Under any oppressive regime a natural resistance emerges, be it France under German occupation, a nation under a dictator, military junta or fascist regime, whatever, humanity will, and does, always assert itself.
The human spirit does not sit well under any kind of oppression. I doubt there were too many slaves having a good time at any point in history, including today, where it’s estimated that there are between 12.3 million and 40 million slaves globally [1]. We are naturally repulsed by the very idea, if we’re even a half decent human being, that is.
I didn’t walk away from politics because I’d had enough of politics, I walked away because the regime in Westminster has become an oppressive burden on the lives of ordinary people in Britain and that very much includes my own.
Westminster has become a home to monsters who are acting above the law and oppressing the lives of ordinary people. It became clear, post 2010, that this was inevitable, since then they have progressively taken the gloves off, until it’s become the madhouse it is today, and we are by no means at the end of it. Iain Duncan Smith and Esther McVey look almost sane by comparison with the mad bastards we have now. I did say ‘almost’, by the way, but they, and their double speak, were merely the vanguard of what we have now.
It’s strange, I am so glad it has crystallised, so much was deliberately hidden when Cameron came to power, although clearly their plans were well laid, we were groping in the dark trying to see where it was all going. Whatever we thought Universal Credit was, it turned out worse. Everything turned out worse.
It inevitably came to the point when I had to face facts, they are entirely impervious to reason, beyond any human call or plea for any kind of sense. Their agenda is fixed and they ain’t budging. They lie with impunity, they are above the law and they are presiding over a killing spree of unimaginable proportions. It’s not that they don’t care, they don’t, they actively desire those deaths. They are culling the herd, getting rid of surplus stock. Our lives literally mean nothing to them.
It therefore falls to each and every one of us to exert that which they despise the most, our humanity. That’s our greatest asset. Our love, kindness, patience, tolerance and understanding with and for each other is what unites us and always has. That’s the bedrock of human community and why communities pull together to achieve purposeful, communal, common and individual, goals within the community.
When I wandered into my local Tesco on a chemo-fogged mission to buy some apples, I literally had no idea what I was doing, other than following the driving purpose of getting some apples. I knew it wasn’t just a case of walking in and stealing them, there was a process involved, but I had no idea how to achieve it. I stood in front of the self-service till and scanned one lot or apples and that was it, that was the end of my resources. Clearly, Nathan (member of Tesco staff), the hero, noticed that all was not well and came to investigate and asked if I was ok, to which I replied, “I don’t know what to do,” and he talked me through the entire process, making no big deal of a guy clearly off his rocker. He just helped me and saw me on my way, saying, “Take care Keith.”
From where I am sitting that’s a big fucking deal. There was a whole process going on inside him that I was not privy to, he was having to assess and make decisions in a situation when he could have no clear idea of what was happening. Me, walking out of that shop still at liberty, was not the only possible outcome in that situation and I am pretty damned sure he was also assessing whether I was at risk.
Let’s be clear, that one small situation was actually a very complex one, and yet complex situations are just life and I am very sure Nathan went back to his job, perhaps with a thought for my well being, and knowing him, he probably did. It’s called caring and in the world we have had forced upon us, caring has become a necessary radical issue. It’s the very thing that marks us out from brutes.
It’s what saves human kind again and again. We, the people, don’t make wars, we do not routinely go about killing and brutalising people. In fact, from as far back as Napoleonic times it was noted that enlisted men aimed high and deliberately avoided killing ‘the enemy’. [2]
My current situation deserves a bit more of a mention in this unfolding national catastrophe. I am in an astonishingly vulnerable position in which I can no longer manage my life in any independent way and am dependent on the support of others to survive. No one planned this and I certainly didn’t choose it, but my managing has become ‘group’ shaped over a very broad and diverse range of caring, from the purely medical to the physical necessities of life (like shopping) and mental and emotional support and loving care. Without the complex support so kindly given by many I’d be a dead man. The medical support I am being given takes for granted that there are unpaid caring others who will look out for and care for me.
I am literally being kept alive and functioning by others, yet how often do we stop and consider how complex that is? It’s what decent folk do all the time. The unsung heroes of the many who make up the world and keep it going. No one’s getting any gongs for this, no plaudits on the evening news, no financial rewards or profit, in fact often at personal cost and loss. People put themselves out to aid others in a timeless way, and have done throughout human history. It’s how we got to where we are.
It’s the unsung, barely recorded, history of the world of ordinary people who make life work and always have. Think of all the artefacts that get painstakingly dug up on any ancient site, almost all of them crafted by human necessity, not for profit or pay or some fat cats bonus. Human endeavour, quietly getting on with the business of life.
Long may it last, but these days it requires a lot more attention to achieve, because it’s under attack in the most astonishing, inhuman, brutal and unbelievable way by our so called political leaders and by their corporate masters.
Now it has become necessary to devote our best conscious efforts to our survival and to value who we are and what we do as never before in history, because what is at stake here is life on Earth. Human kind are so technologically advanced that the planet itself and its ability to sustain life is at risk and it falls to us, little us, so small in our own sight, to preserve life in whatever way we can each manage, even if it’s just writing from a safe and protected space, as I am, right here, right now.
KOG. 06 September 2020.
[1] https://theconversation.com/fact-check-how-many-people-are-enslaved-in-the-world-today-107078
Conspiracy of Kindness 