Worry worry worry

So, as regular readers of this blog will know, I’ve joined the Green Party.  This is for a number of reasons.  1.  I basically agree with everything they stand for, though obviously I’d ask whether any policy survives first contact with government.  2.   Politics will only ever change if we get involved.  Democracy is governance by the people, but until the people kick up a stink it’ll only ever be governance by the rich and the powerful, for their own ends.  3.  Labour, which would be my usual political go-to party, sucks.  It sucks as a political entity, committing to nothing, standing for nothing, fighting for nothing.  It sucks as a policy-making body, throwing away everything it ever once stood for and replacing it with… well, who knows, frankly.  Who damn well knows?

But let’s face it, amongst all of this, I’ve also joined the Green Party because I am properly, properly afraid.

I’m frightened about the planet.  2014 was the hottest year on record.  The winter, despite nippy bits, has been incredibly mild.  Pests and bacteria which should die in the cold, don’t.  Violent storms are increasing, desertification grows, malarial mosquitoes find themselves migrating further north, the Gulf Stream totters, freshwater resources vanish, glaciers melt, polar ice caps melt, seas rise, the Atlantic ocean is filled with litter stretching for hundreds of miles, thousands of species are going extinct every year – these aren’t just buzz-phrases from GCSE Geography classes, these are simple truths.  Actually, no, not simple: they are incredibly complicated simple truths.  Complicated in cause, complicated in solution – simple in reality.  The reality is that it is true. They are truths which affect all humanity.  To deny it is to deny science; to deny science is to deny the scientific method; to deny the scientific method is to invite a return to the days of witch burning and curing disease by ritual sacrifice.  Science is as close as we get to simple truth, in matters so huge.  The world is in serious trouble, and humanity with it and yes, I’m properly, properly frightened.

I’m also a little bit worried about how we, as a society, react to hard times.  Times have been hard; frankly, as a nation, the last 7 years have sucked.  The rich have got richer, the poor have got poorer.  The use of foodbanks has soared, firefighters and doctors have gone on strike, libraries close and MPs increase their pay despite the great outcry over the expenses scandal of a few years back – which we all now gently ignore.  Every time I look at a newspaper or news website, the headlines appear to be about actors and celebrities, or simple shouty opinion, not actual reportage.  There is a war in Eastern Europe – call it what you will, but in Eastern Ukraine people die every day for a cause that both sides believet o be right, and Russia has invaded and conquered part of a free nation and Europe does nothing.  In the Middle East, the Arab Spring has given way to brutality, dictatorship and war, and the Western powers, having sowed the seeds of this situation through their own stupid, stupid actions, sit back with a cry of ‘well shit, let’s stay away but blame all Muslims everywhere for everything, hell’.  People who should know better start saying ‘integration’ whenever they discuss multiculturalism, and this word – this good word, which should have meant ‘harmony’ and ‘neighbourly fellowship’ now comes to mean a dictation of the homogenous and a destruction of individual identity and freedom.  Terrorism has made us more fearful, but it’s not bombs or guns I fear – if a madman in a street wants to hurt me, well that’s random chance and nothing worth my getting worked up about – rather it is my society, my culture, becoming afraid, and in doing so, becoming stupid and cruel.  Opinion becomes fact; problems become blame.  Governments say nothing at all at great length, and pander to power, rather than work for people.  The news becomes about sensationalism and argument, not information and debate and look, hate crime increases!  What a surprise.

Not to put too fine a point on it: I’m a tad worried.  The world is a hugely complicated place; over-simplifications can become as dangerous as lies.  But it is not over-simplification to say that we are in danger from climate change, or that social justice totters.  The world needs complex ideas to tackle these big, big problems, and it needs debate, and it needs knowledge and understanding.  And right now, I don’t see much of any of that.

So yes, I’ve joined the Green Party out of hope, and belief in what they believe in.  And yes, I’ve joined out of fear – fear of scientific truths that can no longer be avoided.  But also I’ve joined for complexity, to be part of a conversation, to increase my knowledge and perhaps – hopefully – to disagree with the Green Party, and to change it, or to help it make a change, or to argue with those who disagree and, through knowledge and study, maybe find a better way.  Maybe change someone else’s mind; maybe have my mind changed.  Perhaps.  It’s not a big thing, but it seems like a sensible thing to do.