This was written on a device containing minerals mined using slave labour, with little regard to the effects on the miners the nearby wildlife or anyone else. It was made in an evil, genocidal, tyrannical regime that uses technology in ways that would make the Stasi proud... For reasons perhaps not unrelated most people seem to now quietly agree civilisation is on a downward path. Often in the past people would claim the world in general was actually improving because global living standards were improving. But of course the basis for this improvement was unsustainable, since 2008 global economic growth has began to stall- with living standards in the west declining despite a global economy deliberately manipulated in it's favour and because of the effect of the Coronovirus pandemic and the response to it, living standards in the poorest countries have fallen and have not recovered. Today many of the poorest are the worst affected by climate change as the world becomes increasingly unstable and violent, democracy is in decline and authoritarianism is on the rise. Wars of disinformation are being fought by politicians and the media shamelessly in public and by governments and faceless individuals behind the scenes. The art of manipulating the public, to promote an agenda or to make a profit has seldom been more advanced. More and more and more of the world's wealth and power is ending up in the hands of an exclusive group of amoral megalomaniacs. The world is becoming less free, less equal, less fair, less safe and less beautiful, it is becoming more selfish, wasteful and neglected, it is losing self respect and self control. People are doing plenty of things to solve the world's problems... Some of them are effective, but never quite effective enough... Then there are enough people who do things that don't make much difference either way. But many, possibly the majority who try to save the world only make life worse, in fact so many of their solutions are the cause of so many of our problems. If you think about it much of what goes wrong is down to a litany of ostistensibly well meaning and partially correct -isms, capitalism, communism, socialism, liberalism, neoliberalism, nationalism, internationalism, islamism, imperialism, botulism you name it. A problem may be the inequality of ideas, some people think far too little about the important things and others think far too much of their own thoughts. Our hearts, our souls, our intuitions and our instincts perceive many things that our pure intellect misses, animals and very young children can perceive many things despite having very little intellect, often better than a grown human. There is also no doubt that all apetites are necessary but can become unhealthy, it strikes me that the apetite for intellect is no different. Most of the intelligensia of the past centuries I believe to be suffering from a sort of intelectual overindulgence, where all their ideas, education and supposed brilliance blind them to the message of their hearts, souls, intuitions, instincts, humanity and common sense in general. For these reasons, as it appears something very much ought to be said it also appears that what must be said, must be said in a way that is altogether less neat and formal than what others usually attempt perhaps in a similar vein to James Joyce. Another of the problems if not the key problem with the current state of affairs is the fragmentation of knowledge into different isolated spheres, to quote Kenneth Williams; "Everyone's becoming BETTER and BETTER at LESS and LESS. Eventually someone's going to be SUPERB, at nothing." As every sphere of knowledge overlaps with or underpins every other this attitude is fundementally foolish. Everything is intimately connected to everything else. What affects one thing will affect another, which will affect another and so on for eternity. An illustration of this is the butterfly effect; it was calculated by Edward Lorenz that the tiny alteration to the pattern of air currents caused by the flapping of a butterfly's wings will in time magnify to such an extent as to change the course of a tornado a few weeks later. So the slightest movement that you make, will in a matter of months permanently alter the weather patterns of the entire globe and the lives of everyone and the entire course of history. The moment you sneeze will be the difference between life and death for billions, empires that could have been are swept away with the movement of your fingers. The planet, the universe, is all one interconnected system. Consquently an overarching narrative or ideology that does not take into account everything from the moving of the stars to a single electron will not be able to fully explain the world and the actions of people in it. Certainly ideologies and narratives can allow for uncertainty in their view of the world, but when looked at from an objective angle the uncertainty piles higher and higher, what do we really know? Our knowledge is merely assumptions which are piled upon more assumptions and so on, how well can we really explain to ourselves what it's all for? We must acknowledge the wholeness of the universe and the oneness of things. We must accept we cannot fully grasp the nature of this one-ness and attempt to be very very humble, but within the sphere of influence allotted to us while being open to correction, we can create love beauty and goodness, partnering with this One-ness or tao or logos or anima mundi or the will of God, or whatever you call it, in it's mission of creation instead of working against it by cutting ourselves off from the world or from others, this is a message that has echoed down the ages. This song, sung by Gracie Fields expresses well the attitude which we should all take when trying to improve the world: The Thing-ummyy-bob I can't pretend to be a great celebrity But still, I'm quite important in me way, The job I have to do may not sound much to you But all the same, I'm very proud to say... I'm the girl that makes the thing that drills the hole that holds the ring that drives the rod that turns the knob that works the thing-ummy-bob I'm the girl that makes the thing that holds the oil that oils the ring that takes the shank that moves the crank that works the thing-ummy-bob. It's a ticklish sort of job making a thing for a thing-ummy-bob Especially when you don't know what it's for! But it's the girl that makes the thing that drills the hole that holds the ring that makes the thing-ummy-bob that makes the engines roar! And it's the girl that makes the thing that holds the oil that oils the ring that makes the thing-ummy-bob that's going to win the war. I'm not what you would call a heroine, at all I don't suppose you'd even know me name. But though I'll never boast, of my important post I'll strike a blow for freedom just the same. etc... So to write intelligently about anything (not that, that is a sensible thing to try) it should not be done from a position of lofty superiorty, neither should the writing attempt to convey the impression of omniscience except within very narrow parameters of the authors own creation; the tendency to be overly judgemental or moralistic in writing does not often do it many favours, neither should a work seek to stand on it's own or be ashamed of the vast corpus of mischelaneous things which it draws upon, no matter what those happen to be. Also there is a lot to be said for KEEPING THINGS SIMPLE.