Wednesday 25th October

Well, some of us prefer the term Realism, though others might call it Cynicism.  It isn’t that the glass is either half full or half empty, we just don’t see it being topped up any time soon.  I suppose it is the realisation that human stupidity and greed show no sign of letting up.  At least in the near or medium-term future (which is all some of us have left).

I was born in 1951.  Rationing was still on though I was too young to remember it.  But that post-war enthusiasm was still in the air.  Never again would young men be sent to their death in foreign countries, though they had said the same thing only forty years before that.  Maybe it was the scale of the thing, Russia, Japan, Burma, North Africa  – and of course the whole of Europe.  And the end, not only the complete rout of Germany but the dropping of the Atom bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.  I think that this horror pervaded the post-war Statesmen and all were agreed on building a new world.  Socialism was alive and well, even with Stalin in Russia – most countries in Europe had left of centre Governments – or what would be described as that by today’s standards.

There was Optimism in the air, the Sixties practically smelled of it.  New Music, new art, new cinema, new clothes – welcome to the modern world where kids from the council estate could and did succeed.  And everyone believed the future would get better and better.  And for a while it did, despite three-day weeks and rampant inflation, life got better and better.

So, where did it all go wrong?  Was it just Thatcherism or Reaganomics in America?  Or was it that dread term, which Harold Wilson warmed us against – Affluence.  As people rose up the ladder the fear that those below us might overtake or steal our new-found wealth.  So best to stamp on their grubby little fingers, keep them down where they belonged, and better vote Tory too while we are at it.

So now everyone knows the World is a crock of shit and only likely to get worse.  That is Pessimism for you.  And while we can be Optimistic for the long-term future, after all, we have all seen Star Wars where Good always beats Evil, for the time being Pessimism is the only mood in town.

Have a nice day.