...in fact if Putin went nuts day, just small possibility, maybe... their acts my whole adult lifetime ago may at least have saved a bit of the day, so as o be a next day...
Plus pity the ... Eastern European....
BUT above all ONE conversation that defines a very very dull life where nothing happened.
And having decided, time to actually do the 'Pseud' one.... long held in reserve, but not for any reason, now i know - there is no point 'challenging' those we sense just MAY be able to "change" and say something actually grown up and magnanimous....
Nope.... their Facebook, up too late at night, inability to actually walk a lot or be actually in the sun a lot no matter wat they may purrrr...
Actually keep their mind body and soul above all the fray and fear and ... self delusion.... no matter what they ...charm...one with....
The only point, is in a land where one cannot even 'secure' some pledge or just think they MAY 'mean what they say' ...to people known some years: " could i rely upon you to pass on to a lost kid the true facts about dads years of late...? if i trip over the broken bucket, and attempting to kick it away as i topple, so as not to rip my flesh if i fall on its jagged edge, as i fall.... lose pivotal balance and safe landing, and break my neck "
'memoirs' ... left .... just in case....
One conversation - late 2018ish....
With the one person who being that like me he had made his home temporarily in many other societies around the world.... he MAY just get 'it'.... And also that he bragged endlessly about remaining true to our shared youthful simplicity and humility - seeing through all the fancy cant and vanities... and bling, and £750 grand thatched houses... in the commuter belt in his case so maybe £1.5 mil...
" Pete.... just put aside the endless topic you cannot be honest about that even you define yourself by your stuff.... whilst endlessly spinning you need nothing .. would be happy in a mud hut.... as log as your shooting parties still have hookers on tap the real reason you gather to dress up in hunting greens....
"Corbyn will not be able to reverse capitalist conspicuous consumption.... no politician can make a total cultural change just like that... even you have been suckered into needing...
" lets put it this way if you can ONLY ponder philosophically one thing!.... a word picture.... not a 'thought experiment'; i would posit a FACT ....
" if at some time to come our daughters - we do both equally love, were travelling the world, or even based in, say, Portugal.... or it could be Greece, anywhere in Africa, Sarajevo, Singapore....almost anywhere in the Far East for that matter....
" So... scenario: theyre living Portugal... there is some unlikely, but not impossible European trouble and some kind of minor or even medium scale nuclear conflict is threatened or god forbid even took place....
"we are above melodrama us both being men of the sky: don't panic, deal with the real emergency first is in our blood...
" you know a fact: since UK has nuclear weapons - whether 10, 100, or two damp squiddy ones.... Uk will be very top of the Ruski hit list. Portugal with zero...nukes or even effective ballistic capabilities.... will not even be on that last ... list...
" i have never understood, being like me, only 'citizen of the world' and in our careers used to for ourselves with our passes, no borders.... , you wish the BREXIT borders up again... that's one thing... but think of our daughters now, only them: Corby wont be able to do much about the all engulfing tsunami of Thatcherite capitalism, his people say clearly they wish a review of sorts of BREXIT no matter what the ignorant Miss Quoters may write... a second look is not a terrible thing.... but above all he stands for attempting to gradually let slip slide away our nuclear (in)capability.... in the event of nuclear war UK is a dead dog and our small arsenal wont even bother Russia any more than pissing on its ankle... if here our daughters will be zapped. Instantly. No ifs or buts. If they live in one of the majority of countries which do not have anything vaguely nuke, they will at least live through a nuclear winter or two.... "
" yes i ...accept that....but..."
Funny that i am not aware of any, 'but'..., except simple humble-person hating prejudice...
Now.... this is when - this week, one hears the first whisper of "maybe UK may start negotiations to host Yankee....nukes.....once more..."
And i have a keen ear. The fey post modernists may well quite properly poooh poohhh the BBC ... but it was obvious in 2020 it is WHERE the government or other powers that be, dribble out their actually intended policies... "we may need a lockdown in a few weeks...if certain things don't improrve " on the Today Program, clearly signalled that they had already prepared the new law paperwork for rubber stamping. And any child who thinks otherwise is a child.
And thus without any substantive changes in society yank nukes will find their way here in time as sure as ferrits are murdered ferrits...if you pass them on to the hocus pocus brigade...
But in reality, so what ...as UK may go from first equal on Vlad's nearby hit list (quite likely drawing with Poland), to top...
There is a second conversation that also defines my life.
As i was 18 maybe 19....
Though never one for the city centre life - saw through all that in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Belgrade even.... of course one goes in to the middle ish places now and again for the best talkings...
Age 18 ....
Not only is 'abortion' never ever even discussed because in the UK this was dealt with (my little speeches to some Eastern Europeans of late) " can i simplify it for you.... by age 18 even my boorish drunk not too bright yokel ex classmates who had never left my very very dinosaur valley and hills of my youth, knew one thing... as fact, forever... ' a man should not ever in ay way even THINK about a womans womb... ANYthing connected in any way to a woman's womb is so so her business, its not even for a man to HAVE AN OPINION!'..."
But far far far more important the previous argument being so ancient history it's not even an item, every single chat with the art student types ...in boho West London bars and at gigs.... and absolutely every singe other person ever where this topic came up - well that's the point it didn't come up much, simply out of true universal PURE EQUALITY.... RESPECT
" Those women out over at Greenham.... " in fact thats kindof all that was ever said. No jokes. No crap about the 'feminine'. No bullshit about motherly instinct. simply a range of people - humans - like many of us knew well before even the early 80s, that the spread of nuclear weapons beyond the capability to destroy humanity once over was insane so using a bit of sex based PR in the battle as the 'womans camp' was a superb sane great idea - may just et 10% extra kudos..., and that the people who camp out a fair bit of the winter to make a point of protest on behalf of the rest of all of humanity are tough equal people who of course deserve respect and admiration ...in that instance leading the drive but we didnt even make it about the 'women' of Greenham Common it was simply our fellow thoughtful people using that woman thing as a gimmick to quite rightly highlight the expansion of Yankee nukes... and we all knew that the woman thing made not one jot of real diference either way.... simply "our thoughtful, sane. progressive PEOPLE... sacrificing a huge amount of their time to stage peaceful protest and intelligently get a BIT MORE TV COVERAGE... "
And the few that i met in person having a bit of a break from the muddy campsite back in London with their pals... neither made it any martyrdom, or 'woman' thing... simply described themselves as citizens who were doing civic duty and happened to be attempting influence the conversation via it being for media a symbolic camp of women .. (and some blokes who would sneak in for THEIR holidays..)
Thats almost the naffest inadequate few paragraphs ever written, about a phase of our lives that had us in AWE - we were so awed and full of only 100% respect at their dedication to their cause, and that it did seem to be making some headway ... we did not feel it was our ( conversing with either sex) business to comment....
That is what UK was....before the advertorials who claim sexual inequality or whatever else...to get on Womans Hour... No one false flagged 'womanhood' or any 'feminine' ... just people who happened to be female as a useful gimmick, living in muddy camps if thats what it takes...
And though a muter and harder point, the more enlightened of the cities - Paris, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Cochabamba, Zagreb... are always a bit ahead of the provincial dinosaurs when it comes to truly evolving ('forward') ...
Then a second conversation:
9 years ago.
On Eastern Europe..... next
