2 entirely unrelated things have happened in my life that have pushed me towards a series of thoughts about the way I conceive my relationship to the past and the future, and the contradictions, instabilities and complexities of my position. On the surface, these two acts have nothing to do with each other, and one is political, the other personal. Yet they are entirely intertwined. The first is the announcement on 6 December by the bastard Gordon Brown, my personal number one hate figure and regular feature in my pub rants (he has only made one other blog appearance, a miracle)that the government will be placing a "green tax" on flying. This will come into effect on 1 Feb, and shockingly in my opinion, will be charged retroactively i.e. even if you bought your tickets months ago, you will be charged the extra tax, having to pay it in cash at the airport!!! So how then is this green? The environment doesn't give a toss how much you paid to produce the carbon, the carbon has the same effects. So by charging people this supposedly green tax that is meant to curb the behaviour AFTER the behaviour has already been committed, the hypocrisy of the whole enterprise is laid bare. And I shan't even start on Tony "but of course I must fly to Miami" Blair. Of course, my particular venom has been raised on this point because my job is in a location which means to see my family, my friends, to have any semblance of a cultural life, and to engage in any meaningful way with the world, I am forced to get on a plane. Now my flight has doubled in price overnight thanks to the government. Is the government going to use the extra tax raised to build a high speed train link between England and Ireland? I doubt this very much. Flying isn't much fun for anyone unless they are superwealthy - I spent fifteen hours stuffed into cattle class just last week to get back from KL - so the idea that making people pay an extra forty quid will make a difference is laughable - people already put up with so much, that it must be obvious to all but a fool that the benefits of flying to many people far outweigh the disadvantages - getting to see the world, see their relative and friends, experience otherness. To be honest, I think that is all FAR MORE IMPORTANT than some putative future generation. I don't give a fuck that in a hundred years time, other peoples' grandchildren will live in a radically different and more unstable world climitically - I prefer and value my present more. In fact, I value my present ability to fly cheaply and easily over some hypothetical future disaster that may occur to me. And here we move onto the second event. On 6 December (same day as GB made his announcement!!) I smoked my last cigarette. I can't say I will never have another again (post posh meals and house parties are always v tempting) but I have given up, and am determined not to cave in. I have managed the pub with Marty and brunch with D without succumbing. I hope I can cope in Belfast without the support of my friend nicotine, but I'm going to give it a bloody good go. I wonder what my motivation is for this? For my statement about flying was always the one I used to explain my smoking - it is immensely pleasurable, relaxing act, an ideal quick compensation (everything going wrong? a cigarette is always there to comfort and sustain) which enhances most events. Why do I care about some future horrible disease faced with an enjoyable evening in the pub with my friends, of which smoking is an intrinsic element? I find myself puzzled by my own determination to give up smoking. I wonder where the motivation - strong as it is - has come from. For an optimist, I have always rather dreaded the future, which seems to me shadowy, dark, and full of potential problems, and have lived in, nay revelled in the present, in immediacy, and in engagement with present circumstances and situations, underlined by a nostalgia for the past. Maybe this is why I've never felt the urge to buy a home, and my savings are strictly as a rock against "the scary future." Does giving up smoking suggest I am secretly more invested in the future than I know? Still going to bloody fly as much as possible, though. In fact, maybe I shall use the money saved by not smoking to buy extra air tickets!
15 January 2007
The Past, The Present, The Future
2 entirely unrelated things have happened in my life that have pushed me towards a series of thoughts about the way I conceive my relationship to the past and the future, and the contradictions, instabilities and complexities of my position. On the surface, these two acts have nothing to do with each other, and one is political, the other personal. Yet they are entirely intertwined. The first is the announcement on 6 December by the bastard Gordon Brown, my personal number one hate figure and regular feature in my pub rants (he has only made one other blog appearance, a miracle)that the government will be placing a "green tax" on flying. This will come into effect on 1 Feb, and shockingly in my opinion, will be charged retroactively i.e. even if you bought your tickets months ago, you will be charged the extra tax, having to pay it in cash at the airport!!! So how then is this green? The environment doesn't give a toss how much you paid to produce the carbon, the carbon has the same effects. So by charging people this supposedly green tax that is meant to curb the behaviour AFTER the behaviour has already been committed, the hypocrisy of the whole enterprise is laid bare. And I shan't even start on Tony "but of course I must fly to Miami" Blair. Of course, my particular venom has been raised on this point because my job is in a location which means to see my family, my friends, to have any semblance of a cultural life, and to engage in any meaningful way with the world, I am forced to get on a plane. Now my flight has doubled in price overnight thanks to the government. Is the government going to use the extra tax raised to build a high speed train link between England and Ireland? I doubt this very much. Flying isn't much fun for anyone unless they are superwealthy - I spent fifteen hours stuffed into cattle class just last week to get back from KL - so the idea that making people pay an extra forty quid will make a difference is laughable - people already put up with so much, that it must be obvious to all but a fool that the benefits of flying to many people far outweigh the disadvantages - getting to see the world, see their relative and friends, experience otherness. To be honest, I think that is all FAR MORE IMPORTANT than some putative future generation. I don't give a fuck that in a hundred years time, other peoples' grandchildren will live in a radically different and more unstable world climitically - I prefer and value my present more. In fact, I value my present ability to fly cheaply and easily over some hypothetical future disaster that may occur to me. And here we move onto the second event. On 6 December (same day as GB made his announcement!!) I smoked my last cigarette. I can't say I will never have another again (post posh meals and house parties are always v tempting) but I have given up, and am determined not to cave in. I have managed the pub with Marty and brunch with D without succumbing. I hope I can cope in Belfast without the support of my friend nicotine, but I'm going to give it a bloody good go. I wonder what my motivation is for this? For my statement about flying was always the one I used to explain my smoking - it is immensely pleasurable, relaxing act, an ideal quick compensation (everything going wrong? a cigarette is always there to comfort and sustain) which enhances most events. Why do I care about some future horrible disease faced with an enjoyable evening in the pub with my friends, of which smoking is an intrinsic element? I find myself puzzled by my own determination to give up smoking. I wonder where the motivation - strong as it is - has come from. For an optimist, I have always rather dreaded the future, which seems to me shadowy, dark, and full of potential problems, and have lived in, nay revelled in the present, in immediacy, and in engagement with present circumstances and situations, underlined by a nostalgia for the past. Maybe this is why I've never felt the urge to buy a home, and my savings are strictly as a rock against "the scary future." Does giving up smoking suggest I am secretly more invested in the future than I know? Still going to bloody fly as much as possible, though. In fact, maybe I shall use the money saved by not smoking to buy extra air tickets!
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