A Time to Reflect

BRIGHTEVERYDAY A Time to Reflect

So, fifty years on what have we achieved by 2020? Well, we destroyed our economy and political base due to sheer neglect, bitter industrial disputes, and our immersion in the spirit of a free market economy, embodied in Capitalism and Consumerism. We allowed our indigenous skills and workplaces to disappear; underinvested, then sold off to the highest bidders, traditional skills made redundant as ignorance, and greed prevailed. We watched on as shipbuilding slid into murky waters, not as though world shopping became obsolete, rather we did, in a dogfight played out as a template for future capitulations and profanities. Much loved national treasures dismantled, our steel, car and textile industries, lost to ideological dogma, indifference, incompetence, and of course greed, quite in contrast to the spirit of invention and endeavour that heralded their birth and proliferation. The list goes on!

Where are we now? We are at a crucial and defining point of realisation, one of relinquishing old habits of neglectful scorn and entropic disfunction. We have easily succumbed and become submerged into a commercial world of “Herd Stupidity”, accepting false values, and doctrines, engineered by advertising, often subliminal, and a bereft media, all playing into the shame of unadulterated consumerism, and “hero” worship, endorsing a world of high fashion, sport, and ephemeral trivia. Have we not become slaves to the mundane, to the transient world of excesses and self-gratification, ignoring our true path, our responsibility to each other, environmental sustainability, and peace on earth? So easily have we become entrenched in a world of extremes, enslaved, and colluded by the indiscriminate, now obsolete, forces of free-fall Capitalism. In an age of Post-Capitalism, society has an opportunity to re-dress years of neglect and impropriety, by exercising our individual rights.

Why be a sheep, a follower of fashion, and not the author and instigator of your own identity and style? Why sit watching footballers earning Thousands of pounds an hour when many supporters earn, say Twelve pounds an hour, and why, rather than witness all the squabbling over wage reductions, did they not furlough the players as well? It is an aberration, an obscenity! What was there special case? I think, we all know the answer to that one! This is an old hackneyed joke, and we know there are only a few jokes. Take control and abrogate the falsely created market of the gratuitous air travel market, and its burgeoning holiday affiliations; one which absurdly and condescendingly ignores environmental impact, and gorges on insatiable consumption.

Best we learn from it, dust ourselves down and move on to a more meaningful and rewarding life. Why live someone else’s adventure, idolising them, when you can have your own; you can create your own dreams and aspirations and have an altogether more challenging and exciting life, a life of passions and fulfilment. What do we ignore in being in the herd? We deny contentedness, humanity, humility, self-expression, identity, adventure, creativity, and the spirit of excitement found on the wing.

We have a truly epic journey ahead, one full of promise and we should all take ownership of our role in shaping it. Cast off our old habits and constraints, breathe deeply and freely, and connect with the world in a meaningful and profound way. The irrepressible spirit of humankind has no boundaries, we alone create them. We must surely have a different path and mission. We have a responsibility to our children, and to ourselves, one that transcends the intrinsic, neglectful nemesis of humanity, the wrecking ball of Consumerism. When we conquer our indoctrination in its very pathological being, we shall see a world of opportunity, a world in need of rescue, and more importantly the role we can all play as individuals and partners in a new order.