{Clear Sight}[27th July 1970]

[Redbook1:170][19700727:0000]{Clear Sight}[27th July 1970]

27th July 1970

            To see with a clear eye is the least that a man can hope for.  Perhaps it is also the most that he has to fear. 

[PostedBlogger31032013]

{Co-education}[24th July 1970]

[Redbook1:170][19700724:0000]{Co-education}[24th July 1970]

24th July 1970

            Apparently King's Cambridge is already full of girls unofficially.  'Unofficial', though everyone knows about them: when one recently gave an interview on television, the Provost (?) is reported to have sent her a note to say that he would be grateful if in future she would confine her comments to the local press.

[PostedBlogger30032013]

{Lawbreaking and Lawmaking}[23rd July 1970]

[Redbook1:169][19700723:0000]{Lawbreaking and Lawmaking}[23rd July 1970]

23rd July [continued]

            One member of government to another: 'You don't seem to realise that if this case goes against us we shall have to get the Law changed.'  (Fictional)

[PostedBlogger29032013]

{Madness in the home [continued]}[23rd July 1970]

[Redbook1:169][19700723:0000]{Madness in the home [continued]}[23rd July 1970]

23rd July

            It's funny how a chance meeting can change one's whole attitude.  B (the elder [sister]) G has practically saved my life.

[PostedBlogger28032013]

{Madness in the home [continued]}[22nd July 1970]

[Redbook1:169][19700722:12.30]{Madness in the home [continued]}[22nd July 1970]

12.30. 22nd July.

            I cannot live within this household, nor can I live without it, outside it, knowing what continues within.

[PostedBlogger27032013]

{Madness in the home}[21st-22nd July 1970]

[Redbook1:168-169][19700721:2400]{Madness in the home}[21st-22nd July 1970]

Tuesday 21st-22nd July 1970.

12 midnight

            I must get this down.

            My father is going mad, or is mad already.  How do I know?  I don't, but the effects are the same, and they are what matter: sudden bursts of motiveless anger over minor points, reducing members of the family to tears or to mutinous silence; or longer periods of irritability which leave us tense and taut, wondering which way to jump.  The effect is plain on M and S; B is growing up behind for his age -- not in work especially -- though he is -- but in living: he bursts into tears, etc..  L also cries much more now.  There must be a connection.

            As for me, I am tied to this house.  Even if I could leave the others with a clear conscience, I am financially dependent for the next five years at least.  Thanks largely to his eccentric and antisocial behaviour I have virtually no friends of my age who could compensate for the impending collapse of my family, nor am I easily capable of 'making' them.  The few contacts I have kept from school seem to drift further and further away, and I hesitate to disturb them again.  By the same token I have no 'sex-life'.  All my efforts seem doomed to failure.  Even my writing, an inadequate sublimation, seems juvenile and shallow and accomplishes nothing.

            I begin to realise, just for example, how much I missed by his refusal to meet people in Sussex -- where I spend most of my holidays -- so much so that, at a critical stage I unconsciously followed his example -- how else can I explain it?  -- and could not cope with new faces, refusing to meet them.  In London all his old friends had younger families, of little use to me.

            I feel that I am wasting away, wasted in a vacuum.  I cannot live without communication, therefore I wither.

[PostedBlogger26032013]

{Train of Thought}[7th July 1970]

[Redbook1:167][19700707:1645a]{Train of Thought}[7th July 1970]

Tuesday the 7th July 1970

4.45.pm. [continued]

            To record a thought process: (reading) Henry II on law -- (thinks) Henry II -- a great step in civilisation: better laws -- essentially a tidy mind? ~ essential -- do not despise tidy minded men -- business men are necessary -- business men are also men first, business afterwards, not v.v. as some seem to think -- the trouble with so many left-wingers, revolutionaries and idealists is that they see the world in simple terms -- although they may themselves be very subtle or devious in their immediate dealings -- I may well be rather simple in living and thinking immediately, but I do, I hope, recognise the terrible complexity of the world which makes nothing certain.

