Banging On

Opinionated Random Thoughts (aka a Non Sequitur).  By remaining seated and avoiding contact with mirrors, there are moments during which oldies like me can easily fleetingly manage to feel young again.  During such delusional moments I can cast my mind back to the days of rationing which pertained for the first nine years of my life.  Other than adhering to the principle of ‘waste not want not’, the suffering did not seem to be too bad although there have been lasting impacts on my dietary choices.  Further, as a natural pessimist, I realised that in the longer term things could only get better.

As I recall, beef rarely appeared on the menu whereas there was an abundance of pork.  For the evening meal at school a member of staff warmed up the cool thick sheets of fatty pork by pouring hot gravy atop resulting in globules of white fat floating around the plate; a wad of hairy crackling embossed with Made in Denmark accompanied that deeply unpleasant fare.  Of course, the entire offering had to be eaten otherwise we would not be allowed pudding which amounted to a depressing penalty.  The only solution proved to be pouching the unconsumed crackling in the cheeks for later disposal in the loo.  The choice of vegetables left much to be desired with artichokes, cooked to death cabbage or swedes being the dominant offerings.  The lasting impact has been a lifetime of distaste for all those vegetables that was given impetus when our Commanding Officer classified root crops as ‘unofficerlike vegetables’ .

Food tended to be seasonal.  For example during the first week of the Michaelmas Term the whole school embarked upon the competitive Blackberry Picnic, a glossy description to create the illusion that it would be a fun day out.  So, for the rest of the term, puddings contained blackberries. However, on Boy Scout days we topped up our fruit intake with bilberies which were plentiful around Hindhead.   Of course, away from school, most fruit and vegetables were bought at the specialist shop which obviated the Supermarket warfare of fellow shoppers barging in front of others offering a post event insincere apology of ‘sorry’.  Such insincere apologies are on a par with ‘your custom is important to us’.

The question now arises – what am I dribbling on about?  As I recall, when embarking on this piece, my thinking was that back then patience trumped our modern world of instant satisfaction.  In that regard our school motto seems relevant:  Per manendo vincimus.

In a modern democracy Instant satisfaction is a dominant consideration particularly with the political class always keeping a weather eye on the next general election. So, it appears to be the case that governments seek an instant resolution to a problem, perforce splurging vast sums of taxpayers’ dosh to achieve that.  Such thinking is aligned to the early consumer age mantra of ‘live now pay later’.

The impact of instant gratification has seemingly permeated our foreign policy.  With regards to the Iranian situation, the UK Government’s prime consideration has been to reduce the economic impact of the event on our lives.  On the face of it such thinking is laudable, after all why should we suffer as a result of events thousands of miles away?  After all a government has to be seen to be doing something however nugatory it may be when it bumps into the unwholesome anxiety of reality.  These thoughts might raise another question – should democratic politicians take more note of Aesop’s dictum ‘Please all, and you will please none’.

So, electoral considerations, combined with the need for instant solutions, appear to have clouded our long-term thinking about the events in Iran.  As politicians scramble to keep the electorate happy we seem to have lost sight of the lasting impact of an unfettered rogue state on the future stability of the world. Little mention is now being made of the oppression of thousands of Iranian citizens, particularly Christians or Iran’s sponsorship of international terrorism and her overt desire to eliminate Israel.  The progressives offer hollow talk of empathy, being kind and the need for diplomacy but these no/low cost utterances are a reflection of short-term thinking (as Thomas Hobbes put it: ‘Words are th money of fools’).   A medical analogy might be:  Painkillers are not a cure, they merely mask the problem.

Democratic politicians are inevitably influenced by Polls which underscores the consequential reality of seeking immediate solutions to problems.  As our politicians publicly offer palliative care, I often wonder how many are secretly thinking:  ‘I pray for a regime change in Iran’.  I very much doubt that such personal thoughts are reflected in Polls so in public we live in a world of group think. But polls are here to stay notwithstanding they may negate the possibility of the return of real  leadership; that being so perhaps consideration might be given to accepting the riskier government of an enlightened despot – with a safety valve!.

Many in the West believe that concessions, negotiations and diplomacy in combination will bring about better behaviour from malign dictatorships or theocracies.  Such dogma may be misplaced and it might be suggested that if we seek a better world in the long-term we might ask ourselves a question such as:  ‘Just this once, am  I prepared to forego my holiday in the sun’?  Other sacrificial questions are equally relevant!