Conundrums

Saturday 9th January, 2021

I have been fairly bombarded with ideas today. First they came in my dreams, then in letters and then in emails. A few came via a newspaper and some via the Internet. The latest email just sent me the Chinese saying 'may you live in interesting times'. The sender wondered if it was a curse or a blessing. Certainly I have been studying various 'interesting' times such as the rise of Hitler, the Quisling movement in Great Britain, the rise to power of Stalin and other such. Studying dictatorships and reading of the peoples in such situations one realises that most people simply want a quiet life. They want safety, family, food, a home and good health. They want pleasures and opportunities as well as education and a society which respects them. They are terrified, or should I say, we are terrified of disruption, aggression, challenges and violence. Of course individuals react in different ways. Those with children and families may have differing priorities to those without. Those threatened by dictators or the henchmen of dictators again react in various ways. I have been reading of the Resistance in France during the last world war. Such courage shown yet also such treachery and pusillanimity.

I have no idea how I would react to the equivalent of the rise of Hitler to power in my land. I do not know how I would react to thugs and gangsters threatening me. I do know the life of a remarkable priest under Pinochet. I know his work and the tortures he suffered and his demise.

Part of the momentum behind these emails and consequent thoughts has been the happenings on Capitol Hill and in America, connected with Trump. I am appalled by it, but I am also appalled by the horrors of human rights abuse, of rendition, of terrorism, of human trafficking, of concentration camps such as the Uighurs suffer across the whole world. What do I do? How can I participate in finding peace and respect and human dignity for all.

Fear is a major factor...fear of hurt, fear of loss of security, fear of opinion and loss of status, fear of suffering and loss of life of myself and those dear to me. The pandemic has generated much fear and I understand how the mental stresses and mental health in children is causing concern. I am particularly surprised and saddened by friends who are so full of fear that they have become selfish, self absorbed and demand others be blamed and controlled. Without exaggeration I have read twice of friends saying people breaking the rules should be imprisoned and fined and publicly humiliated. They even recommend that we set up a system by which people can be reported for ignoring regulations. It called to mind the persecution of the Jews in Germany. Yet there is a real concern, so I read in today's paper, that human rights are being traduced and ignored and over ridden. In Scotland the Government has been challenged over shutting places of worship. I know the counter arguments. I know the hysteria. I know the common sense approach. I know the statistics. Perhaps most of all I know the frustrations as well as the dithering, the inefficiency, the constant retractions and failures that are surrounding the vaccine and the pandemic. Although I also know my knowledge is based on the media and word of mouth and may be false, biased, prejudiced, nuanced.

Perhaps I was most startled by an argument I heard where the deaths from coronavirus were pitted against the deaths from untreated illnesses and the possible, indeed probable, life long mental damage to children and some adults.

I thought on this as I took just a short walk. It was short because I was nervous of the very real threat of black ice. One is calmly walking along picking up litter with one's grabber when one's feet suddenly slide from under one and one goes down with a mighty thump. Then more NHS resources are needed and so the cycle goes on. If I do not walk I go mad, if I go mad and obese so the NHS is again called in and stretched further. It is all a sign of interesting times from Trump to human rights to Covid restrictions to public arguments and commentary. Whatever I am delighted to be alive.