Frightening

[poliphilo]

I'm so tired of being told these are frightening times.

I lived through the Cold War. Now those were frightening times.

Or not.

Every generation thinks it lives in frightening times. What that means is it doesn't feel entirely in control.

What's the worst that can happen? We all die. Well that's going to happen no matter what. Get used to it.

Don't let the media scare you.  Remember they make their money by creeping up behind your chair and going, "Boo!"

There's more to life than politics.

Come off that news site.  Take a walk. Annoy the cat. Have a nice cup of tea.

Comments

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

I grew up in the 80s thinking THE BOMB would drop any time.

I am much less scared of the world today than I was of that.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

And earlier generations lived through world wars.

Sometimes I think journalists have no sense of history.

[qatsi.livejournal.com]

Interestingly, I grew up in the 70s/80s and as far as I can recall, I never worried about The Bomb. Mutually Assured Desruction rationally meant that it would never happen. I do wonder now, how I wasn't worried about it.

I am more worried about current times. There just doesn't seem to be any sense to what's going on. A lot of people are unhappy, I get that. They've been sold a bundle of untruths, or at best half-truths, about neoliberalism and globalisation, perhaps. Blair may have been right about "Education, education, education", but that would never work for everyone. And now? Now the same, angrier, people have been sold a bundle of untruths about Brexit, Making America Great Again, and so on. I don't see how that's going to end happily.

It would be good to see the French sticking two fingers up at Le Pen next year, but I'm not betting on it - especially if the other choice is a Thatcherite. "Vote for the Crook, not the Fascist" (2002) is one thing; Fillon will have a much harder time gathering votes from the disillusioned left, I fear.

It's not going to take much to kick off war in Turkey, the Baltics, Taiwan and Korea.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

❤️

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

There was a brief period in the 1990's when the world was full of promises of a better future. I feel almost Larkin-esque writing that; "between the end of the Chatterley ban and the Beatles' first LP"...

And now I've retired to the country, trying to avoid getting too engaged in politics and generally just watching the world spinning around. It will keep spinning, no matter how much we fuck it up.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Those golden times come round every once in a while- and fade very quickly.

I was lucky- my youth coincided pretty much with the, groovy, rainbow-coloured late 1960s.

"All you need is love."

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

And my youth coincided with that being retro-cool... While I was studying for my A-levels (well, the Danish equivalent)I was listening to my Mum's records with The Moody Blues, Pink Floyd and The Beatles.

But yes, it is a blessing to have been allowed a youth of hope.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I was in Switzerland- living in a Francophone society with Godard playing at the local flespit- when the Paris evenements kicked off. That was terribly exciting.

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

And I took part in occupying my high school, barring access to teachers and administrators, in protest against the French Moruroa atomic bomb tests. (But with the explicit support of our principal, so we weren't that revolutionary.) Our letters of protest were handed to Chirac two weeks later by a Danish journalist at an interview, all translated into high-school French by yours truly.

Mine began with the words "Monsieur le Président, je Vous fais une lettre que Vous lirez peut-être si Vous avez le temps"...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I took part in occupying a university building during a period of student unrest in the early 70s. There were barricades. I manned them....

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

Ours was a privileged, white, middle-class occupation... We had no barricades, but politely asked people not to teach or attend classes. Not quite the "Les Miserables" scenario.

(My personal youth rebellion was to refuse to let my mother dye my hair blue or pierce my ears, instead opting for a side parting and button-down shirts...)

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

That said, some of us are not white, cis and male and we're scared. :o(

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

What you said! As a white, heterosexual, well-educated female, I'm not directly scared for myself, but I do worry about many of my friends and I see the prospects for my grandchildren being more limited than they were for me or my children.

As we used to say back in the 80s in feminist circles, the personal is political. You can't just ignore it.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, but what good does it do you?

I'm making a larger point here- or at least not a party political one. Fear corrodes and undermines. I've known fear- I used to be a very anxious person- and it was debilitating.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

It does me no good at all- but fear's like that.

Don't forget that I've lived a life knowing there are people out there who wish me dead or deprogrammed (and they're not all right wing reactionaries) and there always have been times when that isn't easy.

I posted a link to the TDOR memorial site a few days back and that's always the background to my life no matter how good a life I have (and I do).

Present times make it even less easy.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

Of course there are times when fear acts as a survival mechanism. Bad thing coming down the pike- best to run away- but some people seem to take pride in being afraid, even pleasure- and that's silly.

Courage, mes amis, le diable est mort.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

In some ways I find the current situation more worrying than the Cold War. Then we were faced with the prospect of sudden annihilation, about which, as you say, we could do nothing. Now we're faced with the real prospect of a decline in our standard of living and a much more intolerant society around us. I do care a lot about that, so while it doesn't scare me, it does deeply concern me.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

A decline in my standard of living worries me very little. Done that, bought the T shirt etc....

A more intolerant society? Intolerance doesn't spring from nowhere; it's always been there- only repressed. If it comes out into the open we have a better chance of dissipating it, I think.

[matrixmann]

Hm... There's one thing that's more horrible than death: A slow and painful death with all the nightmares you can imagine and to be kept alive at all costs and be tortured over and over again with your biggest personal nightmares.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, that wouldn't be pleasant.

Is that what Trump is threatening to do to us all?

[matrixmann]

I mean that more in private terms.
Or, better say: Both combined.
If bad politics make an impact on your private life.
If there are people outside that catch other people from the streets, make them wake up in some jail you're in for for just nothing and if they start to have that "fun" of the outlaws with you - just because they think and declare you're one of that kind of people they can it with and you can never go complain at any authority for this as your minority group's been outlawed.