[PostedBlogger25032013]

{Price and Wage Control}[7th July 1970]

[Redbook1:167][19700707:1645]{Price and Wage Control}[7th July 1970]

Tuesday the 7th July 1970

4.45.pm.

            I think governments and people will eventually have to get used to maximum price control by the government and wage control by an impartial arbitration council who will take into account whether a wage increase can be afforded even if it is deserved.  If both unions and managers (including shopkeepers) knew that their needs were being examined by an impartial board who also had to take account of the overall economic situation they might not object so much to controls.

[PostedBlogger24032013]

{Birth Control}[3rd July 1970]

[Redbook1:166][19700703:1005]{Birth Control}[3rd July 1970]

3rd July 1970

10.05 a.m.

            Talking of Birth Control makes me feel funny when I consider that what I am talking about will be in a few years’ time children of flesh and blood, laughter and tears, bounce and quietness, hates and love -- or won't be.

[PostedBlogger23032013]

{The Bugle and the Star}[28th June 1970]

[Redbook1:166][19700628:1310]{The Bugle and the Star}[28th June 1970]

28th June 1970.

1.10 pm

            I remember, from a chance pattern on a bugle, a time several summers ago: The [School] Tattoo, ending in darkness with Crimond* and the Last Post; and as the band grew quieter and the first notes of the Bugle rang out, I saw amidst the blazing, whispering firmament of stars one star that sank into the South, moving with such silent, assured power between the stars that I shall never forget that time: a satellite spinning soundlessly through the heavens and the Last Post, to vanish behind the trees.

*[The Lord’s my Shepherd]

[PostedBlogger22032013]

{The Personal Touch [continued]}[25th June 1970]

[Redbook1:165-166][19700625:2210a]{The Personal Touch [continued]}[25th June 1970]

Thursday 25th June 1970.

10.10. p.m. [continued]

            It is the children I care about most.  Why should they suffer this?  Why, above all, did the parents keep them until the last minute, instead of sending them to friends the day before?  I hate to think what that day has done to those children -- needlessly, for if the responsibility for the eviction was the G[reater] L[ondon] C[ouncil]’s or its officers’, the responsibility for keeping the children in it rests entirely with their parents.  I hesitate to accuse them of using the children as political capital, but they treated them like that at the end -- the woman shouting in particular.  There is no surer way to confuse and ruin a child than to hold him up as an example.

[PostedBlogger21032013]

{The Personal Touch}[25th June 1970]

[Redbook1:164-166][19700625:2210]{The Personal Touch}[25th June 1970]

Thursday 25th June 1970.

10.10. p.m.

            I suppose what is wanted is the personal touch in local government -- in housing and welfare, to avoid if possible these terrible evictions of people who don't want to leave by people who don't want to do it -- on orders from above.  Perhaps it is the system -- but that is of man's making.  Lack of communication is the age-old problem, growing as civilisation grows.

            It* showed you what depths the human being can sink to and not despair, how resilient they are in their misery; how cheerful children can seem in adversity they know, but how a sudden change, an enforced move, can shatter the fragile glass shell of their own world and leave them helpless, naked and in despair: that unending hopelessness, the fear of an infinite world, childhood.

            Having said that, what shall we do?  What can we do?  We are all so busy keeping one jump ahead of ourselves that there is no time for more than a passing tear: and next, the adverts, and then the News (which everyone knows isn’t true, just like the wrestling), and the Cinema program ....  We shall forget, all of us, until the next time.

            The impersonality of it cannot be dealt with by an impersonal system.  The neighbours came round and helped -- but why then, why not before?  Why did they ever let it get to this stage?  They were too busy to look until the danger was actually upon them.

            Who’d be a policeman.

*[A TV programme? <880805>]

[PostedBlogger20032013]

{Man}[24th June 1970]

[Redbook1:164][19700624:2330a]{Man}[24th June 1970]

Wednesday 24th June 1970.

