Sunday 24 October 2021

CRISTOBELL UNEDITED

I have been writing a blog every week but they sit, unpublished, due to an elongated attack of timidity.  Elongated in the sense that it has gone on for months, maybe because I am too lazy to go back and edit them, or maybe because I think huh, who cares what I think, so there's a bit of 'poor me' in there too.  Cristobell timid, 'pah' I hear my critics say, but a slight timidity seems to have crept in since I let my hair go white.  Where once I would have happily led the charge, and chucked on a bit of dynamite, now I think, nah, let someone else do it.  

But I can still have a moan!  As in, Oh dear God, every nightmare I imagine when Boris Johnson when the last election is coming to fruition.  The desolation I felt that night and since stays within like constant ache.  I blame only myself, I was wrong to have put so much hope and faith into the people of this country to vote for a fairer society for all.  Jeremy Corbyn was the best leader we could have ever had.  He wanted to fight for the many, not the few, he wanted to bring about real changes, the kind of changes that would propel Great Britain back into the forefront of advanced societies.  Hard to believe the rest of the world once looked to GB as a beacon of hope because of it's NHS, Welfare State, care of it's citizens from cradle to grave.

The rise of the 'Right', and yes there has been a huge surge since Brexit, is taking this country down a very dangerous and frightening path.  Nothing good ever comes to a country who takes on an isolationist stance.  Firstly, it's a tad arrogant, as in 'right you shower of thieving bastards' (anyone outside of our island), we are shutting up shop, drawing up the gates' and will manage on our own, thank you very much'.   Any local village idiot will tell you that kind of thinking is doomed to go horribly wrong.  We are seeing the results.  Not only the daily shortages of products on our shelves, but the collapse of major industries because of a shortage of staff.  Big private industries who often deserve what they get, but also major care providers and of course the NHS.  The dim tory twits who thought getting rid of all the migrant workers would cause a huge surge in applications from the indigenous population made basic and stupid, fundamental errors.  

They have only themselves to blame.  Decades of social engineering and capitalist indoctrination has given them the voters they wanted.  Generations now have been taught to aspire to greed.  Greed is good, Greed works.  Your quarter pounder not big enough? Let me go ahead and pile another one top.  When I read 1984* (communist parody) and Brave New World** (capitalist parody) back to back, I thought Brave New World was more likely, here in the 'west' anyway, China, North Korea, more '1984'.  Honestly not sure whether to add 2021 Russia in there too.

So, we took the 'capitalist' path, and very nice it has been too.  I remember my pure joy at owning my first car, my first home, my first Charlotte Tilbury palette.  It is with immense pleasure that I remember every twinkly, sparkly object I ever set eyes on.  Still holding out for a Faberge Egg.  But the communist, marxist, socialist and tree hugger inside of me, pulls hard, as in, a little voice says 'ffs, you don't need to put on lipstick to take the rubbish out!'.  I'm sure I would be a much better feminist if I stopped trying to look so girly.  Yes, friends, enemies and curious onlookers, glitter has no age limit! I kind of sense a collective shudder there, lol.

But back to politics.  Sadly our enjoyment of all that glitters, has hidden reality.  That is the true cost of all our pleasures.  People and animals, must suffer in order to bring a momentary smile to our spoilt faces.  Capitalism exploits workers, that's it in a nutshell, no other way of interpreting it.  Capitalists strive for profit, it helps if they refer to workers as units, it takes away their humanity, they want optimum production for minimum outlay.  Now they are they are just maths figures on a whiteboard, who give a f, eh?  

The biggest mystery is how this privileged tory elite have managed to persuade the masses (mostly poor) to vote them?  Simple, and perhaps genius, they persuaded those masses to want the same things they did (without a hope in hell of getting them).  It's been a good decade for them actually, Trump opened the door to saying out loud every nasty, sadistic thought those closet racists and almighty snobs ever had and get cheered for it!  Enter GB News.  My jaw, it must be said, is still dragging on the floor after hearing that horrendous commentator (no, I can't be arsed to look her up or repeat her name) say refugees who take a chance on the channel should be left to drown.  I had a flashback to a 14 year old me reading Auschwitz and being overwhelmed with sorrow by the evil that existed in this world.  

