So I am back in England. Two things strike me. One is the frantic frenzy of force feeding fear. It is on the news. It is in the newspapers. It is on the radio. It goes thus.
Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan. Iran Iran Iran Iran. Whatyougonnado whatyou whatyougonnado whatyou gonnado
Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan. Iran Iran Iran Iran. Whatyougonnado whatyou whatyougonnado whatyou gonnado
On arriving in England I feel I’ve stumbled onto the set of an angry dysfunctional infomercial. A constant stream, flood, torrent of information feeds the insatiable needs of everlasting war. Stepping off the plane into this intense information windtunnel is more shocking than the freezing temperature because cold can be tempered with clothing. This stuff gets under the skin.
Meanwhile the rest of the world – and fifa – looks at the English with the expression of “what’s up with you people – we building our economies” . In an interview for a magazine the other day I said “the English are in a post colonialist state of shock desperately searching for some place, some standing in a changed world and in so much they must cause disruption. The English need war.” I say this as an Englishman. Neil Gaiman is right.
I said there were two things. The second is pastries. Does England live off pastries and sandwiches. Everywhere I go, pastries pastries, pastries. “would youlike a pastry with that sirr… any pastries sirrr”. No No No. Too many pastries. maybe the pastries are somehow contributing for the need to go to war. Who knows.
To make English society better stop with the fear mongering and get on with building the economy. The fear model doesn’t work okay. I read Naomi Klein and she’s right. Stop it. Enough with the fear already and enough with the pastries. Except… the almond encrusted sugar dusted croissants are tooo tempting.. lets have a conference about whether or not they stay.
Wondering what particular bit of Neil Gaiman you are referring to..? A quote?
Where to begin? There's such a lot to say, your post raises huge issues. Absolutely right about the war mongering, (your poem Totally Stoned On War gets inside of this) It's an all pervasive old, old straetgey marketted anew over and over…destabalise & deciamte other societies in order to take economic advantage. Much of our country's wealth has been created in this way and so it goes….We are one of the top five exporters of weaponry and equipment used for torture, war is big business.
So yes we need to build up our economy but how? The system is broke we all saw that in the banking crisis but the creature stumbles on like a zombie. Morally the system is bankrupt.
Nobody will succeed in building one economy by destabilizing another economy as long as all economies are interlocked like … the global economy of today. Weapons flow one way, “humanitarian aide” flows the other way but the net impact clearly is profanely inhumane since refugees flow every which way! If only the electorate of each major weapon exporting country connected these neon bright glowing dots – everybody on earth needs jobs, NOBODY needs drones, etc. “Prosper together” is a foreign concept in too many minds and yet that business model is the most sustainable. Competition is good for consumers but even businesses do better working hard to attract clients. Here is my solution to the global mess (this isn't just England's issue we all know): 1. open up all international borders and watch the competition to attract and/or keep good citizens come into play and 2. declare a global ceasefire and freeze all weapon trade during the social/political experiment. Sounding utterly naive only because the status quo is profoundly morally bankrupt indeed!