To Kill the Truth

I finished reading Sam Bourne’s (Jonathan Freedland) latest book last night.

I have a confession before I write any more – it was published about eight months ago and I have been waiting for the paperback; not only that, I bought it on Friday at Tesco for £3.50.

Apologies Sam/Jonathan.

I will not spoil the story here although I recommend all of S/J’s novels. I love his writing – mostly thriller.

The book’s thesis relates to a plan to undo or re-write history. I’ll say no more. The President is ‘D’ and there is mention of the UK in relation to a referendum.

The point that struck me and one which I feel runs before and beyond the book relates to the state we are in.

Us, being our country, the West, the media, call it what you like.

Our strained state of frustrated cynicism.

Waking this morning I leafed through Twitter – the most recent was a video of Trump walking down a set of stairs with Johnson. With all the memes and jokes you might anticipate.

The point relates to our present-day Cold War.

Essentially between those on the Left and the Right.

Where folk on one side portray and describe those on the other as either ignorant, stupid, arrogant or all three.

It helps no one.

I remember as a kid when I realised that there was no such thing as ugly.

Not so much that things couldn’t be ugly, but, rather that people weren’t. Sure, people could do ugly things, yet in relation to how they looked this was meaningless. The concept is different; diverse.

The same applies to stupid.

People are not stupid.

We portray Trump and Johnson as stupid, as those who voted for Brexit as stupid (we on the Left that is) yet, again, like ugly, it is meaningless.

People are not stupid.

There is being human which is a thing.

End of.

People can act in ways that appear stupid to another; this does not mean they are stupid.

I have done many daft things in my life; haven’t we all?

As the moustachioed one said, we are ‘Human, all too human.’

And this is the point and what I took from S/J’s novel.

It doesn’t help us standing on opposite sides shouting at one another. It doesn’t even make for amusing TV anymore.

What we need is understanding.

A sense of aspiring to understand why we see the world differently. To acknowledge our differences (diversity) and work towards a common sense.

Some people say that we should get angry, that time is running-out, we should fight.

If fighting sustains the status quo, where are we?

I look through Twitter or Google News and realise that my own biases have influenced the algorithms; I see a world that I have created. This is not reality. This is my lens, filtering out the stuff I can’t or don’t want to see.

I haven’t mentioned the Spiral for a while;

I think this is the next stage.

It is holism.

It is realising that there is more than your part.

That the moon has a dark side, as do all of us.

Thanks Jonathan.