Change ?

Saturday 25th November

Change.  We all want change.  Our lives are so dreary we would love a change.  Maybe even our partners are boring, wouldn’t a change be nice.  Our Politicians serve us up the same shit, just on a different plate – oh, how we yearn for change.  Or the promise of change.

Because when the reality comes we don’t really like it.  In fact, we all resist change, despite most things being out of our control – deep down we wish they would just stay the same.  Or, maybe change a bit slower.  It is the pace of change which bewilders us – if only we had a bit more time to get used to it.  When I was younger, not even a child but in my early twenties, computers were the size of a room and needed men (seldom did you see a woman) in white coats to load new reels of wide magnetic tape – and now your mobile phone is incredible, it can take pictures, connect you to the internet, and wirelessly link to your fitbit (which is rapidly replacing your watch), pay for a coffee, run your bank account – and so much more….when all I really want it to do is make a phone call occasionally.  TV used to be black and white and one channel, then two and now hundreds and TV on demand, not even scheduled programmes – when many of us simply want someone else to decide what we should watch.  All this choice is terrible – Pink Floyd sung 15 channels of shit on the Tv – Fifteen!!!!  If only there were just fifteen.

Many of us do the lottery in the impossible hope of winning a fortune.  Oh, how our lives would change – all that money.  We could stop working, buy a big house or ten, a car, a yacht, live in Hotels, majestically nomading our way around the world in luxury.  Be careful what you wish for.  Most lottery winners have lost family and friends as jealousy swarms in.  Their lives changed, but rarely for the better.

And Politics.  Yes, Jeremy Corbyn has dangled the offer of real change.  And many young voters have succumbed, but the flip side is that many older Labour supporters have not and have clung to the Tories, who may be hopeless but at least they aren’t really going to change things too much.  In the euphoria of Labour’s resurgence last Summer we must not forget that although Mrs. May lost seats, she gained many votes, and not all from determined Brexiteers either.

Maybe the battle between ‘Stability’ and ‘Change’ has always been there.  And who knows which will win out at the next election.  Predictions of Mrs. May demise keep being overrun by the simple fact that there is no-one else and the Tories, who may despise her are terrified of another election.  So do we really want change?  Only time will tell.