At this time of year there are the annual jobs to be done, clean the sink, throw out rubbish and fill in the birthday dates on the new desk calendar. At least one of these jobs is now under way. There was a time when I used to rush around cleaning the house before Hogmany in the usual Scots style until one day I discovered why we did this. The cleaning of the house was an effort to kick out all the old demons and prevent new ones coming in. Quite how this worked I never discovered and as it was superstition I decided it was not a requirement, now I don't bother and just do what is actually necessary. Today I will begin to scribble in the dates, tomorrow I will remember the ones I forgot.
Another year of joy and happiness nears the end. I hope some of it went well for you. The cough has taken almost five months of my life this year, the weight has refused to diminish, the knees refused to improve and my brain is failing in the usual manner. Otherwise all is normal. Next year promises more political lies from Boris, the failure of his present ones, and Brexit, if it 'gets done.'
The Far Right are rising throughout the west, only the churches in some areas appear to be aware of this, in the US one magazine has come out against Trump, in Hungary some evangelicals are opposing the leaders policies as ungodly, and in the UK many churches are following passing fashion and keeping quiet. How sad. I will prepare for the new year, indeed I might even have a bath, but I see no reason to go mad about it. Hopefully it will be better than last year.
This is an interesting book, what with the election and all the hassle therein.
Plutarch, writing in the late 1st century, discusses the famous Greek leaders, Theseus, Solon, Pericles etc, giving us a rather illustrious picture of each. Considering Pericles was active in the 400's BC he has to read something into much of what primary sources, if any, he finds. It is bad enough now researching men from the past imagine how little written works Plutarch found, and how biased could those be?
What I got from the books was how similar to today politics in Greece happened to be. There was dictatorship, or leadership if you prefer, forms of democracy, and men always willing to fight their way to the top by fair means or foul, just like today. The only clear difference was that back then a leader had to lead the army in war if he was to be trusted, all had to be Generals of one sort or another, today they fight by stabbing in the back only. All these men had to lead from the front and once the 'democracy' such as it was, was installed they had to persuade their listeners that their way was correct.
It is at this point I found myself reading today into Athens.
The speaker who could, using his friends and many a dirty trick, convince the people that his propaganda was the correct propaganda would win the argument and the people would follow. So many time however the people followed the leader then changed their minds when things went wrong. When all was well they voted for him, the black stone against the white in the jar. If the war, or whatever enterprise they had been called to, failed the people quickly voted once again, often removing, fining or exiling the leader. Democracy is great, innit?
Some leaders of course deserved such treatment, Alkibiades a most obvious one. Boris Johnson claims Pericles as his hero, Alkibiades is nearer the mark. The people followed him when winning, brought him to trial when losing, praised him, feared him, and eventually when hiding among the Persians his Spartan enemy had him killed. The Athenian people would have killed him anyway by this time. Boris needs to be careful...
The people were followers at all times. They thought they had a democracy, one for the actual 'citizen' that is, not the majority in the state, yet they were led then as we are now. Today the press lies on behalf of the owner, the media follows who it will, the people obey the message, sometimes willingly, sometimes without knowing it. Goebels is alive and well today as he was in Greece thousands of years ago, the style never changes.
I liked this book. While not a quick read it was interesting, and while Plutarch had little evidence bar others writings the book gives an insight into ancient Athens thinking, leadership and the failure of democracy. Today whoever owns the media, TV, Radio, paper and social runs the world.
Thursday lunchtime I took the airport bus, air stewardess included as always, to the good quality charity shops. There the rich dispose of their worthy items long before you and I would do so. I searched all four shops, although this was difficult in one as it was closed, but found nothing whatsoever worth looking for. How mean of them, don't they realise I need a new jacket?
I did however visit my favourite card shop, Oxfam!
There is no doubt the cards on offer here, often misusing old photographs, are very clever and full of wit, something missing in so many 'funny' cards today. I had to buy some as with all these wimmin having birthdays I found my collection of cards were all aimed at men. This was unfortunate. Now I am ready for the next woman as long as she does not want anything like money to go with it...
Lovely short bus journey passed green fields, Barley almost ripe, sun glinting on farm machinery and one single farm worker as he prepared his field. No EU workers on sight, I suspect Theresa has sent them all home so it will be big crops around here from now on.
The problem with birds is their great ability to see something they wish for and then go get it. The trouble they then fond is they cannot work out how they got in and therefore how to get back out again. The Robin has been in, a Blue Tit the other day, another one was found on the window today and yesterday this young Starling worked out how to get in and then screamed blue murder because he could not get out.
You will notice the mess on the window, this comes from the dust from the stuff they are feeding on these days. The shop cannot get the usual seed pellets, someone appears to be arguing over money, and what is on offer is not good enough for these brutes. It also has left a lot of dust down the wall and with no rain to speak off it is not getting washed a way. My neighbour might speak to me soon...
Today the plan was simple, eat a good breakfast and then eat little until evening, great idea.
I had a good breakfast and fell asleep.
After this I spent all morning on this laptop either reading the grubby papers and arguing with Brexiteers or listening to the 'iPlayer,' sorry 'BBC Sounds.' It was indeed better as the iplayer but there you go, someone has £10 million to spend and so it must be spent even if in a daft and needless manner.
The radio was good and it took me till after two to remember to get out and get milk, but I fell asleep instead. This has not been a great day...
I see that nice Mr Farage has been taken apart twice this week, once by Andrew Marr of Sunday and then by a Channel 4 newsman the other night. The vast wealth he has been given by Aaron Banks, who does not disclose where his cash comes from, is helping him with his Brexit Party as it did with his dying UKIP party. It is interesting to note he has arranged it so no 'member' of his new party can influence decisions, only he can, with two others, very democratic.
The sheep rose to the occasion claiming all this was a smear campaign against Farage by the 'establishment.' How he has them hoodwinked. There is a kind of blindness which hangs over Brexiteers, facts do not deter the need for Brexit, the emotion goes deep and no fact lies behind it so it cannot be opposed. The opposite is occurring and if a second referendum is given they will all vote 'Leave' with more belief and yet with few facts. I see Scunthorpe is losing 900 jobs because of Brexit from the plant that is the mainstay of the economy yet North Lincs voted strongly in favour of Brexit, what did they expect?
The more I hear of Farage the more I think of Alcibiades the chap Thucydides wrote about after the death of Pericles through the plague. His view was that Pericles spoke for the good of the nation, Alcibiades was in it for himself, and it appears so. It is also interesting that Boris Johnson is a great Thucydides fan, I wonder who he sees himself as?
I would explain this on the 'Daily Mail' forums but the sheep would not comprehend. Anyway they would see them all as foreigners!
We can always take our minds off Brexit by watching the US attempt another war this time against Iran. It is unknown if Trump realises what he is doing here or indeed if he knows what is going on but Spain, Germany and the Dutch among others have withdrawn their forces from the US alliance in the Gulf. The US will be on their own in Iran, bar the Conservative Party that is.
