Into the unknown

“Beyond the Wild Wood comes the Wide World,” said the Rat. “And that’s something that doesn’t matter, either to you or me. I’ve never been there, and I’m never going, nor you either, if you’ve got any sense at all.”

Kenneth Grahame – ‘The Wind in the Willows’

Today is the 4th July.

In the United Kingdom a General Election is taking place this very day which – should the pundits be anywhere near correct – will lead to a generational change in the governance of the country. Such changes by definition happen only rarely and there are those who believe that this one is long overdue.

I consider myself to be amongst that number.

Simultaneously (but without connection) in France President Macron has instigated a snap election which will this Sunday – unless an unlikely coalition contrives to prevent it – hand power for the first time to the hard right.

In the United States the presidential election has not yet begun, although it feels awfully much as though not only has it done so, but also that it may already be all over bar the shouting… and not in a positive direction.

The forth-coming election in Canada has not yet been called – and may not in fact happen until next year – but at the moment it looks as though Justin Trudeau’s Liberals will also lose out to the far right at whatever point the election takes place.

It would seem that we live in an age in which huge amounts of energy and (ill-gotten?) fortunes are being expended on dangerous political experiments and battles between cliques and cabals. Not since the end of the Second World War have we seen such re-alignments – or such struggles for domination between democracies and autocracies…

…and all of this at a time when – had we any sense at all – we would be pooling our resources to battle against the vastly greater threats to our continued existence on this planet!

It does make one wonder if we really deserve to have one…