CoVID-19 Day 23
Following the sinusoidal Easter weekend with its positive and negative highs, intense analysis and introspection, its perhaps not surprising that my morning began dark. “What is the point of all this” was the overriding feeling especially after a conversation wading through a bleak financial landscape. My first response was to put on my shoes and head for the beach but instead I picked up my guitar.
I decided to record a song I enjoy playing then post to the internet and hopefully lift someone’s day. My beach walk would have been better served by turning my brain off and just taking in the time and space. Instead I tried writing a song by repeating nonsense in a beat I wouldn’t normally compose in. I got back feeling as stressed as I left. I’d not wound down but I was ready to apply myself and got down to it.
the neoliberal elite may well have strangled their golden goose
At midday I had a long phone conversation around housing and urban gardening, talking about local economies, regeneration and holistic progress in areas of depravation and low expectation. CoVID-19 could be the game changer, the dividing line between the past acceptance of a failed economic model and the future prospect of demanding a more inclusive and sustainable one. It ended in voicing a desire for programmes that would leave a legacy rather than a huge footprint.
That remained with me in a mood of cautious optimism. A subsequent conversation that I was tempted to postpone further, lifted the mood as it went much better than I’d expected. I’m now weary but its late enough to consider bed without the complication of waking at a ridiculous hour.
I’m still in a precarius position, not knowing how I’ll come out of this crisis. And from what I’m picking up there is likely to be considerable distress in communities across the nation and the globe in the coming months. The little resilience we had in 2008 is now looking more stretched and any prospect of a bounce back has been pretty much scuppered by the dismantling of the forces of moderation over the last few decades.
It could be that while it will, as ever, hit the poorest and weakest most this could fatally wound the neoliberal agenda of Reagan and Thatcher that has effectively reduced us to a feudal system and just as an aggressive parasite will kill its host, the neoliberal elite may well have strangled their golden goose. Meanwhile the government continues to betray the nation while her Majesty’s opposition implodes.
Tomorrow is Wednesday and its only the first day of our working week. What happened to the last four days.