{Income and Expectations}[22nd April 1971]

[Redbook1:203][19710422]{Income and Expectations}[22nd April 1971]

22. April 1971.

            Odd, how expectations always rise faster than income.

[PostedBlogger30062013]

{Racial Identity}[12th April 1971]

[Redbook1:202-203][19710412]{Racial Identity}[12th April 1971

12th April 1971 [continued]

            An interesting remark on television tonight: racial awareness is a form of search for identity.  It is perhaps like a series of boxes, each within the last, until the final self-knowledge is reached.  Now all we need to do is to remove some of those boxes from the process in men's minds.

[PostedBlogger29062013]

{Ridicule}[10th April 1971]

[Redbook1:202][19710412]{Ridicule}[10th April 1971]

12th April 1971

            One weapon we have not considered using against violence in Ulster: ridicule.  They are children, after all; why not tell them so?  And tell each other so that they may hear?

[but see p125]

  

[PostedBlogger28062013]

{Anarchy and Stability}[10th April 1971]

[Redbook1:202][19710410]{Anarchy and Stability}[10th April 1971]

10th April 1971

            The borderline between stability and anarchy is very fine, and close to us; which side we stay of it depends not so much on the Law as on people's awareness of their whole danger.

            Therefore I do not object to killing in films; but I object to casual killing, very strongly.  That is why I disliked ‘Where Eagles Dare’, which I have just seen, so much: not because it was a weak plot (which it was) with shallow meaning (which is understandable) and too black-and-white; but because people flashed onto the screen, died, and disappeared.  There was fear, but no pain; there was death, but no bereavement.  And there was laughter in the audience at a neat way of killing.

[PostedBlogger26for27062013]

{Reason and Emotion}[31st March 1971]

[Redbook1:200-201][19710331b]{Reason and Emotion}[31st March 1971]

31.03.71. [continued]

            You have to look at the other side and say: if I had been born there, would I do as they do?  And would I do as I do?  If the answer to that last question is no, then your beliefs are based on emotion and not reason, and you should look very carefully at them.

            Not that emotion is wrong -- far from it.  Pure reason is unusual and rather frightening.  Emotion is the product of instinct, largely, and instinct is a good servant: modify its conclusions with reason and you may arrive at something resembling common sense.  You are unlikely to arrive at it any other way, unless you are one of the few lucky ones whose instinct is common sense.

            Oh yes, there is a quality which helps, a kind of catalyst to reason and emotion, and that is imagination.

            Emotion alone is indescribable: perhaps it is a kind of madness.  Emotion as master controlling the voices of reason and not modified by them, can be subtle and dangerous.  Pure reason is claimed by many who do not and will not ever wield it: it is deceptive, claiming utter truth, and hates men.  It is cold.

            Let emotion show you the road and reason guide you up on it; but do not carelessly allow reason to change your road, nor emotion your speed upon it.  Is this a valid parallel?  I distrust it!  Perhaps for emotion I should say instinct direct; but there something is lost.

[PostedBlogger26062013]

{Reaction}[31st March 1971]

[Redbook1:200][19710331a]{Reaction}[31st March 1971]

31.03.71. [continued]

            Revolution should be understood in its other sense, and rebellion is meaningless; there is only reaction.

(L)

[PostedBlogger24for25062013]

{History}[31st March 1971]

[Redbook1:200][19710331]{History}[31st March 1971]

31.03.71.

            Don't you feel history coming up behind you? 

(L)

[PostedBlogger24062013]

{Politics, Ethics and Morals}[8th March 1971]

[Redbook1:200][19710308]{Politics, Ethics and Morals}[8th March 1971]

08.03.71.

            I should like to set down at various times my thoughts on politics/mass life, so that over the next few entries some very inconsistent idea of my own ‘political’ views may appear.

            A key element in my own ‘political’ ‘philosophy’ is the division of morals or ethics into what might be called ‘micro-morals’ and ‘macro-morals’: respectively, man's private and individual behaviour affecting no one but himself, and his (public?)  behaviour affecting other people who have no original wish to be affected.

[PostedBlogger22for23062013]

{Time}[19th February 1971]

[Redbook1:199][19710219]{Time}[19th February 1971]

19.2.71.

            ‘ “You presume to capture time in that absurd little box!” she exclaimed.  “ Don't you know yet that time is reckoned not by duration but by intensity?  One instant of happiness or of pain lasts longer than ten years of indifference.” ’ (From Nina Sol, [by] Felix Marti-Ibanez)

[PostedBlogger22062013]

{Crisis}[17th February 1971]

[Redbook1:199][19710217d]{Crisis}[17th February 1971]

17.2.71. [continued]

            Cambridge is doing something to me.  I don't like Cambridge, and (in general) the people in it, though I like them well enough individually, on the whole, or at least I don't dislike them.  Law is boring and lawyers are imaginative and uncreative.  My own literary urge has risen since I arrived here until I find that it is beginning to tear me away from law.  And yet, what I write is objectively nothing.  I'm not much good at law, either.  Shall I have to make up my mind, soon?  I am changing all the time, even since I arrived.  Can I stay here and risk *shattering myself, or stunting my own creative potential?

