As the crow flies it's less than ten miles from our home in Chingford to St. Paul's. My route to the Cathedral yesterday was rather more circuitous. With an hour in hand I visited the Clockmakers' Museum at the Guildhall before talking to protestors. By my reckoning this is one of the most interesting small museums in London. The story of London-made marine chronometers and longitude offers a fascinating if chilling perspective on the rise of British Imperialism. Trade, war, empire and ... horology.
The time on the steps of St. Paul's steps was a little more ambiguous. For a place of worship with hourly prayer and daily services protestors seemed arrive from another world. I found the camp far more interested in conversation and the latest media reports than the time, unless the bells were tolling for end of capitalism. In a recent ICM poll 52% of respondents agreed with the statement, "The protesters are right to want to call time on a system that puts profit before people".
Granted that the protestors are a rainbow coalition, there is considerable astuteness in discerning the signs of the times for the current system. The establishment have vested interests in perpetuating a myth that where Socialism is concerned we have been there and done that. Truthfully, what we have overwhelmingly been and done since the Industrial Revolution is Capitalist. This is the same system which fuels obscene inequality and an ecological Armageddon in pursuit of limitless economic growth.
It was growing dark just as the bell chimed five. As I walked through the City of London to the tube station the office workers were clockwatching. It is late in the day for Capitalism in Paternoster Square and Athens.
6 comments:
Do you ever look at the RSA website - or more particularly their animated mini-lectures on youtube. For a group of humanist 21st century enlightenment-ists they have some interesting views and theories = particularly on the need for global empathy. Thought you might find them interesting.
This is the Capitalism in crisis one, I think.
http://youtu.be/qOP2V_np2c0
Thanks, I'll chase up that link. I've just been listening to a very interesting interview with Bill Gates, supporting a version of the Robin Hood Tax that the Archbishop of Canterbury was talking about earlier. What's intriguing at the moment is the way that the political and economic agenda is sliding away from traditional centres of power. To see many of the moral arguments played out on the streets, whether in London, New York or Athens is something different. Earlier I heard that Westminster City Council had backed down on banning soup runs from Victoria. It's encouraging to see that not all the news is heading the wrong way.
you just never know....
So true. Sleep well. I'm turning in now. It's an early start tomorrow. Some more early work on the book tomorrow and preparing a 'Vision Day' for Sunday. Peace
Shalom
Great stuff, good reminder of how important the Anabaptist tradition is for advocating justice, ecology and equality.
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