We have a choice.

I love a bit of history me. History shines a light on the lives and times of our ancestors and illuminates the road which brought us to today. One thing you quickly realize is that people have changed little throughout thousands of years of human history, or rather, our desires, motivates and machinations have changed not one bit. I've long believed that if you brought a citizen of ancient Rome, or Athens, or Beijing, or Memphis, or wherever, equipped them with a universal translator, they'd quickly recognise what was going on today as the same as in their day. Another aspect of history, and a most important one in my opinion, is it can act like a map through life's cyclical minefields, and if studied will save us from having to relive our mistakes. Live and learn, rather than  repeat and repeat. And you don't have to travel back to ancient times for pearls of wisdom (although it is rich in them), often there's much to learn from the events of decades closer to our own, from the words of those who experienced them. 

Take 'Homage to Catalonia', Orwell's experiences of the 1930's Spanish Civil War. Reading 'Homage to Catalonia' you may glean some perspective and insight into the possible direction our current political dichotomy is travelling; and we have a choice, we can learn from what we read, and act on what we learn, and maybe avoid a similar fate, or of course repeat it. During the Spanish Civil War the Republican/Communist/Anarchist forces of the Left, fought endlessly amongst themselves, all the fractions vying for dominance, in the process they killed thousands of there own, their allies and the public. As a consequence of their in fighting they were militarily and politically weakened, as well as losing the hearts and minds of the people in their territories due to their abhorrent behaviours. I look at the left today and see striking similarities, and that makes me angry and sad in equal measure. Obviously not to the same extremes or the ideologically driven extra judicial killings, no, we're not barbarians, now we just label people then socially isolate them and destroy them, of course there are plenty of death threats too, though we tend overlook them when perpetrated by our own side. No, I was thinking more of the ideological battles, the divisory attitudes, the splintering, the witch hunts and purges, and the developing group think devoid of any space for nuance or difference, driven by the pursuit of some imaginary ideological purity, and that bullshit word 'wokeness'. A left too busy looking through their ideological milk bottle bottomed glasses, eager to look like everything to everybody, and in danger of becoming nothing to anybody; a left where too many people compete to tell each other/everybody how f*cking great they are, how virtuous and right on their lives; and a left too easily distracted by pointless and strategically bankrupt 'stunts' to recognise that they're manifestly failing to properly address the fundamental issue of structural inequalities....our real objective, being a key to a better everything. A left that hands PR opportunities to our enemies, not once, but again and again, doing the enemies work for them, making it too too easy; a left that's in real danger of disappearing up it's own arse...whilst applauding itself. It's ugly, man, ugly and counterproductive. Most of the time I don't recognise my own ideological home, and more worrying than my sensibilities, is it's increasingly not carrying enough people along with it to be a genuinely effective vehicle for real positive change. I'm just so frustrated and disappointed, man, every day I grow more convinced that we wont see positive change in our lifetime. Why? Because we're stupid. For goodness sake, take a look at history, look at the Spanish Civil War as an example (there are plenty of others too), see what happens when a fragmented left doesn't carry the people with it..............the Nationalists win.