Jonathan Doddslatest column. Guest opinion articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the publication. Ed

Wellwell, here we are again. Despite everyones best efforts, were being asked tovote for one of many evils. No wonder that so many people are confused andfrustrated and angry, and all of the other things people feel right now, thatthey either didnt feel before the so-called referendum was foisted on us, orthat they did feel, but were too polite to mention. That politeness hascertainly gone to ground lately. I dont expect anything to be resolved in anydirection by this election, but I dont actually think thats so much of a badthing.

Thetrouble with long periods of peace and relative prosperity is that people getbored, and they forget the terrible times that caused the troubles in the past,which made us grateful to join in with efforts to try to make it never happenagain. After a while we become enchanted, our senses are lulled by bright andpretty things, and we start to feel that we deserve the world fit for heroesthat so many people fought and died for. We start to think that we should haveeverything we wish for, and we forget that you get what you deserve after all,rather than what you want regardless of the actual cost.

Moving forward on Progress RoadIm talking about everyone here. The so-called people, the rich people, the excluded people, the smug people, the politicians, and you, and me. I cant speak for you, but I can speak for me. Ive reaped the rewards of a lifetime of freedom and peace. Ive worked hard (mostly), Ive had hard and difficult things happen, sometimes Ive failed to heed the writing on the wall, and sometimes Ive never even noticed that writing on that wall. Im just an ordinary manwho tries to keep up, and I make an effort to make sense of the things I see.

Ialways had a sense of things moving forward on Progress Road, a broad highwaythat leads from the darkness of the past towards the light up ahead, wheregradually, through hard work and unselfish effort, everyone gets to be safe andcomfortable, and everyone takes advantage of improved healthcare and educationto become more aware and more considerate, because they understand that beingwise and taking care of oneself and others is the key to civilisation and agood and long life. I thought that was obvious. What folly. Thats where I waslulled.

Slavishly climbing on each others backs up that greasy ladderI forgot about the very few people in the world who own practically everything, and whose appetite for ownership will never be satisfied. I forgot about the unending need of politicians to pretend to be truthful and working for the common good, while slavishly climbing oneach othersbacks up that greasy ladder, and lying endlessly because it makes them look good or score more points. I forgot that politicians no longer have to resign if theyre caught breaking the law, or taking money, or with their trousers down. I was never so bothered by the trousers, but the corruption thingis a step too far for me. Not every politician has indulged in these activities, but they all seem to look the same and speak the same language, and theyre not very good at denouncing each other when wrongdoing occurs, and theyre in too much thrall to the party and their position within it.

Orso it seems, at least to me. I forgot about a lot of things. I was busy gettingon with my life, and I didnt protest enough about the things I cared about.Staying in Europe, for goodness sake. Stopping those disgusting wars and theconsequent endless streams of displaced people roaming around the world lookingfor refuge via frozen lorries and leaky boats, dying in their thousands andending up, if theyre lucky,as illegal aliens in countries such as ours,with no rightsand hardly any future. I forgot about the ability of somehumans to become enormously rich on the proceeds ofpeople-smugglingandso-called modernslavery andtraffickingof all sorts of stuff that our governments should be dealing with rather thanreducing thevery workforcethat should be policing it.

Averting those crises didnt defeat them or make them go awayI forgot that its not enough to set up the United Nations and then prevent it from carrying out the very functions it was created to serve. I forgot that governments could fail to regulate bankers, then allow them to wreck the economy, then give them huge amounts of money so they didnt go bust, thenreduce our welfare state and education system and our civil service and schools and social care system to pay for all that, and were still more in debt than we were then. I forgot that politicians can be as lulled as I have been all this time.

Ialso forgot that the climate crisis and the great extinction that were causinghas been going on for decades. Back at the end of the Sixties there were manywarnings about all of these things, and a great flurry of concerns over famineand overpopulation and other end-of-the-world scenarios. I forgotthataverting those crises didnt defeat them or make them go away, itjust delayed the inevitable, and made the effects of that ignoring far moredrastic.

