Don’t know about you, but what struck me as the single most chilling moment of this morning’s TV coverage was Fucko the Clown standing in front of a sign announcing the ‘People’s Government.’ Don’t be silly, they kept saying, over the last few years, months and weeks. Fascism isn’t really coming. It will all blow over.And
The People’s Government. Yeah, so which ‘people’? Every time Brexit was touted as the will of the ‘people’ it sounded stranger. It was the will of less than half of those eligible to vote (around 35% abstained). Rather less than half the population. So did half of us, half of you, suddenly stop being people? It appears to be the case once again that roughly half the population didn’t vote Conservative – and must be wondering, once again, if they have stopped being people. (Don’t make me have to explain to you that a party can win a majority of seats in the UK parliament with less than a majority of votes, go and look it up for yourselves.)
There has always been something worrying about politicians who talk about The People in such a way that you can hear the capital letters. It rarely means actual people, the population, you, me, everyone. Yet we are all people. We need to remember that: we are people. They are people, the others, the ones who are not like us, the ones who don’t look or behave like us, even the ones we viscerally disagree with.
So where does hope lie now? We are, currently, in the hands of a man who seems devoid of empathy or a conscience, and his similarly-minded associates. If we are people, though, then we will ultimately have to acknowledge that they are, too. But we should probably park that
for the moment, and seek hope and strength elsewhere. Stoking hate will do nothing useful.
There’s a good article on Mashable with lots of suggestions for helping other people, which also serves the purpose of helping you feel better. if you can do something kind for someone close to you today, do that. If not, do something kind for yourself.
Three years ago it felt a little like writing, also, could help. Words have power, never forget that.
These are dark times, but it is still possible to find something to hope for and something to aim for. And you are not alone. And you are loved and necessary. And we are people, all of us, and we matter.