will not be able to influence the outcome in any way now.
DeleteI just read Thelma's comment and was intrigued to know who she means by we? I assume she means herself and you.
DeleteI read it as 'the population'. There is no point on focussing on Brexit now anyway. They have begun covert meetings in a tunnel...
DeleteHi Rachel, I meant the whole country should start watching the negotiations that are coming out over Brexit - it is our business as well.
DeleteThe last five lines could have been written here. Same situation here.
ReplyDeleteI think it could be the same situation in so many other countries now.
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ReplyDeleteNever a truer word spoken...
ALL together now..
Padre nostro che sei nei cieli
sia santificato il tuo nome
venga il tuo regno
sia fatta la tua volontÃ
come in cielo così in terra.
Dacci oggi il nostro pane quotidiano
Rimetti a noi i nostri debiti
Come noi li rimettiamo ai nostri debitori.
E non ci indurre in tentazione
Ma liberaci dal male.
Amen...
Good News..Trump has the Virus..
ALL together now.....
Come on Willie. You must not celebrate another human being's falling ill no matter what you think of them when well. The only people who I would wish dead are mass-murderers, but only before they committed the mass-murder. That makes it God's business, not ours.
DeleteYes! Your right..!
DeleteAnd..Yeah! Hope he gets better..
Then loose the election..! oooops!
Exactly. See my reply to Thelma's comment above.
Delete