Eternal vigilanceI forgot so many things, but the most important thing I forgot was that most precious of quotes The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. It used to annoy me that nobody could agree on who actually said it first. It has been attributed to Andrew Jackson, Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, and many others. But that just makes it more relevant and true, in my honest opinion. Getting freedom, or equality, or the vote, or universal education, or a welfare state, or a national health service, or a bill of rights, or an honest government and judiciary, or the abolition of slavery, is very hard work.

Everything that we ever achieved was ground out against the implacable opposition of all those who didnt want to put their hands in their pockets, or were defending their own privileges, or their traditions, or their religious intolerances. And those people dont go away. The moment some victory is won, the opposing forces start to gather their strength and resources, and the plotting begins to reverse this affront to their determination to return the world to their own golden age when nobody dared to challenge their supremacy. We also forget that there are lots of people out there who have no privileges, and are desperate to grab power at anycost. Some of those are now raising their heads above the parapets as we speak.

We should be ashamed of ourselves, but its not too lateThe first thing we forget is that getting rights and freedoms isnt a foregone conclusion. They can be reversed, rather easily. The second thing we forget is that the gaining of freedoms and rights isnt atick box, all done. They need to be defended against assaults of all kinds and from all quarters. We nearly forgot that in the 1930s, and the actual cost of stopping Nazism was far greater than it would have been if we had acted earlier and more definitively. The third thing we forget is thatfor everyfreedom won, there are morefreedomsto be fought for. We still dont have so many of the things that should be inplaceto ensure that everyonegetsan equal chance in this country.

Iwas determined not to write a rant this week. So many times in the recent pastIve started to write and had to stop anddeleteeverything becauseIm so angry, but Ive not found a way to say what I want without blowing mytop. We should be ashamed of ourselves, but its not too late. We canrescueourselvesfrom thelifeboatweve thrown ourselvesinto. It takes some effort, and maybe some sacrifices, and probably a lot ofcompromise along the way, but its always possible, and achieving a result thatpleases most people is so much more productive and safe, for the world and forall the people who live in it. Not to mention the environment.

Spend a few minutes imagining how the world should beWhat Im suggesting that you might try to do is to stop thinking and talking about what makes youangry, and what you dont like, and what you dontwant, for just a fewminutes. Id like you to spend a few minutes imagining yourself sometime in the future. It might be a year or so, or twenty years. It might be when your children or grandchildren have grown up. Id like you to imagine what sort of world you want to find yourself and your loved ones in when you reach thatfuture. Id like you to include as many others, and their loved ones in that future too.

Weve seen a lot of versions ofunpleasant futures lately, with wars and environmental disasters.Weveheard about wars for oil, and wars for water, and enormous movements of people fromwarzones into places of safety, and the destabilising of those very places as a result. Weve seen the results of the foolish election of unfit leaders, and the rise of leaders who are divisive and dangerous.

Weveexperienced the increase in hate and anger and frustration. How about spending a fewminutesimagining howtheworld should be instead, and trying to find ways toresolvethese difficulties, so that we and our children, and the world cansurvive, and our precious freedoms can be preserved?

Vote for the future, rather than for the pastPlease take a look at thecandidatesfor thiselection, and decide for yourself which of them, if any, couldpossiblybe trusted toworktowards that positive future, rather than carrying on in the same old destructive way. Ill be trying my best to do that. Ill be voting for the future, rather than for the past, or for hatred and division. I want to hear the voice of reason in our Houses of Parliament again, and the speaking of truth and belief rather than point-scoring.

Ill be voting for life and liberty, and staying on Progress Road, rather than running off blindly downthe Road to Perdition.

If you have been, thank you for reading this.

Main Image: wiredforsound23 under CC BY 2.0

Excerpt from:

Jonathan Dodd: Once More Unto the Breach - On The Wight