11.30pm [continued]

            Consider the man.

[PostedBlogger19032013]

{Popular Culture}[24th June 1970]

[Redbook1:164][19700624:2330]{Popular Culture}[24th June 1970]

Wednesday 24th June 1970.

11.30pm

A great many people, or the sort who take it upon themselves to judge what they call culture, make the mistake of assuming that something which is simple, or popular -- especially with the wrong kind of people -- cannot have merit.

One of the most frightening pieces of music I have ever heard, one which continues to frighten me every time I hear it -- though I always want to listen to it again -- is Holst’s ‘Saturn’ – the Bringer of old age – from The Planets: both popular and relatively simple, but it terrifies me.  So does the Mystic, in a completely different way.

[PostedBlogger18032013]

{The Awful Symmetry}[23rd June 1970]

[Redbook1:163][19700623:1645]{The Awful Symmetry}[23rd June 1970]

4.45 pm

            The awful symmetry of life.

[PostedBlogger17032013]

{Europe}[23rd June 1970]

[Redbook1:163][19700623:1130]{Europe}[23rd June 1970]

Tuesday 23rd of June 1970

11.30am

            I often think that if only European colonialism and European unity had overlapped a little more the world picture today might have been very different indeed.

[PostedBlogger16032013]

{History and Politics}[22nd June 1970]

[Redbook1:162-163][19700622:2330]{History and Politics}[22nd June 1970]

11.30pm

            The major problems of politics involved causes which one knows to exist and results of those causes in the future which one desires to discover.  Some minor problems involve results which one wants, and causes which one must find for them and make effective.

            History has many results but few certain causes, save that the results of the cause before are the causes of some results to come.

            It is for this reason that history is helpful, not in text-book politics -- if there is such a thing -- but to the individual politician who is answerable, on the whole, for the results of his actions rather than the reasons for his decisions.  He is less likely to say  ‘because in history, this, so now, that’ than to let the knowledge of history affect his whole decision-making process which in turn affects his final decision -- on an irrational and instinctive rather than the rational and logical level beloved of critics, historians and some scientists.  But, of course, there are politicians and politicians.

[PostedBlogger15032013]

{Space and World Unity}[22nd June 1970]

[Redbook1:162][19700622:0000]{Space and World Unity}[22nd June 1970]

Monday 22nd June

            It is possible that the cost of Space will make more efforts in it of necessity World-wide, and that this might in its turn act as a catalyst for World political unity.

[PostedBlogger14032013]

{Voters}[17th June 1970]

[Redbook1:162][19700617:1910]{Voters}[17th June 1970]

7.10pm

            I wonder, are so many voters really swayed by the kind of weather, and whether Britain is still in the running for the World Cup, into voting for or against the Government?  Obviously such things stop people voting or stop them listening, but do they actually actively make up people's minds for them?  Are people really that naive, or that temperamental?

            I wonder.

[PostedBlogger13032013]

{Ideals and Motives [continued]}[17th June 1970]

[Redbook1:161][19700617:1800b]{Ideals and Motives [continued]}[17th June 1970]

Wednesday 17th June

6pm [continued]

            That having been said, it should of course be stated that the reason makes little difference to the final effect: some attitudes and actions, however prompted, help only their holder or instigator, some help others as well as him, some help others but not him, and some help others to his own detriment.  This is what we mean when we talk about selfish motives, co-operation, ideals, and lack of realism.

            So ideal would appear to be a purely hypothetical thing in the sense that it simply does not exist at all without some sort of motive, while to become popular it has to be connected with more obviously selfish motives.  'Do as you would be done by' and 'Be done by as you did' are two sides of the same coin, perhaps even one and the same thing: motive based on experience.  Hence charity, hence co-operation ... hence civilisation? -- that and the hope of future gain, are they at the root of civilisation?