*[splitting]

[PostedBlogger21062013]

{Birth of God}[17th February 1971]

[Redbook1:198-199][19710217c][Birth of God][17th February 1971]

17.2.71. [continued]

            Oddly enough, before this happened I was already finding myself, rather to my own surprise, moving round to an acceptance of God as a definitely acceptable possibility rather than what he had been in my mind, an ignored possibility.  I certainly have not got there yet, and may never; but the third book, or rather the second world, helped in an odd way to swing me round.  For there, God is so necessary and so natural that I began to wonder if I was not deceiving myself as to my attitudes to him in this world (or universe or plane or creation).  This is strange indeed; for several years I have argued that I cannot accept the religion of Christianity, only its ethics; now I find myself accepting, or being ready to accept, a modified form of the religion, but not the Christian bit.

            For it is modified.  I still like the idea of God as the universal Mind into which we are absorbed on death, which needs our experiences here to give it strength and structure, and thus wisdom.  For pure mind without experience must be something like pure force:  potentially magnificent, but of no practical value unless channelled in wires etc. and applied to machinery.  Such a mind would not need to be impersonal -- indeed, it could hardly be impersonal, composed as it is entirely of the very essence of personality.

            The great beauty of the theory is that it can embrace practically all religions without losing its own essential identity or compromising them.

[PostedBlogger20062013]

{Death of a Child}[17th February 1971]

[Redbook1:196-197][19710217b]{Death of a Child}[17th February 1971]

17.2.71. [continued]

            I don't quite know why the death of this child from [school], [...], has made such an impression on me.  It must be purely symbolic: simply because I never knew him -- he probably arrived long after I left -- his death seems to have become in some way a temporary focus for my ... my what?  A kind of discontent verging on controlled despair, a profound unhappiness at the misery of the world, combined with my own uncertainties.  And then the fact that he was from [my school] enables me to connect....

            I suppose one can divide one's feelings in the presence of death into three, or perhaps four, categories.  First, there is personal loss, closely connected with what I feel most of all in this case: the loss of [i.e. for] the family concerned.  I could hardly bear to read the obituary notice, and yet I did read it again.  The only son, he was.  One imagines the grief of others and cannot help but feel it to some extent oneself -- oddly, since, as I say, there is for me not the slightest trace of personal loss.  And yet I have felt this deeply.  Why?

            Then there is one's own grief and horror at the thought of what the last few seconds of life were like for the child -- for any child, for anyone; but particularly for a child.  Was the edge vertical, all five hundred feet of it, or did it slope?  Did he die before, when or after he reached the bottom?  And how long -- the crucial point -- and to what degree was he aware between sitting on the ice and his eventual death?

            Lastly, the waste of past and loss of future is bound to distress one, especially in the case of a child's death, and especially at this age: when, nearing the end of unthinking, receptive, reactive existence one is poised upon an age of increasing awareness and contribution.  For all I know this child may have been a little b******, or he may have been the great man of a tomorrow that now will never come, or he may have been both; more likely, he was neither, but just an ordinary small boy, with all that implies; and therein lies the tragedy.

[PostedBlogger19062013]

{Tolerance and Concern}[17th February 1971]

[Redbook1:196][19710217a]{Tolerance and Concern}[17th February 1971]

17.2.71. [continued]

            Tolerance and concern should be the twin pivots of our society; add to that a universal knowledge of human ways and we may reach something a little better than what we have now.

[PostedBlogger18062013]

{Political Differences}[17th February 1971]

[Redbook1:196][19710217][Political Differences][17th February 1971]

17.2.71.

            As ‘society becomes more complex’ so room for flexibility of decision may decrease and methods of decision-making should have to become more reliable: so the differences between political parties may (as they appear to be doing now, though only in the short term) disappear.

[PostedBlogger17062013]

{Political Television}[16th February 1971]

[Redbook1:196][19710216]{Political Television}[16th February 1971]

16.2.71.

            The possibilities of using television in Ulster to subtly alter the viewpoint of most of the unsettled elements in the population.

[PostedBlogger16062013]

[The Song of the Quiet Majority][11th February 1971]

 [Redbook1:196B][19710211][The Song of the Quiet Majority][11th February 1971]

11.2.71.

(‘Trelawney’)

(Slowly, ponderously)

                                    We are the quiet majority,

                                    We are the never-wrong;

                                    Above the beat of marching feet

                                    Just listen to our song!

                                                ... to our song.

                                    Have you a small minority

                                    That wants to get things done?

                                    Invoke our name -- it's all the same --

                                    It’s used by everyone.

                                                ... everyone.

