let it snow

LIving on an Island has many advantages but there are real disadvantages too. Today we are covered in snow and the place has come to a grinding halt. There are no buses, the roads are impassable, schools are shut and most businesses will cease to function until the roads are cleared. As I write it is still snowing and I just remembered that I have no boots or wellies. We have no milk and so a trip out is essential.

Days like today are a stark reminder of the fragility of the system under which we live. One tiny push and the house of cards could easily come crashing down. We are fortunate because we live in a society, which though mightily flawed, still hangs together because the glue of tolerance is still in place, that and the adherance to the law. Anarchists would love to see all of that break down, and like most fundamentalists, they think with their testicles rather than their brains. If the house falls, then what would replace it?

Some people think that a brave new world would grow swiftly from it, and maybe it would but what a primitive world it would be. The average person would be completely helpless without a supermarket. We have become incapable of doing things for ourselves, we buy everything ready made and cannot even repair things any more let alone make things from new. Should the worst happen, there would be a terrible dog eat dog society in which the strongest might survive, but once supplies of basics ran out, even the survivors would find it hard to maintain anything but a primitive way of life with lower standards of living than our ancestors enjoyed in the dark ages.

A huge proportion of the world population live is such conditions already and even more are thinking that way. Perhaps those with the medieval mentality will be best able to perpetuate the species.