I used to describe myself on my AOL profile as a Marxist/Feminist.  It was a hilarious introduction to social media all those years ago - so many assumed, that I was a tattooed, shaven headed, dungeree wearing throwback from Greenham Common.  Yes, my old friends who still read here, I remember lol.  Of course, I identified more with Hyacinth Bouquet (though she was far better dressed than I), but on hostessing skills, she was a woman after my own heart.  Outwardly, I have always been more Margaret Thatcher than Janice Joplin, ergo the confusion over my politics.  

But let's get back to this whole swing to the Right, disturbing as that is.  I am not really in touch with young people just now, which is a shame, but I would love to know what the general ideology is?  I was greatly heartened by the amazing young people running and participating in Momentum in the Jeremy campaign.  I hear fellow oldies complain about the young, but I am dazzled by their knowledge, their enthusiasm and their good hearts.  They are driven by love, care and duty to their families, their neighbours, their communities and of course, the wider world around us.  I was truly heartbroken when Jeremy didn't win (last time!), but I know that with the good people following in his path it will happen one day.  

Boris Johnson is Britain First Lite.  The hateful fascism of so many around us that we didn't fecking know.  So much of it hidden in so many closets, and the naive, including myself, just didn't know.  I'm always looking for the best in people, so I'm like a big kid, look for the good in them I tell myself, find common ground.  They think detention camps for aliens are a good thing, I think puppies and kittens are just adorable.  

I have spent the last year, heck, 18 months or more with my head fully imbedded in the sand.  I wanted to reach that stage where I could genuinely say, 'I couldn't care less'.  As a manic depressive it is really easy to reach that stage where my brain overloads if I think about trauma etc too much.  I have experienced it on several occasions.  Happily I seem to have developed some soothing braincells who overcome the 'yeah go wild braincells' with recommendations of 'Seinfeld' or 'Father Ted'.  Prior to that, it was the 'Odd Couple' and 'Some Like it Hot' - common denominator, Jack Lemmon, I luvvved him!  Now why couldn't I ever had met a man like that!  Arms folded in a huff smiley!  Prior to that it was gin and lots of drugs, will save that for another day.

But before I go, I will give a shout out to all those who still agree with all the principles we, the Brits, fought two world wars for. We are anti fascist, anti dictatorship, yet we are following the path of the most successful fascist in modern history.  Hitler isolated Germany, Hitler built up the arms industry, Hitler manipulated his people into a compliant voting mass.  Not my fault, everyone did it, said the voters.  

It is a social faux pas to bring up Hitler in a political argument, according to Godwins Law, but isn't it fucking scary that commentators care more about a social media law, than the facts and reality staring in their faces.  I am not one to go down the conspiracy theory road, but it would not be hard to believe that Putin is presently pulling Boris Johnson's strings.  He has lost his clown in the White House, but, just for laughs, he has an imbecile in No.10 also willing to destroy his country to hide whatever the feck Putin has on him.  (my bet would be pig head fecking).  

I was a child of the sixties!  I grew up when Engerland swung like a pendum doo, bobbies on bicycles two by two.  Carnaby Street was the grooviest place on earth!  The best and the brightest headed to the United Kingdom, just as they had in the centuries that preceded them.  Why?  Because we had dear old Harold Wilson and a socialist government.  Jeremy could have done the same and more, but the Labour party was infested with Establishment moles, fully imbedded in the right to privilege ideology.  People who were never, ever, going to allow non career politicians into their party.  Get out those who rose up through the Unions or their trades, let's make the House of Commons pretty much wholly public school educated.  Let's take away the working class voice.  Jeremy Corbyn opened all our eyes to the brighter future we could have, he exposed all those lies that kept us all so obediently poor.  He told us 'No, it doesn't have to be this way'.  The 'Establishment', not just the tories but sooo many Labour MPs, set out to destroy Jeremy.  Personally, I can never forgive them.

From a waffling perspective, please ffs, rise up rise, you young and enthusiastic.  Know if this were a superhero war, your skills and talents will be needed to prevent any holocausts ever happening again.  I bless your parents for bringing you the right way, for teaching you kindness, compassion and a sense of justice.  I chuckle at my fading abilities to be as concise and articulate as I once was, but I am cheered that there are so many talented and kind young people out there, I'm pretty sure they will do better than the previous generations.

Goodnight dear readers.  I am putting this out, unedited, please forgive me.  I'm sure I will delete it all if I do that.  Be quiet those shouting, 'quite rightly' at the back.  Sweet dreams.