From the Banchory Bunker
In this era of crisis and destabilisation there is a demand for unity behind and within a ruptured ruling class, for stability and for an end to questioning. But genuine unity – in politics and life – is not an intellectual exercise. It is not simply proclaimed and it cannot be enforced. It must be felt, deeply, by a society or a relationship or a political organisation. It only truly exists if it is based on the collective act of surrendering private power in favour of a collective moving forward. Not a impermanent contract, but an understanding that we – and our continued presence on this planet – will only make it by the virtue of each other, and not ourselves alone. Not by some elite or by a system that lies in such conflict with both nature and the great mass of human life.
Behind the polls, behind the choreographed headlines and the commentators struggling to keep up, behind the mask that is increasingly loose on the face of a broken system – there is fragmentation. Behind the strength and stability spoken only in word, there is a crumbling empire, so gasping now that all it can see is the coming mutiny, the potential saboteur, the snake in the grass.
More than that, there is decay, and the sort of desperation that drives the last days of dictatorships. Sowing frantically the seeds of their own destruction in the attempt to suppress volatility. Thus, power comes to rely on the inauthentic. Empty factories are visited and debates avoided. One small mishap, they know, could spiral out of control. So to the forrest, where the only eye whites are pre-selected and loyal. To a place where even phone signal is tempered by the isolation they sought to shield them.
Even that is not enough. The architecture of continuity must be built, even if it is on sand. Since it cannot overcome the problems its very existence generates it must rationalise that enemies are at the gates. Power must be centralised – and scrutiny forbidden. It is brazen now, but is often subtle, and ever present. From this stems a deep alienation from the official levers that manage society.
We experience an unexpected breach. This is not what the films we grew up with depicted. It is not what we were taught. There is a well of resentment drawn on by those who most resist the fact that the West must now confront itself. And it is not because we know this to be true – but because we feel it – that some now burst with frustration that so many are unwilling to accept that the old order must come to an end, for the good of all.
And yet it is.
WHen Teresa May fancies a bringe up to Edinburgh, I’ve worked hard and have found her perfect venue (google map 3D image …)
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@55.9335174,-3.1140849,32a,35y,49.39h,39.57t/data=!3m1!1e3
It’s surrounded by pallisades to keep out the Niddrie hoi poloi, and as you can see the building’s surrounded by wasteland. Or blasted Heath ha ha.
Perfecto.