Interesting Times
Oct. 14th, 2008 09:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloGordon Brown has moved, in a few days, from being the worst Prime Minister in British history to the Saviour of the Western World. I don't remember a political turn-around like it.
Has the world changed? I mean, has the financial crisis irreparably changed things? Will historians look back and see a watershed or a blip? Too soon to say. The media are doing their best to make us frantic, but I look round and the sun is still shining- or not, as the case may be- and citizens are going about their business as normal. The hit that the high street shops have taken means they're competing for customers and prices are actually coming down. So, excellent news for consumers. The price of petrol (gas) which was climbing towards £1.20 a litre is now down to just over £1.00. Who'd have predicted that a few weeks back?
I'm reading Bulgakov's the Master and Margarita. There too, in the Moscow of the 1930s, the sun is shining, people are buying fizzy drinks in the parks, the tram cars are running and there's a jazz band playing in the restaurant of the (exclusive) writer's club- while just out of frame the most frightful atrocities and follies are being committed. Life goes on- I think that's what Bulgakov is trying to tell us- no matter what. People- like cockroaches- are terribly- magnificently- resilient.
Here's one thing that's changed- probably. The collapse of the Scottish banks- HBOS and RBS- and their takeover by the British government- means that Scottish independence- which seemed as certain as eggs is eggs- is now off the agenda. Or, that's what the commentator in the Telegraph thinks. Is he right? Only time will tell.
Brown's takeover of the banks is an almighty gamble. It could steady the markets, it could prove disastrous. Every morning we wake up to surprising news. It's all rather exciting. Nobody knows what's going to happen next. Nobody knows a thing.
Has the world changed? I mean, has the financial crisis irreparably changed things? Will historians look back and see a watershed or a blip? Too soon to say. The media are doing their best to make us frantic, but I look round and the sun is still shining- or not, as the case may be- and citizens are going about their business as normal. The hit that the high street shops have taken means they're competing for customers and prices are actually coming down. So, excellent news for consumers. The price of petrol (gas) which was climbing towards £1.20 a litre is now down to just over £1.00. Who'd have predicted that a few weeks back?
I'm reading Bulgakov's the Master and Margarita. There too, in the Moscow of the 1930s, the sun is shining, people are buying fizzy drinks in the parks, the tram cars are running and there's a jazz band playing in the restaurant of the (exclusive) writer's club- while just out of frame the most frightful atrocities and follies are being committed. Life goes on- I think that's what Bulgakov is trying to tell us- no matter what. People- like cockroaches- are terribly- magnificently- resilient.
Here's one thing that's changed- probably. The collapse of the Scottish banks- HBOS and RBS- and their takeover by the British government- means that Scottish independence- which seemed as certain as eggs is eggs- is now off the agenda. Or, that's what the commentator in the Telegraph thinks. Is he right? Only time will tell.
Brown's takeover of the banks is an almighty gamble. It could steady the markets, it could prove disastrous. Every morning we wake up to surprising news. It's all rather exciting. Nobody knows what's going to happen next. Nobody knows a thing.
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no subject
Date: 2008-10-14 12:01 pm (UTC)It's quite something, isn't it?
Does Scotland still have the Clydesdale Bank? It would be a shame if independence was binned for the time being, I was looking forward to it.
And absolutely life goes on...I'm not sure what the media is expecting us to do. Something that will make their front pages I expect. Good to see we are mostly all just getting on with life. Not much else we can do is there?
no subject
Date: 2008-10-14 04:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-14 04:24 pm (UTC)Somebody in the Guardian, I think it was, the other day, was reported on Radio 4 as saying we are THAT CLOSE to complete societal meltdown, with the lights going out, money being replaced by barter, and Mad Max coming roaring out of the thunderdome in a post-apocalyptic way. I don't think so, actually.
One thing that will happen is that America will no longer be a superpower. Power will be shared around the world, which will paralyse some international decision making, except for Africa of course who will get nowt as usual.
And many of us in the West will have to live within our menas. Tragic!
no subject
Date: 2008-10-14 05:23 pm (UTC)Manuscripts Do Not Burn
Date: 2008-10-14 06:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-14 06:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-14 06:49 pm (UTC)But if the worst comes to the worst, what are you prepared to give me for a pair of rabbits?
Re: Manuscripts Do Not Burn
Date: 2008-10-14 06:50 pm (UTC)Everything is normal
Date: 2008-10-15 04:00 pm (UTC)I was sitting in a cafe in downtown Pietermaritzburg watching cars and pedestrians passing, and everything looked so normal, yet everything had changed. We had crossed the line into a fully-fledged police state. The Terrorism Act 4 years later was just icing on the cake. And it was a nightmare that was to last another 30 years and more.
Re: Everything is normal
Date: 2008-10-16 08:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-23 12:23 pm (UTC)You have captured exactly my mood about the world. I am rapt.
But Obama must win...I cannot bear even the thought of Sarah the Gunwoman becoming President.
Re: Everything is normal
Date: 2008-10-23 01:41 pm (UTC)Re: Everything is normal
Date: 2008-10-23 04:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-23 04:19 pm (UTC)