What's Going On?

I’m trying to pick at something that’s been on my mind quite a bit of late. I’m not completely sure why, possibly it’s the season of peak commercialism that’s upon us, or maybe it’s the continued gulf between the direction that the Government is intent on taking us and the direction I’d rather we were headed (the line in Smith and Burrows’ song “When the Thames Froze” God damn this Government, will they ever tell me where the money went? seems to capture it nicely).

Quinn Norton (who is writing some excellent stuff of late - well, possibly has always been writing excellent stuff, but I’ve only discovered her recently) has written a wonderful article, ostensibly about Bitcoin, but more about money and poverty and family and community. All of it rings true with my experiences.

Then I read this piece about empathy, and the concern that the decline of our concern for our fellow citizens is a cultural problem.

That also rings true, bound up in the perpetual financialisation of language (everything is discussed in terms of return on investment or value for money, as if that were the only possible scorecard for measurement); ever increasing bureaucracy in an attempt to reduce risk; and a lack of consequences for gross abuses of power by some corporations (take your pick from the aforementioned bankers, alleged fraud from G4S and Serco, general tax avoidance of multi-nationals…)

I’m sure we’ll muddle through regardless, as ever (although, as ever, those who could easily make a difference will be getting on just fine…). I just continue to hope that together we might come up with a better idea.