DECEMBER 2005
Five years have gone by since I first started writing the View, and even in such a comparatively short period of time, things have deteriorated considerably. Nor does it seem to be much hope of any improvement in the foreseeable future.
We are now living in what is to all purposes an elective dictatorship where any meaningful rights are denied us. While politicians of all parties are mouthing platitudes about democracy, and their wish to export the idea to all countries, people in both the UK and in the former "Land of the Free" are denied it.
While we are being told that life has never been better, that the Government is pouring ever greater sums of (our) money into services, few of us can see any improvements as a result of this. It is now almost as difficult to see a dentist or a doctor as it is to get hold of a plumber or electrician, hospital wards are closing down, class sizes in schools are going up.
The police now do hardly bother to turn up for anything short of murder, (which in any case seems to be on the increase), anything less and you are lucky to get a crime number which will enable you to claim from your insurance company. In many cases the boys in blue now seems to be just another revenue raising arm of the government; each force is now rated on how much they bring in through fines and property confiscation.
Alcohol and drugs consumption is going through the roof, with most towns and cities virtually no-go areas most evenings of the week as drunks spill out from pubs and clubs.
Private property ownership is now to a large extent a thing of the past though we are still allowed to pay mortgages, council tax and insurance all our life, before confiscation becomes a reality in order to pay inheritance tax and care in our old age.
Any meaningful form of education is also becoming just a pipe dream for the greater part of the population, though you will now have to go deep into debt to obtain a job certificate aka a University pass, though that's all it is of any use for; you are not actually being taught much, and certainly not critical thinking.
Traditional farming is now on its last leg; only the factory farms have any future in the new scheme of things; the environment is seen as of little importance despite a lot of blathering about global warming.
Anyway, for anyone who has bothered to read my ranting all these years I hardly need to repeat myself anymore.
If trends continue like they are now, our future five more years down the line will look very bleak indeed.
Politics.
Parliamentary seats will now be mostly inherited, though they will probably still go through the motions of election from time to time. In any case M.P.s will have little or no power to influence a small group of oligarchs who are actually running the country. But they will still have generous salaries and pensions.
The National Health Service.
The N.H.S. while still surviving in name will for all practical purposes have become a thing of the past. Unless you are willing and able to pay, the treatment you will get will be so basic that it will hardly be worth the bother.
Education.
As it is, only 10% of the population is getting any education worth having, and I don't foresee that there will be any improvement as private schools are now being "encouraged to convert to comprehensives".
Well, I could go on and on about the coming police state where we are all just cogs in the wheel, but I suppose there is little point. In any case George Orwell has described the situation much better than I am able to in his novels "Animal Farm" and "1984". We are probably long since past "the tipping point" where the system can no longer be fixed.
But it would be nice to live in a society where rights were balanced by duty, a society where family was important, a society where the vulnerable were helped, but the shiftless were not, a society where crime was punished, and victims were not victimized further, a society where there was no ceiling through which you could not rise, and a floor through which you could not fall, a society where you were free to do what you wanted as long as it harmed no-one, a society where we were part of nature and nature was part of us.
This will be the last View in this format for the time being. While I might return to it at a later date, from next month I will instead try to go into teaching Stav by looking at different aspects of Hafskjold-Stav and my understanding of them.
So here is hoping that you will all be well in the coming year of Skuld.
Note from Webmaster: As the view will be changing the current archive will be unchanged and a new teaching archive will be opened to take the new view from Ivar. Look out for these changes.