7.10pm

[PostedBlogger12032013]

{Ideals and Motives [continued]}[17th June 1970]

[Redbook1:160-161][19700617:1800a]{Ideals and Motives [continued]}[17th June 1970]

Wednesday 17th June

6pm [continued]

            Of course genuine human compassion has its place -- though one might class that as a motive, being instinctive or inbred, rather than an ideal.  It is possible to argue, equally, that all human feelings are based on instinct; this may be true to a certain extent, but at one end of the scale the connection becomes so weak as to be irrelevant.  This is the trouble; charity for one's own children is a strong instinct and in our sense a motive; at the other end of the scale charity for native criminals in a Far-Eastern Communist prison, by people in Britain, is practically non-existent. 

Can it exist as pure ideal?  A Briton arrives at this prison -- which is unlikely anyway -- and is moved to compassion at the site of the native criminals being appallingly treated (this is a hypothetical example -- only Communist to emphasise how difficult it is to see).  Why is he so moved?  I think there must be two alternative primary reasons: either he has been brought up to feel moved at the sight of suffering -- a form of instinct, hence motive -- or he can imagine himself in the same position -- definitely motive: imagination plays a large part in generosity and charity. 

The conclusion is fairly obvious; but we should carry it one stage further.  Having seen this and having been moved by it the visitor attempts to move his fellow countryman: he advertises in the mass-media of Britain.  He wants to a rouse in them the same sensations he felt when he was actually there.  He tries to arouse their compassion and horror which will come for the same reasons to them as they did to him.  Hence photos, etc.

            Perhaps there are no ideals, merely motives prompting attitudes naturally and motives being used to induce and bolster attitudes artificially.

[PostedBlogger11032013]

{Ideals and Motives}[17th June 1970]

[Redbook1:159-161][19700617:1800]{Ideals and Motives}[17th June 1970]

Wednesday 17th June

6pm

                If we divide the reasons for human action into motives -- basically selfish or instinctive -- and ideals -- basically charitable and not prompted by instinct:

            One of the reasons for the failure of most political movements based wholly on ideals and making no conscious or unconscious allowance for motives is that the vast majority of humans are prompted almost wholly by motives in their ‘natural’ state (of civilisation or savagery): at the best, ideals have to be taught and are easily forgotten; at the worst, people simply will not or cannot identify with the high ideals.

            To make an ideal catch on, one must usually connect it with a motive.

            Communism was pure motive pretending to be ideal: now the old motives ring hollow but have been replaced by artificially imposed motives of security.  Patriotism is ideal kept alive by motive, by a sort of transfer-process: it can be, and basically is very selfish.  Capitalism is pure motive and pretends to be nothing else; at its best, it leaves room for, co-exists with, or even (best of all) encourages ideal.

            To ‘sell’ aid to the Third World, its protagonists (or some of them, rather) often forecast the horrific conflict that will result from the Gap.  That, of course, is a superb example of pure motive being used to support ideal, and some would say it is a great hypocrisy.  It is also tactically unsound: worry people too much, and they will not want to continue to give that world the power to destroy; they will prefer to close ranks in ‘Fortress Civilisation’ and leave the Third World to its own devices -- which is exactly what the protagonists of such aid do not want.

[PostedBlogger10032013]

{Pressures and Attitudes}[16th June 1970]

[Redbook1:158][19700616:0000]{Pressures and Attitudes}[16th June 1970]

Tuesday 16th June

            The great conflict in dealing with men and their qualities and failings lies between one's knowledge that, in one sense, every man's actions are due to the pressures acting on him but that, on the other hand, one's own attitude may be part of the pressures; or in other words, one may sympathise with him but be compelled to show him no sympathy – merely contempt -- for his own good and that of the greater world.  And for one's own.

[contrary to p140??]

[& see p159]

[PostedBlogger09032013]

{Winning in Politics}[10th June 1970]

[Redbook1:158][19700610:2300]{Winning in Politics}[10th June 1970]

Wednesday 10th June 1970

11 pm

            One of the most disillusioning things of all about politics is the fact that one can't always win.

