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.

The road to Wigan pier

I felt reading The road to Wigan pier by George Orwell that I was simultaneously looking backwards and forwards in time. Looking backwards as Orwell describes a 1930's Britain so unlike our stereotype images of a Britain populated by Mr Chumbly-Warners, cucumber sandwiches and fair play; the idealized Britain of which the establishment dream of returning. Orwell describes 1930's Britain as divided between the the poverty stricken working class masses, living in poor housing, suffering the effects of inadequate employment and unemployment and those employed working hard for little; and the middle and upper classes who on the whole looked down on the working class and poor, seeing them (if they saw them at all) as the architects of their own situations and cause of many national or social woes. In many respects little has changed, the Daily Mail was full of hateful shite, the more fortunate looked down on the less fortunate, though for most part people looked away. There were of course still communities back them, which was a bonus and on the whole things were slowly on the move up, the working classes were getting organized, there was diversity in media and people had their eye on a better future (which would arrive after the Second World War). If you like, the antithesis of Britain now as we slide into the past. It's a frightening that Orwells depiction of poor 1930's Britain is the Britain to which the establishment will have us return.

It has become clear to me that the hard won social justices bought by the suffering of the First World War and the realizations of the depression (the dole, allotments gardens and corporation housing) and those of the Second World War (like the NHS and other public services; of which of course Orwell would have known nothing of) were merely a temporary concession by the ruling establishment, a reaction to the rise of socialism, of unionization and a more aware working class; now the memories have faded, union membership is dwindling and the ruling elites are stripping our public services and preparing to return their boots to the necks of the less fortunate. I challenge anyone reading The road to Wigan pier to say that they didn't feel the fear rising up in them as they turned the pages, and realization that this is where the establishments right wing ideological policies are leading us. 

A homage to Catalonia

I picked this book up at the tip, I wish I'd read it years ago. I understand how Orwell felt to believe in movements, believe in the potential for change, believe in revolution and see all that potential for positive change, for personal and social emancipation wasted or subverted or just stolen, worse given away. Is that the nature of revolutions? It would appear it is, as they say 'the shit always rises to the top'. It's easy to become cynical or even nihilistic, I know. Written as it is, reading George Orwell's 'Homage to Catalonia' feels like you're sat with Orwell as he reminisces his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, on the Aragon Line and in Barcelona. In my head Orwell was given a sort of Mr Chumbly Warner voice, which worked for me as he first tells of Anarchist (I like the sound of them) equality and of the liberation to be found in it; the dull drudgery and random dangers of life on the front line; of the May riots and the beginning of the end; of his shooting and subsequent convalescence; and finally of political skulduggery, communist treachery, life as a fugitive and of escaping Spain. Quite an adventure and all undertaken in that totally British public school manner of the period, and with all the associated sensibilities. It's clear from reading George Orwell's 'Homage to Catalonia' that his experiences in the Spanish Civil War heavily coloured the imagery and subjects of his subsequent books 'Animal Farm' and '1984'; which both exhibit echoes of his experiences from that time. It's an interesting read, I'd recommend it.