abtw777

To talk of politics is a difficult business. For one thing, a lot of the words and definitions used in political discussion keep shifting in their meanings – think, for instance, of terms like ‘liberal’, ‘patriot’, or ‘progressive’. So I’m going to keep with a few very basic terms here, and I’m certainly not going to be digging into party politics. Instead I want to dig quite a bit deeper than any specific issues that might be around in political discourse today. For that, we can start by going back to one of the most basic of questions – why have government at all? There are of course folks around who think we could do without a government of any kind, and indeed, that we could do without much or all of the institutions associated with government. For this to work, there needs to be an extraordinary level of good will and engagement by all citizens of a nation. Are we up for that? Well, probably most of us would say no. But I think that idea of doing without a government is a ...

We often hear the loss of community cited as a symptom of the decay of society under the onslaught of consumer-capitalism. We hear of plans to build towns and cities that try to promote a return to community, with walkable neighbourhoods and local shops. Part of me thinks this is worth a try. One reason is that the support and friendship of neighbours can be a good and healthy thing – especially for those who live alone and for the elderly or infirm. Another reason why compact neighbourhoods can be good is that they can help reduce infrastructure costs and foster a reduction in car use. Right now though, things are heading in the opposite direction. Suburbs are spreading out further and further. Shops and entertainment venues prefer sites where they can capture passing road traffic. City centres are often large transport hubs with corporate headquarters the only folk who can afford the land and rents. The fact that so much stuff can now be delivered to our doors, rather than us...

Enchantment is a word I’ve chosen to use in other pieces of writing to mean something very specific. I don’t mean it in the sense of fantasy – as some kind of magic spell that might occur in a fantasy novel, film or game. I mean enchantment as a particular way of looking at and seeing the everyday world around us and as an ability to see the beauty in our everyday world. I also mean it as a particular kind of pleasure – the ability to find pleasure in our lives just as they are right now, without having to seek too far outside of ourselves. Enchantment, in this sense, is to know ourselves and know our pleasures. Fantasy is to escape the world, enchantment is to embrace the world. But I’m writing this because I recognise that all of the above is problematic. For one thing, perhaps the explanation I’ve given is just difficult for people to follow. (Perhaps you, dear reader, have found it puzzling.) Why not just say beauty or pleasure? The reason I offer is that I’m talking abou...

There’s something deliciously exuberant and indulgent about sunflowers! They are flowers to the max! The uber-flower! No wonder insects get dizzy with ecstasy when they visit flowers! There’s a field of sunflowers near my house. Some of them have spilled over into a little hollow in the ground next to the field, beneath a tree. In summer it’s a wonderful place to lie down and read or sunbathe or just look at the sky. A bank of moss, short grass and tiny daisies sits amongst the rogue sunflowers that have escaped from the field. I lie down on it with my feet pointing upwards towards the sky. It’s a steep bank so it’s almost like hanging upside down. Sometimes it’s good to see the world the wrong way up. Because there’s something wrong with the world, I’m thinking on this particular day. It has too much knowledge perhaps, or too many ‘facts’ or people who think they know the facts. Everyone has their own myth, and that’s okay. But why can’t we just leave other people with the...

It’s always black and white with you. Yes and no. True or false. Fact or fiction. Everything is a competition. But at last you have realised that co-operation is an alternative to all that competing. But I must tell you that even that wider distinction of competition or co-operation is just a myth. For a forest, these distinctions don’t mean very much. What you think of as truth today will be myth tomorrow. And tomorrow’s truth will likewise change into myth and then be forgotten. Some of you sit amongst my trees. And if you are wise you listen closely and hear the big thoughts about the past and the future and the purpose of it all. There’s some wisdom there. The wiser amongst you choose to live among trees, even in tree houses. And here you learn that there are other ways of knowing, other ways of being in the world. You learn that the connections in a forest that you thought took place underground are really extended outwards – even outwards into space. You learn a great...

It’s a familiar phrase: Boys will be boys. But a horrible phrase, when you stop to think about it. An excuse for acting like an imbecile. An assumption of privilege. An invitation to break the rules. A suggestion that some particular boys are ‘proper’ boys, not girly boys, not soft, gentle, peaceful, still boys, or, God forbid, boys attracted to other boys! So when little boys hear their parents saying this phrase with an indulgent smile – boys will be boys – they know it’s okay to be a bully, a thug, a vandal, a cheat. That, after all, is what their parents are endorsing. And what better recommendation to bad behaviour can you get! Forget gentleness, sensitivity, caring, art, fashion, reading, writing – mother and father have already given the signal that such nonsense is beneath them, that these things are only of interest to girls. And girls are inferior beings. Well, you may say, things are changing – at least in a few countries of the world. Boys who like boys, girly boy...