THE WORLD AS SEEN FROM BARLICK 210920

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Stanley
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THE WORLD AS SEEN FROM BARLICK 210920

Post by Stanley »

504.

THE WORLD AS SEEN FROM BARLICK 210920

It would be very easy to launch into a piece that was full of angst and foreboding, God knows most of the world is indulging in those two useless pursuits at the moment but I don’t do either of them. They are corrosive and pointless and do nothing to correct the problems.
A large number of people seem to be turning to religion but I am not big on that, I prefer Faith which has served me well over the years. Despite an orthodox childhood in the days when church attendance was mandatory and membership of the church choir was a badge of respectability I had enough oil in my can even at that young age to ask questions and doubt many of the things I was told were certainties. This unease grew over the years and eventually I found Mr Thomas and read his book ‘Religion and the Decline of Magic’, I liked his thesis and found many of my questions were legitimate and had answers. My later readings in theology confirmed my thinking and I found people like Diarmaid MacCulloch who reinforced my thinking and left me convinced that whilst I might be wrong, I was in excellent company. Therefore, to many, the fact that I am not running round like a headless chicken warning that the sky is falling and am not religious means that I haven’t appreciated the gravity of the situation. Needless to say I don’t accept that.
I want to look at two things; Politics and Covid19. Let’s get Politics out of the way first.
Politics is essentially the pursuit of control which gives power and in many cases today, personal wealth. At one time a veneer of altruism was maintained. I say veneer but we have many examples of sincere public service which I applaud but in times when this gave way to naked greed the veneer was maintained. The big difference I see now is that even the veneer has been dropped. The primary aim of improving the world and increasing the well-being of the least advantaged has been dropped in favour of holding on to control at any cost. We see this in Donald Trump and to a lesser extent in other nations, including the UK. There is only one cure for this, the public voice speaking through the ballot box but this is a weak reed to rely on when 50% of the population endorse the venal and corrupt policies that are causing the trouble. Don’t hold your breath as you wait for the Seventh Cavalry of reasonable and principled opinion to gallop over the hill and save the day, it isn’t coming. In my view, if there is a cure it lies in better education for all to equip them to take rational choices and this has to start in primary education. Until we fix that, the tide of greed and venality that has flooded through all our political and financial institutions will not be halted. Problem is that this is long term and fundamental and in this world of ‘the quick fix’ there aren’t many people fighting for this basic right. So as far as politics is concerned all we can do is hold the faith, stick to our principles and hope that eventually sense will prevail. It will not happen quickly.
Now for Covid19… Anyone who has read their history and understands it (Education again!) is aware that extinction events and plagues are a fact of human existence. Leaving aside Geological Time (There used to be five major extinction events but recently some researchers have been arguing for a sixth.) we have the pandemics. The most notable being the Black Death in 1348, the subsequent episodes of Plague which still rumble on to this day and the so called Spanish Flu of 1918. (It was called ‘Spanish’ because Spain was the first to report it but the most recent research suggest that it might have originated in the USA.) All these were characterised by the uncomfortable fact that they were not understood and there was no defence against them. What isn’t clearly recognised is that all of them are still with us but in many cases have mutated and lost their original virulence. Medical technology improved by leaps and bounds and of late, the incipient pandemics like Sars, Mers and even Ebola have been attacked and contained. The uncomfortable fact is that the world knew there was going to be another pandemic, scientist gave clear warnings which were ignored. The consequence is that we have a clear and present threat to health and even life that now has full attention. The general view is that since the first ‘spike’ of deaths there was an improvement which led to an easing of restrictions under economic pressure and the danger now is this has unleashed a ‘Second Spike’. Vast efforts are going into producing an effective vaccine and this is seen to be the hope for the future. Many commentators are starting to discuss ‘the world after Covid’ and this is posited as an opportunity to make improvements in every field that concerns society from poverty and Famine to Climate Change. Brave and optimistic thinking but to my mind they are all missing the point which is being ignored because it is uncomfortable.
Viruses are incredibly versatile. They are also individually short lived which means that any evolution, the thing that happened in the first place to give them their effectiveness, is very fast. In the case of Covid19 it is almost certainly different already than it was 12 months ago. This means that overall they are great survivors. What this means in terms of its effects on humanity is that it is not going to go away. It is a mistake to talk about a post-Covid19 world, this is the uncomfortable fact that is being largely ignored. We are going to have to learn to live with the virus, initially by vaccination but in the long term by modifying our behaviours to survive. There is always the chance that it will mutate into a less virulent strain but there is also the opposite chance that it will mutate to avoid extinction by a vaccine and become immune.
In the face of all this uncertainty my defence is to adopt ‘worst case’ thinking. Assume that social distancing and constant vigilance in terms of hygiene and isolation are going to be necessary for a long time. Instead of tailoring anti-Covid19 restrictions to improve the economy the opposite must be done, tailor the economy to support the most disadvantaged. The main tool in this respect is a complete rethink about the distribution of wealth. Focus attention on the young who are being badly served in both present circumstances and the future in terms of opportunity and economic survival. As one young lady said yesterday, “We have been sent up Shit Creek without a paddle!” She is right.
Sorry this hasn’t been funny or uplifting, it’s the world as I see it and if nothing else shows that I am alive, well and thinking. I commend those goals to you all.

SCG/23/09/20
Stanley Challenger Graham
Stanley's View
scg1936 at talktalk.net

"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!
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Stanley
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Re: THE WORLD AS SEEN FROM BARLICK 210920

Post by Stanley »

Bumped. I am still of the same opinion. In some ways we are better off but in others, particularly global warming, politics and the economy we are far worse. Deep Joy!
Stanley Challenger Graham
Stanley's View
scg1936 at talktalk.net

"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!
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