A friend posted this classic sketch up on Facebook as his response to the media-frenzy surrounding the royal birth.
I was watching it and thinking to myself, “actually, we really did speak like that back in the day.” By which I mean the late 70s and early 80s. And when I say, “we” I mean those of us engaging with politics, usually with a left-wing slant. Back when “socialism” was a word people could use seriously. And when I say seriously, I grant you, even then Middle England took us for idiots. Anne's first job in London in 1983 was at St Katharine's Dock. It was not a noted hot-bed of Marxist collectivism. Indeed, her co-workers used to call me Trotsky.
Thing is, when did you last hear anyone called a Trot? Or a socialist? Or a lefty, pinko, tree-hugging weirdo? When did we stop having any engagement at all with left-wing politics? With political thought, full-stop? For me it seemed to happen somewhere between the end of the miner's strike and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Maybe, with the benefit of hindsight, there was a sense that capitalism had won. Or maybe it just happened to me. After all, that time-span coincided with when I got married, bought a house and started working for the Man.
Either way, all things considered, it seems a shame...
I was watching it and thinking to myself, “actually, we really did speak like that back in the day.” By which I mean the late 70s and early 80s. And when I say, “we” I mean those of us engaging with politics, usually with a left-wing slant. Back when “socialism” was a word people could use seriously. And when I say seriously, I grant you, even then Middle England took us for idiots. Anne's first job in London in 1983 was at St Katharine's Dock. It was not a noted hot-bed of Marxist collectivism. Indeed, her co-workers used to call me Trotsky.
Thing is, when did you last hear anyone called a Trot? Or a socialist? Or a lefty, pinko, tree-hugging weirdo? When did we stop having any engagement at all with left-wing politics? With political thought, full-stop? For me it seemed to happen somewhere between the end of the miner's strike and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Maybe, with the benefit of hindsight, there was a sense that capitalism had won. Or maybe it just happened to me. After all, that time-span coincided with when I got married, bought a house and started working for the Man.
Either way, all things considered, it seems a shame...
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