Carol Reid’s ‘The Third Man’ (1949) is an undisputed masterpiece of British cinema; I particularly recall Orson Welles’ swaggering justification for his wickedness: “In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed – but produced Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace – and what did they produce? – the cuckoo clock”. I wonder how true this is – the association between human achievement and levels of turbulence.
My own life suffered from too much self-generated stress; particularly when I was young, there was a headlong, impulsive streak which chose the dramatic option – the need to impress. But life teaches that people, like buildings, have load-bearing beams which can break; a couple of narrow escapes – cracked beams – helped tone down my delusions of grandeur. Surviving into my eighties remains a surprise, which I adjust to every day; I’m still sufficiently ‘curious’ that I want to keep the engine ticking over, with the help of some ‘optimal’ stress.
I started posting ‘Larry’s Lunchette’ a year ago (3rd July 2020) and have been reviewing my appetite for another year of scribbles. I can understand why most folk my age choose to keep their heads down – but the readership remains constant – the task brings structure to my week and some satisfaction. So, for a while longer, tending the garden and a column will distract me from the decrepitude of old age; and I’m looking for a cuckoo clock.
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Extreme economic inequality can degrade democracy into a society run by the rich; some would argue that it is well underway. According to a Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report, the world gained 5.2m new millionaires during 2020 as the rich cashed in on shares and house prices. Thomas Piketty has already explained all this – that when the rate of capital returns exceeds the rate of economic growth – wealth inequality inevitably rises. The only remedy, he argues, is a progressive global tax on wealth, which seems unlikely as ever. History tells us that societies that divide between an elite and the masses, risk their very survival.
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Although it is now 10 years old, the report of the Christie Commission is still regarded as the gold standard of how to do public services. This is an excellent article in Holyrood Magazine, quoting both Jim McCormick and James Mitchell – which blames lack of progress on Scotland’s centralised, paternalistic governance; its reluctance to devolve power.
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My favourite TV newscast, my most trusted, is Channel 4’s News at 7pm; the Channel is a state controlled, asset-locked social enterprise. Whose commissioning model has worked well in the public interest. Present talk of selling it to the private sector, sounds like Westminster’s fear of independent journalism. Dorothy Byrne in the Guardian.
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Dates for the return of ‘normal’ can only be tentative; the ongoing tension between public health and the economy will continue until everyone (globally) can get vaccinated. Rumour has it that our new Health Secretary is more disposed to assist economic recovery, and this open letter to him in The Conversation urges caution.
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In this 75-second video (see second snippet), economist Yanis Varoufakis says that an independent Scotland would be immediately welcomed back into the European Union.
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I can remember in 2007, Richard Holloway returned from Venezuela to create ‘Sistema Scotland’ at the Raploch in Stirling; it’s a social transformation programme based on high quality music education for children. Great news, this week, that the Big Noise will open its fifth Scottish programme next spring in Edinburgh’s Wester Hailes.
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In the 20 years I have been selecting quotations, one of my favourites is from Vaclav Havel (1936-2011) Czech politician, poet, philosopher.
“Either we have hope within us or we don’t; it is a dimension of the soul, and it’s not dependent on some observation of the world. Hope is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced and is
anchored somewhere beyond its horizons. Hope in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out. It is Hope, above all, which gives the strength to live and continually try new things.”
