i’m ashamed to have to acknowledge that i’ve been allowing this blog to lie fallow for almost a year now. and that after my last post which was a grandiose claim that i’d be posting much more during 2018.
my last post also announced my dismay at the then current state of the world. to say that things have got worse hardly covers it. in my entire life i cannot remember things looking so bleak. coming as i do from a family of political activists my early childhood was underlined by an awareness of world events and the parade of crises which seem to have punctuated the trajectory of my life. just a short list; the suez crisis, the cuban missile crisis, the vietnam war, the oil crisis, the rise of thatcherism and the regan years. neo-conservatism (and the collapse of ’sixties idealism), the neoliberal project which hangs over us like a pall, with its ugly children; austerity, the rising confidence of racists and fascists fuelled by populist authoritarianism on both sides of the Atlantic.
So for this year, no grand promises about re-enlivening this blog. i will try rather to just post regularly, modest posts, perhaps only a paragraph. i’ll be looking for green shoots.