I've been sucked back into looking at the political stories of the day. It's doing my head in, I'm sick of it, yet still - I must WANT to punish myself. I've even toyed with the idea of joining a political party, something that I have always assiduously avoided. I'll know next week if that's something that I want to do - or not.

I believe that we are reaching the end of "Representative Democracy" in the form that it has taken over the past x hundred/s years. It appears to me to be self-evident that the incremental steps that lead to a huge shift in the shape of the world are about to reach a tipping point. That's big - isn't it? Yes and no. You see, I believe that there's more to this than our little problems here on the west coast of Europe. There are a few straws that I see floating in the wind, all pointing to one outcome, but I don't have the expertise or background to even verbalise these properly. Nevertheless, here are a few of those straws.

1. Something in my gut tells me that there's a symmetry to all things. The pendulum always swings - sometimes it's a backlash, sometimes imperceptively slowly. The trend has been towards globalisation, and I think that trend must now reverse. There will be many reasons; uncertainty and lack of confidence causing a fall-off in markets world wide, Peak Oil (probably), and many more that I don't understand.

So what is the reverse of Globalisation? I suppose that it must be Localisation. It was interesting reading David McWilliams blog tonight.
http://www.davidmcwilliams.ie/2010/09/27/recovery-is-going-to-be-local
Wierd to see your thoughts reflected in the writings of a well-known economist!

2. I think that IT and communications technology is going to cause as big a revolution as the printing press did in its time. News is now instant and interactive. We don't have the filter of journalists, broadcasters, etc. any more. DBT (Dan Boyle's Tweet) would be a good example. Mainstream media is now running to catch the coat-tails of 'new media'. The instant nature of new media is important, but it's that interactivity that's really key. Anybody with a computer can join in. Not just consuming the story, but telling it too.

There's more, but I'm tired. I think the answer is Participative Democracy - but I'm too tired to even try to explain. Leadership is required - leaders who are big enough to risk everything - failure especially.

Trust and Politics

This grieving for the boom is messing with my head still. I didn't get sucked in to the excess, so maybe I'm grieving that I didn't even get to enjoy the party while it lasted, and now I'm getting a hangover by proxy.

I know - we all know - that we're being lied to, conditioned, prepared. The parties are on an election footing, and the gloves are off. But somehow, it feels like an inter-necine war... There's an element of collegiality still about the members of the political classes that is stomach-churning.

A few months ago, when I was still more angry than sad about what was happening, I felt like manning the barricades. If someone - anyone - had stood up and said they were as mad as hell and they weren't going to take it anymore, I'd have stood shoulder to shoulder with them. Knowing me, I'd probably be wearing a hoodie that'd cover my face for all intents and purposes.

Yes, I'm still a victim of respectability. Staunchly middle-class parents, with aspirations to be upper-middle-class, ensured that I still can't imagine myself voting Sinn Féin for instance. A sad reflection...

The anger has turned to fear and loathing. I don't recognise myself anymore. I spend endless hours at night, reading the commentaries of experts. I still don't know any more than I did then. There's a kind of paralysis that I know I'm not alone in feeling. I want to be active, to actively contribute to the destruction of the political classes we have spawned. I worry that that same creeping paralysis is becoming more and more apparent.

News stories are less and less shocking. But not because of content, but because of conditioing.

It's bad.
It's really bad
It's REALLY really bad.
This could kill us
It's attacking
We're dead - RIP Ireland

And there are those who see themselves asmembers of the Party! Dead maybe, but STILL members of the Party. Martyrs to a grubby cause. This country is becoming radicalised in a whole new obscene way...

Please someone clean and minty - save my sanity.