An age of chaos

I have been battling to square the circle for a year now. The insanity that was Brexit depressed me so deeply, and this was subsequently compounded by the coronation of Trump. What was going on?

Something had to give, and it has. Following a seismic general election my old country now tinkers on the threshold of monumental, shuddering changes, as indeed does Catalonia.

No bad thing (I tell my fears), for all orders that have finally come to the end of tolerance will inevitably fall. It is the wave signal declining and rising across the line of life since time immemorial. There is no creation without chaos and we should not be afraid.

Yet cyclical ages of such far-reaching uncertainty can paralyse with fear of change, making one hold to the habits of the familiar, however broken that order may be. Vested interests sink their heels, throw stones.

Are you following the UK drama?

The profound ills and alarming polarization within the deeply dis-United Kingdom, currently an extraordinary, compelling and distressing fish bowl boiling with post-Brexit and now post-election uncertainties, expose many truths the wider world should heed.

From the self-harm that was the grossly ill-informed, unworldly Brexit vote that stirred putrid mud from the bottom of the pond, we now are witnessing a nation wrestling with its conscience while trying not to drown. If that sounds wholly disastrous it is not. Far from it.

The young people have found their voice, albeit through a long broken first-past-the-post voting system. More and more people have had enough of the deceits, sound-bites and establishment’s contempt. The grip of media barons with vested interests is weakening as social media surges. More women than ever are seeking election, and political multi-culturalism can flower so beautifully in the face of ugly jingoism. From despair about my country I have now found so many reasons to hope.

I resist thinking in terms of political allegiances. I just know what I want. Namely… that from this chaotic time of evolution we globally, relentlessly strive for peace, nurture community as well as self-reliance through egalitarian economics and grassroots democracy; that we face up to the deep ecological and mental harm of suffocating economic obsessions with possessions and matters superficial, that disconnect us from real fulfilments and cross-generational life-support of family and all-inclusive community; that we understand the gravity of our role as guardians of our precious, precarious planet and end the nuclear and fossil fuel insanities. Living here in the Priorat community has reinforced all of this.

I repeat, the old order will resist, of course they will, with all their might, both here in Iberia and on the little island I come from, in equally fraught America and around the world. But deep thought democracy and the will of the people must and will prevail, blessed as we all are with in an instinctive sense of community, decency and fairness.

May it do so peacefully and inclusively.

And if, like me, you are old enough to have had lots of opportunities to exercise the democratic right, I hope you can debate and engage with the younger generation to consider their needs and aspirations .