Towpath reflections
A travel update from the East Midlands with a few gratuitous thoughts on culture and thinking and the human condition.
When I flew into East Midlands Airport from Malta nine weeks ago I wasn’t sure how long I was going to stay in the UK. If things went well and easily (and I didn’t think they would) the plan was to stay six months. As things are turning out, the six-month plan will probably hold. I’m staying in Nottingham.
England has changed considerably since I was last here but there is still a lot I find congenial. It feels safe and it’s a relief not to have to deal with language and communication problems. A minor point: to my ear, the local accent is one of the more pleasant and (depending on the speaker) musical British regional accents.
As I expected, social stresses and strains are evident but people are generally friendly and I haven’t witnessed any violence on the streets.
The economic situation is pretty dire, both locally and nationally. Nottingham City Council declared itself bankrupt not so long ago, one of six local authorities to have done so in recent years. These sorts of budget and funding problems are widespread and it’s generally acknowledged that they will not be solved any time soon. But I won’t dwell on such matters here.
There is a nice walk along the canal to Beeston and I’m trying to take in as much of the natural world as I can while I organize my thoughts and plans and try to rid myself of unnecessary anxiety and stress.
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A number of topics continue to interest me, some political or geopolitical, some psychological, some what you might call “philosophical”, though this word and its cognates (like “philosophy”) are currently being used in a number of very different and confusing ways. I prefer to use the term “philosophy” only with a qualifying adjective or in phrases such as “philosophy of [some discipline]”; and to use the term “philosophize” simply to refer to the activity of addressing meta-questions about something.
As I see it, philosophizing has to be constrained and based on expert knowledge if it is going to get anywhere. Broad “meaning of life” type questions are impossible to answer except perhaps in religious terms and, while I feel the need to ask large and fundamental questions, I have not been able to embrace any religion or religious philosophy to help me answer them. I don't believe that figures from the past or older cultures had privileged access to special truths or insights.
We find ourselves thrown willy-nilly into a world which we do not (at a fundamental level) understand. To make matters worse we happen to be living in a difficult transitional period which is characterized by (amongst other things) a breakdown in social and cultural norms.
One thing I am clear about is that culture and thinking are inextricably linked and that a rich culture (however we might define it) is necessary to provide the tools required for rational thought and for the deployment of the intuitions and feelings which give depth and colour to our experiences and which are a prerequisite for psychological stability and maturity.
The metaphor of the moral compass comes to mind here. The capacity to deal with moral questions is not the be-all and end-all of human development but it is an important mark of maturity and psychological health. And, if I am not mistaken, there has been a falling-away in this regard especially amongst bureaucrats, professionals and others in positions of power and influence.