Wednesday 29 June 2016

the caterpillar resistance ...

One of the most profound metaphors of change is the story of the caterpillar and the butterfly.
The caterpillar, wandering around, ground bound,  munching whatever greenery can be found ... dodging airborne predators, oblivious of the transcendent future it has in store ... if it avoids the birds and chemically armed humans ... resting in chrysalis state appears as death ... the caterpillar matter mutates into butterflyness ... ostensibly a completely different creature, one that flies, fertilises the next generation of caterpillars and flowers ... and fascinates us (apart from the chemically armed humans determined to eliminate them) ...

The problem for the caterpillar in this story is that it is stuck in caterpillar consciousness (as far as we know!) so in our imagination prefers to hang on to that lifestyle, not knowing the glorious, if brief, future waiting beyond the chrysalis ... 

Which brings us to the rather tender subject of British politics, European politics ... and since the world is so clearly interconnected politically and economically, world politics .... 

Not so long ago, indeed in the short lifetime of this blog, the big story was the Greek resistance to EU tyranny ... the financial terrorism waged on countries pushed into penury by structural failures of capitalism ... the consequences borne by the poorest citizens of all the countries .... in Greece they voted to resist, but democracy has its limits ... so that was ignored .... interestingly a similar scenario is emerging in UK, where previously progressive politicos propose the same fate for the vote to leave the EU. One of the anarchist slogans at election time is: If voting changed anything, they would ban it (along with the more amusing:Don't vote, it only encourages them) .... as it turns out we can have our cake and eat it too ... every vote counts, as long as it produces the result they want ....

The question here is: who are They? ... a tricky one since the Pro and Anti EU camps both contain ostensibly Establishment players as well as revolutionary and progressive ones ... untangling it all may require time and patience ... as well as allowing that all is rarely as it first appears ... and maybe the plan was, is to distract us from the stench of old systems decaying while the chief players desperately search for ways out of the mess ... maybe glimpsing the butterfly future that lies beyond the current caterpillar resistance will inspire us to find our wings, to transcend the acrimony, to look beyond the Us and Them, to join the Butterfly Brigades already at work in the marginal lands, returning to basics with better technology, showing the Haters, filled with Fear, that Love is our birthright and the underlying Truth of the universe... or is that universes?


2 comments:

  1. Hi Steve
    Feels more like caterpillar than butterfly in UK politics at the moment.
    A realignment of the left has to come out of this. Maybe Corbyn will see off the leadership challenge. The Greens have publicly asked other Plaid Cymru, Labour and Lib Dems to form a progressive left alliance. I wish SNP would join this though two friends in Scotland cannot see that. Discussion in Scotland that Spain would veto their application to join the EU in order to determine the Catalans from trying to do the same.
    I'llbe going back to Mallorca on Sunday and that will feel both strange and a relief to be out of the UK at the moment.
    Will be able to find better beaches than he one you described recently!
    First blog I have ever responded to so hope I get the technology right. ...
    Cheers. Malcolm

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    1. Thanks Malcolm - yes, it worked! Can't help thinking that the Corbyn,Left Alliance and all that is just another sub-plot ... on a political level the EU project itself is flawed ... Varoufakis may be a better bet ... anyway, anything that separates us is not the Truth ... as for beaches, Marbs is pretty gruesome, Bolonia, on the Atlantic coast, amazing ...

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