Best intentions aside, constant travelling eventually takes its toll on the ability to put down on paper the thoughts I would like to share - although I have been doing rather a lot of talking lately instead of writing. Regular readers of this Blog will be aware that I write to express my own thoughts - or pass on the wisdom of others (with due accreditation), and it takes time. So yet another excuse for a delay, but have had a couple of days to get some thoughts on "paper" resulting in this .... with another to follow very shortly. I suspect though that in spite of much encouragement from friends and other (sometimes unexpected) readers I will have to give up the Blog-writing eventually especially while I keep on working and struggle to find time, or actually properly retire, but by then anyway my thoughts will become even less relevant than they are already! :-)
But there we are. If you got this far I can only assume that the phrase "morose delectation" caught your eye and you are wondering whether I might explain what I mean by it. Sure - in time!
The particular headings of this Blog relate to issues that have been concerning me for a while now - before the more serious escalations that have taken pace in Hong Kong in recent weeks, and a note on that later.
We are currently riding a wave of populism in politics - where else - but the problem with waves is that they often crash to the shore and disperse. Doing things for the benefit of the public at large is a good thing, surely, so politicians appeal to the mass of people who see the often short-term benefits of the policies they espouse and then on which for a variety of reasons they fail to deliver. But with populism also seems to come isolationism - all these "isms" - tinged with a sense of "mine!" Brexit is a case in point, which again I shall allude to later alongside some comments on Hong Kong, but the popular view demonstrated by the noisy Brexiteers is that leaving Europe is the "will of the people" and must be followed. In simple terms yes; it was the will of 51.9% of the population who voted to leave, against the 48.1% who wished to stay - but without the voice of 27.8% of the population who didn't vote. Hardly a ringing endorsement although the leavers - and now the politicians who want to get re-elected - think it is the popular thing to do. And by the way - I don't have a vote so I could not influence the result one way or the other, although watching it from a distance I was intrigued by the amount of mis or lack of information being peddled. It's a mess whichever way you look at it!
To hypocrisy - and this is the direction in which the world is travelling. You may say it has ever been thus, but with social media perhaps it is harder to hide it now but along with populism there seems to be a greater level these days of hypocrisy. Say one thing - do another, or as a saying I used to hear in my youth went - "do as I say, not as I do". But today it's things like positively nailing your colours to the mast about climate change and carbon footprints - but go jetting off in a private aircraft to and from the event and elsewhere. Or spending the taxpayer's money on renovating your home and then closing the doors so the public cannot see inside. And it extends to others in public roles. Those who push for legislation against things like drugs and are then found to be users themselves. Sports are not immune - witness those who set up foundations to help the less privileged, which is a noble pursuit but who have done so on the back of their name as an elite performer but whose success came from their clever physician - not their own ability. It seems to me that populism and hypocrisy are pretty close bedfellows. People who express one idea, but who then realise that to be "popular" they must change their views whether they buy in to it or not, are truly hypocritical.
And then we move on to morose delectation. The Germans have one word for it - and I have not been able to find a single one-word example in English, but basically it is the English equivalent of schadenfreude, or the enjoyment you derive from the discomfort of others. You have had recent examples of President Trump making totally unnecessary comments about the downfall of others - his most recent target being Teresa May when he was talking about the relationship with Britain and previously his unwarranted comments of insult about the Danish Prime Minister, and the unnecessary swipe on the senator in the US whose house was the subject of an attempted robbery; a senator who Trump just does not like.
The problem? Sadly, there are large swathes of people out there who just love all this stuff. The Populism, the isolationism, the "me" and "mine" syndromes where we want to lock ourselves in behind our own walls and not believe there are other people out there. The bullies, the racists, and the religious fanatics - in the midst of a global economy that seems to be slipping slowly into recession which will only heighten the resolve of the people to be nasty to those they don't like. Where their sense of, albeit unjustified, entitlement will come to the fore. These are all worrying signs for the future. We need to have a world that is more understanding than it is at present - and it's up to us to have strong leaders who can deliver much more than uncompromising aggressive words; leaders who lead because they want the world to be a better place for everyone - not just for themselves and their immediate families and supporters.
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