Armageddon is nigh, according to Biden, who, alarmingly, might very well be the model for Optimus, Elon Musk’s humanoid robot! Good name that, Optimus. Something very positive about it … As Putin, reportedly, rounds up his family and numerous children, ordering them into bunkers, one is led to believe that his finger is hovering on the button. Turns out Liz Truss’ leadership may be shorter than she had hoped and the increasing angst of the common people may be rendered futile; a complete waste of precious time. Just imagine, though, after three years of hell, that’s it! Putin presses the button and it’s curtains. All that time spent worrying; all these days/weeks/years chained to a computer chasing a number on a piece of paper that you will never see when there’s a great big world out there. What would it all have been for? What of that bucket list? All those places you promised, one day, to go and see? All those memories you planned to make before life swallowed you up into the abyss of the mundane? Seriously! No longer whimsical questions, I doubt this world has ever been more dangerous – or more fragile.
Led to believe that security is paramount – the house, the mortgage, the pension – it is all too easy to become ‘chained to the rhythm’; to do exactly what everyone else does but, as one strives to climb that imaginary ladder, the invisible constraints become ever tighter whilst one’s world becomes ever smaller. The hopes? The dreams? They’re consigned to ‘one day’; a day which may never come.
It’s true, though. I do question the futility of it all. Wiped out tomorrow, has yours been a life well-lived? A decade ago, my own was re-booted, quite literally, and it changed me. Nothing is forever. The future is not a given so why worry about it today. Instead, make memories to treasure. Capture them all in photographs – and print them! Go where your heart takes you in the knowledge that that button might take it all tomorrow.
That button. I mean, in reality, what is that button? Is it a button? Surely not. I have images of Star Trek and the Control Desk, Biden propped up in a seat taking instructions while, routinely, asking where he is! Hang on, though, is the button mobile? If not in situ, is it carried around in a black briefcase, to hand at all times? More to the point, how many of those buttons are there? I mean, Putin has one, obviously. Then, there’s China, North Korea … Actually, I have just googled countries with nuclear weaponry and North Korea is not listed in the top ten. Instead, Russia and the US top the charts with China, in third place, followed by France and then the UK. Interesting. Still, a profusion of buttons! What a ridiculous scenario but I feel as though I have grown up with that button, somehow, today, ever more pertinent.
Heaven help us, what a mess, though! From the Garden of Eden to this. I have screeds of notes documenting a world increasingly depraved, this country, alone, on the road to hell. A country in which a fourteen-year-old schoolboy was arrested and charged this week with killing one of his peers, fatally stabbing him. Horrifically, this is not an isolated incident but these are children. Children! It beggars belief but here endeth the breakdown of society, community, the family. This is the result.
However, never be complacent. No-one is safe, even in one’s own home! In fact, if I go quiet for a prolonged period, it can no longer be assumed that I am honing my future bestseller/mini-series/Oscar-winning film, for the chances are I may have opened the door to unwanted visitors as did Caroline Farrow a week ago today. While making dinner for her husband and five children, two policemen appeared at the door and forcibly entered following an allegation made against her regarding online, anonymous posts on Twitter of ‘malicious content’. Denying the accusation, she was, nonetheless, searched and taken to the police station for questioning. A number of electronic devices were seized. Interviewed for two hours, apparently, she spent six in a cell before being released under investigation! Most definitely worthy of an exclamation mark – if not several. Meanwhile, also worthy of note is the fact that this same woman was, previously, the subject of a five-month investigation in 2019 by the same Surrey police when she was accused of calling a transgender woman a ‘he’ on Twitter. Thank God she had the support of J K Rowling! Most definitely not that of the police, however, who, in the past, deemed the horrific harrassment Mrs Farrow, herself, was subjected to – leading to fears for the safety of her family – insufficient to meet ‘the threshold for criminal proceedings.’ Once again, double standards. Unbelievable, though, that one can be burgled in one’s own home and never set eyes on a policeman but mention the word transgender and there’s no stopping them.
Not a mention of the above from Piers Morgan on Question Time. Weird. Instead, he joined the throng attributing our burgeoning lawless society to the lack of police on the ground due to Tory cuts. Seriously? To my mind, the constabulary of today shy away from real crime preferring, instead, the power boost gleaned from intimidating the unsuspecting in their own homes. Another case in mind, the army veteran descended upon by several police and arrested for supposedly ‘causing anxiety’ by re-tweeting a meme – all caught on camera by Laurence Fox. Oh, and don’t forget those two women out walking and drinking coffee during lockdown. The crime? Had they driven more than five miles from home, or something equally pathetic?! Lockdown. Police heaven. How they must miss it.
When did our police forces become ‘woke’? Answer? With the introduction of police commissioners into every one of them. Politicised over the last ten to fifteen years, said commissioners have control and a good many of them are Labour, hence the indoctrination courtesy of the Left and their ‘woke’ agenda. Explains a great deal but who’s going to stop it?
Monday, now, it is the final day of the SNP Conference in Aberdeen. Wonder what could possibly be the subject of Ms Sturgeon’s speech? Altogether now! As predictable as it is embarrassing. Granted, the performance of the discombobulated Tories would be a gift to The Clangers, at the moment, but the continued absence of any viable plans for an independent Scotland going forward, courtesy of the ‘White Stiletto’, means there would be more support for the Soup Dragon. Just saying.
Here’s a thing. Why is it that those attending the SNP Conference have no fear of intimidation on entering or exiting the building? Any baying mobs complete with banners, expletives and spit being half-heartedly restrained behind barriers – or not? Any journalists being harangued or their country of origin questioned? Funny, that. Cast one’s mind back to the Tory hustings in Perth on the 16th August and the depraved behaviour of the feral SNP crowd outside. Then, consider the nasty heckling of Jacob Rees-Mogg, forced to rely on a police escort as he arrived at the Tory Conference in Birmingham last week. Is this it, now? Are we to accept that basic civility has gone? Has physical intimidation become the accepted treatment of those who refuse to share one’s views? Is the bullying of a Left who has given up on the ballot box to be tolerated? What happened to democracy? Ironically, its’s the age-old story except that the feral have become more so. After all, breeding will out! With quiet dignity – class – the Tories carry on, undeterred by baying mobs. Not deemed worthy of headline news. However, imagine the shoe on the other foot. Imagine a Labour Conference reduced to such depths requiring of a police escort for the participating MPs … Now, that would be the story! Double standards? Most definitely but there is something far more dangerous at play now as a culture of victimhood, envy and grievance infiltrates every aspect of life. Scarily, Lord of the Flies comes to mind …
So, live for today. The future looks bleak!!
‘The moral is that the shape of a society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political system however apparently logical and respectable.’
William Golding, Lord of the Flies.
This is Trish, signing off