A weight lifted

I went to bed last night seething, angry at a country I saw as populated by a majority who'd shown themselves to be xenophobic and bigoted, myopic and wilfully ignorant *****, happy to celebrate their own craptitude. The exit polls had come in and it suggested a landslide for the conservatives, even after 10 years of ideological austerity, swathing cuts to public services, the associated suffering and 10's of thousands dead as a consequence.  Angry that so many had voted for a leader who shown himself to be a racist, a misogynist, a homophobic, a serial adulterer, a man sacked three time for lying...twice in political office, and arguably the worst Foreign Secretary this country has ever known. Angry that with the light of truth so thoroughly illuminating all the filthy lying corners of the Brexit argument, when every pro had withered and dissipated in that light, even then my country voted for the thing they now must have known was a lie, in an act of national suicide.  As I say, I was seething, although most of all I was frightened by the prospect of another 5 or 10 years of Conservative attacks, hardships, and what I knew would be coming for many of us. 

Although this morning I awoke to feelings of complete tranquillity and inner calm, as if a huge weight had been lifted from me...I felt freed. To be honest, I was taken aback, so striking and incongruous were these feelings in light of my outlook last night. It dawned on me that the one thing that was different from last night was that I'd relinquished hope, or more to the point...relinquished false hope. I've long seen hope as a dangerous and debilitating thing if not based in reality, and I'd allowed myself to be drawn into hoping for something, that in my heart of hearts, I knew was never going to happen, no matter how much I wanted it too.  I like Jeremy Corbyn, he's man of principle whose political record and long history of support for those who needed support spoke for itself. I agreed with him that we needed a new type of political discourse, I liked many of his policy propositions, and believe he'd have made a great peace time Prime Minister, and therein lies the rub, we're at ideological war and the enemy has the (politico) media industrial complex behind it, the most powerful of weapons. In my opinion Jeremy and the party's policy of non-engagement, of not coming out fighting, was a mistake, allowing the government and predominantly right wing media to salt the ground ensuring the seeds of Labour's messages would never took root, let a lone flourished. I knew there was never a chance of Labour winning, and yet I let myself hope, subconsciously (and consciously if I'm honest) knowing that was hope without a solid foundation. Well, I'm only human.

This quote resonated...''Whoever has nothing to hope, let him despair of nothing'', (Seneca, stoic philosopher 4BC to AD65).