Darkness Descends
Behind everything is a philosophy. It creates the ethos. It creates the zeitgeist. It pervades the air we breathe. Philosophy drives everything. We all have one whether we know it or not; every society has one as its basis.
The basis of my philosophy has been one of love and hope. I have put my faith in mankind and that the good in people will prevail over the bad; that we must build, through education, a world that is full of the best we can do and not the worst.
On one hand I see the destructive greed, power-seeking and cruelty that is mindlessly destroying the planet and on the other I see the beauty we create, the altruism and love that reflects us at our best.
Mostly I am optimistic that the billions of kind, caring and pleasant people will prevail over the far fewer heartless, selfish, violent beasts.
I would like to see humanity moving to a more civilised state where nature is respected, animals are not treated cruelly, our population is controlled, and things such as war, racism, exploitation and sexism are banished. I want a world with wilderness, fresh air and equality.
The only way I can see us achieving this is through a centralised government, the end of nations and religions, and a move out of the tribalism and primitive thinking that creates so much hate and violence. I dream of universal laws to prevent pollution, war and discrimination.
That is why the Brexit vote was so appalling to me. It seemed to me to be a vote based on fear and hatred that would spawn an ethos of isolation, xenophobia, inequality and further disharmony. It was the dream of the terrorists, nationalists and racists that prevailed over those dreams of idealists like myself.
For me the world lurched into a darker place that is less safe and much further away from the unity and togetherness of the world I dream of.
I can only see a future of gloom, environmental destruction and war. The philosophy of Brexit is opposed to everything I hold dear. I have lost my faith in people. The philosophy we live in changed.
I wrote this at an attempt at catharsis. I need to become more optimistic again.
Darkness Descends
Gigantic dark waves
Crashing on grey sands
As huge gloom-ridden clouds
Obscure the light.
Ice-cold winds bite through
The skin with shards of steel
As warmth and sunshine are banished forever.
Never again will the sun break through
To bathe the land with hope.
No more will the heart beat
With enthusiasm for the fight.
As the cloying mists of misery
Swirl in clammy fingers of doom
And claw the very life out of
All that would dare to breathe.
Opher 10.7.2016