The Power and the Idiocy
How are we going to move ahead? What is the big vision? Perhaps no one has a big vision. Would that be possible? The ones who lead us have no vision. They are simply glorified bean counters and pencil pushers. And real leaders are kept away because like attracts like.
As i grow older i see how people are so seduced by titles, position and the power that they then attribute to the position. Then there is this bizarre mentality that people invest in power. So much so that they are willing to possibly die for it. Maybe i’m wrong. Maybe people accidentally die.
Shakespeare, it’s been a very Shakespearean week, is known for many wonderful things, but i love Shakespeare for his incredible grasp on power. If anyone wanted to know about power and the undressing and redressing of it, they could do worse than to read all of the history plays, which i was forced to do at the tender age of 19. It was an eye opener. Well at first, it was awfully boring. And then it became utterly engrossing.
After reading them back to back i became a nihilist for a few years. I mean what WAS the point right? Human beings are flawed, selfish, miserable, self-absorbed shites from which there is no escape. It was seen over and over again not only in the plays, but around me all the time.
It might seem that we have reached a real nadir. Why people are not made to read all of WS’s plays i do not know. And then to discuss and stage them. They would at the very least understand what an immoral, dog eat dog bunch we really are and stop deluding themselves about anyone’s good intentions.
And when we have disabused ourselves of our notions of what is proper and right, while all the time really using it to cover up the wicked motives we have beneath, then perhaps we can have a proper conversation. Perhaps then we will be able to recognise integrity and dignity when we see it and not fall for the crude illusions of power that we have.
We’d be able to peel back and say what is real, what really really counts in life. What we need to evolve as a species, what we need to be good to each other.
I’m currently reading the FoE’s paper on REDD. This is another acronym in the world of NGOs for United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries. It is yet another technical fix. It is the having your cake and eating it option. It is the displacement of responsibility dressed up as SOMETHING NOBLE and GOOD. In other words, it is an illusion.
It is an illusion because unless the underlying issues of social justice, environmental justice and equity are sorted out, it becomes another instrument to exploit the poorest of the poor. Except now that that equation has turned hasn’t it, and now who is rich and who is poor isn’t so clear any more.
As i grow older i see how people are so seduced by titles, position and the power that they then attribute to the position. Then there is this bizarre mentality that people invest in power. So much so that they are willing to possibly die for it. Maybe i’m wrong. Maybe people accidentally die.
Shakespeare, it’s been a very Shakespearean week, is known for many wonderful things, but i love Shakespeare for his incredible grasp on power. If anyone wanted to know about power and the undressing and redressing of it, they could do worse than to read all of the history plays, which i was forced to do at the tender age of 19. It was an eye opener. Well at first, it was awfully boring. And then it became utterly engrossing.
After reading them back to back i became a nihilist for a few years. I mean what WAS the point right? Human beings are flawed, selfish, miserable, self-absorbed shites from which there is no escape. It was seen over and over again not only in the plays, but around me all the time.
It might seem that we have reached a real nadir. Why people are not made to read all of WS’s plays i do not know. And then to discuss and stage them. They would at the very least understand what an immoral, dog eat dog bunch we really are and stop deluding themselves about anyone’s good intentions.
And when we have disabused ourselves of our notions of what is proper and right, while all the time really using it to cover up the wicked motives we have beneath, then perhaps we can have a proper conversation. Perhaps then we will be able to recognise integrity and dignity when we see it and not fall for the crude illusions of power that we have.
We’d be able to peel back and say what is real, what really really counts in life. What we need to evolve as a species, what we need to be good to each other.
I’m currently reading the FoE’s paper on REDD. This is another acronym in the world of NGOs for United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries. It is yet another technical fix. It is the having your cake and eating it option. It is the displacement of responsibility dressed up as SOMETHING NOBLE and GOOD. In other words, it is an illusion.
It is an illusion because unless the underlying issues of social justice, environmental justice and equity are sorted out, it becomes another instrument to exploit the poorest of the poor. Except now that that equation has turned hasn’t it, and now who is rich and who is poor isn’t so clear any more.
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