[PostedBlogger08032013]

{Writing and Reading}[10th June 1970]

[Redbook1:158][19700610:1045]{Writing and Reading}[10th June 1970]

Wednesday 10th June 1970

1045 a.m.

(L)       'Nothing is important but the writing -- the reading is to regain it.'

            (A note dotted down several days ago -- I can't remember exactly what I meant to say.)*

*!

[But see p130]

[PostedBlogger07032013]

{De Gaulle}[9th June 1970]

[Redbook1:157][19700609:1130d]{De Gaulle}[9th June 1970]

Tuesday 9th June 1970

11.30 p m [continued]

(L)       De Gaulle’s stature was such that he was enabled to keep his feet on the ground and his head in the air at the same time.

De Gaulle was the greatest enemy of a United Europe -- and remains so.

[PostedBlogger06032013]

{The Worth of Art}[9th June 1970]

[Redbook1:156-7][19700609:1130c]{The Worth of Art}[9th June 1970]

Tuesday 9th June 1970

11.30 p m [continued]

(L)       A travelling* 'critic' (?), of all people, referred to Kipling as a 'second rate poet'.  I shall neither dispute that nor second it; but I should like very much to know how the conclusion is reached.

            Either there is a scientific and exact measurement for the worth of art -- which there isn't -- or it is subjective.  Anything here containing even elements of subjectivity is subjective.  If the process of evaluation of the creative arts is subjective, then either it involves a democratic decision -- the majority are right -- or some are better qualified to decide what is best for the mass than others.  This is inevitable; but which of the left-wing-intellectuals (so-called) who implicitly support it would allow himself to apply such a condition in so many words to, say, politics, or education -- negating democracy, or equal opportunity -- or, really, to life?  Can one really separate them within the process of living?

*(i.e. a critic of/for travel – 12/4/71).

[PostedBlogger05032013]

{Constitutional Development}[9th June 1970]

[Redbook1:156][19700609:1130b]{Constitutional Development}[9th June 1970]

Tuesday 9th June 1970

11.30 p m [continued]

            Britain's relative stability developed through years of trial and error and needed periods of complete dictatorship.

            The USA’s unstable society grew quickly from nothing, based on the most tenuous links with Britain’s.

            Russia’s sustainable society moulds itself and seeks to eliminate its own potential explosion by primitive dictatorship.  Possibly this will result in a more stable society than that of the USA.

[PostedBlogger04032013]

{Loneliness}[9th June 1970]

[Redbook1:156][19700609:1130a]{Loneliness}[9th June 1970]

Tuesday 9th June 1970

11.30 p m [continued]

            All the lonely people who walk alone the streets of London throughout the hot summer nights, searching desperately, despairingly, for some form of recognition.

[PostedBlogger03032013]

{Politicians}[9th June 1970][Age 19]

[Redbook1:156][19700609:1130]{Politicians}[9th June 1970][Age 19]

Tuesday 9th June 1970

11.30 p m

            One of the tragedies of our civilisations is that we need politicians to get us to co-operate.

            Perhaps the real vision that guides, or ought to guide, a particular statesman

 is that one day politicians will be totally unnecessary.  That day will see the culmination of the deeper work of all statesman and politicians who have ever lived -- even though they do not know it.

[PostedBlogger02032013]

{Russian Expansiveness}[14th May 1970]

[Redbook1:155][19700514:1205]{Russian Expansiveness}[14th May 1970]

12.05 pm Thursday 14th May 1970

            I am beginning to wonder if my view of a few days ago concerning Russian aims in the Middle East is not over-kind to the Russians.  If the Russians won the Middle East the way to Africa would lie open before them and Western Europe would be denied the short route to the Far East by land, sea and air.  That proves nothing itself; but the Russians must know it too.

[PostedBlogger01032013]