[topum.livejournal.com]

And the most "terrified" and vocal are usually the people who are the safest (and the safest humans have ever been in the history of mankind).

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes indeed. Wealthy neoliberals scared to bits because a rather common man with silly hair and bad taste in interior décor is going to the next POTUS.

[evilzerg-r.livejournal.com]

This part of society just pre-emptively declared themselves as victims which put the other part of society into a role of menace. Very good point for them to advocate everything what they say and do.

Ps: Why do you think that his taste in interior is bad? Baroque was a good style for centuries, he is just an old-fashioned man. :)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm not a big fan of the baroque- especially not in a domestic setting. I hate Versailles.

[evilzerg-r.livejournal.com]

Versailles is French classicism

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Classicism and the baroque bleed into one another.

[evilzerg-r.livejournal.com]

White House, US Capitol are both built in classical style. And US Supreme Court (Temple of Justice) is some sort of Parthenon too.

Anyway Trump promised to do not change interiors.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't think they'd let him do anything too radical to The White House.

[evilzerg-r.livejournal.com]

Who are "they"? The Illuminati world shadow government or reptiloids?

I guess Mr. Trump just respects his Country and its symbols like every American patriot, without any hypothetical "they" telling him to do so.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Good question.

If it we were talking about Britain the White House would be a Grade I Listed building- and that would mean that any projected change would have to go before a civil service committee and every change that was approved would have to be executed to the highest standards.

I imagine the USA has some similar system for protecting its historic and architecturally significant buildings

[evilzerg-r.livejournal.com]

The White House was several times rebuilt and expanded in modern times, even up to this stage when it was necessary.

Also every president and his wife redecorated interiors according to their taste and not only their private quarters but the historical part also. I don't think Trump can do something terrible to this place. I guess he will leave this redecoration to his wife while he will be dealing with the rest of the US. And his wife is very stylish person with some design education.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Your picture makes it look as if they completely gutted it.

[evilzerg-r.livejournal.com]

President Truman had to do this otherwise building would have collapsed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_Reconstruction And here we're not talking about other presidents who added some additional parts and wings to the initial design when they thought they needed it.

[justsayingchick.livejournal.com]

Haha I really do dislike all the gotti gold everywhere. As a Hispanic female cop I'm not worried about Trump. I'm more afraid of my peers and their lack of tact and diplomacy.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That rings true. It's usually the people closest to us who can do us most harm.

[idahoswede.livejournal.com]

Excellent advice, Tony. I well remember the Cuban Missile Crisis.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The bomb was just there- looming over us all the time- the inevitable background to everything the superpowers did.

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

Fact is,there wil always be frightening times.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I sometimes think we like living in fear. As if it were somehow comforting.

[michael john grist (from livejournal.com)]

I think I'm remembering correctly that a few years back you posted that we hadn't yet seen the events that would define this century. I expect this is them- the backlash to globalisation. I'm starting to think it may actually be the beginning of a new enlightenment. Who's been 'standing in the way' of progress for so long? Pretty much the people who are currently winning power. In the longer term, I think it'll become very obvious that their pure ideas just can't work, and that their world of fake facts is only going to hurt them.

It feels good for them now. But try cutting global trade in pieces and see how their per capita income does. Neoliberalism is the best governing idea yet, better than any that came before, though certainly not perfect. Things are probably going to get more socialist and diverse, and fewer and fewer people will stand in the way. Trump is their last big hurrah- and he's already embracing the status quo (reality) in lots of neoliberal ways.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, just as the 20th century "really" began in 1914 so the historians may conclude that the 21st "really" began in 2016.

I don't know what happens next. Things are getting churned up and we won't know the shape of the future until the mud settles. You're probably right that the move towards globalisation will continue- I don't see how that can be stopped given the technology we now have- but perhaps the drive towards bigger and bigger corporations and bigger and bigger super-national institutions (like the EU) will be halted. People like the idea of belonging to one world, but also like to feel they've got some control over their lives at a local level. Somehow these two desires- which seem to pull in different directions- will have to be reconciled.

[michael john grist (from livejournal.com)]

Being a huge fan of the Star Trek idea of the Federation of Planets, I'm all for bigger and bigger super-national (super-galactic?) institutions. And as for control at the local level, yes, why not have some more of that (take a temporary step backward on free movement of people, for example) as a temporary stop-gap while all countries/cultures equalizes?

Globalization has been like plumbing hundreds of bathtubs together, all containing water at different temperatures, and being surprised when the people in the hot tubs get upset that their warm water is draining away. Globalization needs a system of locks to control that process, until we're all bathing comfortably at the same temperature, at which point what do we need local control for? Everywhere will be local.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I like that image of the bathtubs.

But someone has got to control the system of locks and who's that going to be? The global elite? No, they want all the hot water for themselves.

[michael john grist (from livejournal.com)]

There's surely only one way to manage anything- and that's with a manager. Which would be the global elites. What we need is stronger institutions and rules to cut down corruption as much as possible. And those rules evolve continuously- so I believe we're getting better at global-management continuously.

Either that or an AI. But can you trust an AI?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

H G Wells envisaged a global elite made up of people he called Samurai who were basically all the cool people- and they didn't receive any reward except for a universal recognition of their extreme coolness.

[softtargettime.livejournal.com]

H G Wells was the man. Let's do it.