The most excruciating element of last year’s election result was the battle in my mind against a burgeoning misanthropy created by disappointment with the electorate; with my being such a vehement advocate of society in the first place intensifying the despair.
It was so difficult to reconcile the two ideas. And so very easy to see how the battered become embittered.
The lament I experienced, as I impotently watched the disintegration of any viable opposition and the government’s cynical alteration of council boundaries, was further exacerbated at the realisation that my daughters would spend their entire childhoods under the rule of a Tory government emphatic in its shameless inhumanity.
Thank goodness then, along came hope in the shape of Mr. Jeremy Corbyn.
Yet, as Edward Snowden tweeted last week in concern of the Panama Papers scandal, “hope is not a strategy.” It is a reminder that most people don’t get the opportunity Snowden had in making monumental changes sat at a computer.
The pitchfork of protestation is multi-pronged. But one of the spikes must be more than a spur.
For whilst the signing of online petitions might seem useful (and to some small extent is) the reality is that they achieve more of a sense of having contributed to a cause, rather than actually having done so, and therefore take the sting out of a person’s rage, meaning that they are less likely to take to the streets, where more worthwhile protestation can take place.
Regimes such as the one we are now immersed in rely on the inefficiency of benign protestation. They are rocks of corruption and greed obstructing our progression towards a universally civil, humane society. Rocks that re-stratify at a rate which makes any flak from wish or wash redundant.
Placard-wielding has its place in the groundswell. But our protestations against the extreme political ideologies we are being subjugated to, will only succeed if we make ourselves impossible to ignore. This is the reason why the protest in Iceland was successful. The people convened in numbers. They didn’t march then disperse. They stood united and stoic until their demand had been satisfied.
The downtrodden revolt because a sense of equality is intrinsic to the notion of humanity. Our leaders are in power after gaining the support of less than a quarter of the popular vote. And they are revelling in their avarice.