                                    Shout out with great sonority

                                    And sing and stamp and groan,

                                    But don't blame us -- we don't like fuss –

                                    Just leave us well alone.

                                                ... well alone.

                                    Respect our seniority;

                                    Don't try to make us play

                                    Your silly game – 'cause you’re to blame –

                                    Will take the normal way.

                                                ... normal way.

                                    But if you're in Authority

                                    And want a good excuse,

                                    It’s always here -- our social fear –

                                    So nice, so vague: so loose.

                                                ... vague: so loose.

                                    We think Superiority

                                    Is wrong, and nice, and rot....

                                    We don't care how you say it now,

                                    Just look at what we've got!

                                                ... What we've got.

                                    We have our own priority:

                                    We’ve also got to live;

                                    You always say it’s wrong our way –

                                    What more have you to give?

                                                ... you to give.

                                    We are the quiet majority,

                                    We are the never-wrong;

                                    Above the beat of marching feet

                                    Just listen to our song!

                                                ... to our song.

[PostedBlogger15062013]

[Emptiness][6th February 1971]

[Redbook1:196A][19710206][Emptiness][6th February 1971]

(D.III.7.2.71)

6.2.71

Emptiness

                                                My gentle friends.

                                    I know what you have suffered at my side;

                                    But now I bear a grief which will abide

                                    When all is cold.

                                                I cannot see all ends;

                                    And yet I say to you, though not yet old,

                                                We are all dead.

                                    I sat there, dying also: night and day,

                                    I felt belovèd awareness drift away;

                                    Hand held mine tight,

                                                Cold fingers shook with dread

                                    Of bleak and utter emptiness of Night –

                                                A soundless cry:

                                    Then all my love flowed through our hands caress --

                                    Awareness fled.  Now only emptiness

                                    Remains in mind.

                                                Grieve not for those who die;

                                    Grieve rather now for those they leave behind.

[PostedBlogger14062013]

{Advice and Compulsion}[2nd February 1971]

[Redbook1:195][19710202.1315]{Advice and Compulsion}[2nd February 1971]

2.2.71.

1315

            Saying that everyone ought to do something is quite different from saying that everyone ought to be made to do something.  This is a simple and obvious fact, often forgotten.

[PostedBlogger13062013]

{Political Action and Reaction}[29th January 1971]

[Redbook1:195][19710129]{Political Action and Reaction}[29th January 1971]

29.1.71.

            Domestic politics is a science of action and reaction.  It is very important to bear this in mind and to shape one's actions with their reactions in mind.

            Part of the key to the problem of South Africa lies in this relationship of action and reaction; but it may be important to remember that what is true of the British people may not be of, for example, the Chinese, on a psychological and sociological basis.

[PostedBlogger12062013]

{European Futures}[20th January 1971]

[Redbook1:194-195][19710120]{European Futures}[20th January 1971]

20.1.71.

            Political integration: First the four must leave the ten and join the Six to make a new, closer Ten of 250 million people....  Over the next few decades we shall assimilate those remaining of the old ten, E[uropean] F[ree] T[rade] A[ssociation], who do not join with us, and any others who wish to join and are acceptable to us; the rest in this area known as Western Europe we shall negotiate part-membership with, but I doubt if there will be many....

            And then for the rest: Eastern Europe needs a subtle approach.  Assuming that Russia's rate of progress does not change too drastically, we shall gradually hive them off from Russia's sphere and into our own -- not by political manoeuvrings, or at least not until all else is accomplished, but by trade and communication: our technology and trade will draw away their economy, and our television, radio and films, their people.  To their governments, equal membership in a huge democracy may be more interesting and attractive than minority membership a large dictatorship.

[PostedBlogger11062013]

{The Cow}[19th January 1971]

[Redbook1:194][19710119]{The Cow}[19th January 1971]

19.1.71. [continued]

            Like the philosopher's cow* -- when no one is watching, I cease to exist**.

*[sic]

**[Amended from “be” 29.1.71.]

[PostedBlogger10062013]

{The Law}[17th January 1971]

[Redbook1:193-194][19710117a]{The Law}[17th January 1971]

17.1.71. [continued]

            The law is like fire: it can warm you or burn you, keep you alive or kill you.  On the one hand it must be fed, kept alive, or we shall perish; on the other it must be kept under control, prevented from spreading too far, or we shall perish.

            I remember when I was at prep school thinking that if my contemporaries did to me as adults what they did to me as schoolmates I could have them taken to court and in all probability imprisoned as well is sued for damages; and yet in this allegedly gentle, innocent world of childhood there was nothing I could do, no authority to whom I could appeal (not by the laws of childhood) to prevent these things which would not have been tolerated for one instant by any adult with a clear conscience, had they happened to him.  We were protected from the police and from the standards of the outside world, which we needed above all others: for who was there to protect us from each other?

[PostedBlogger09062013]

{Professional bodies}[17th January 1971]

[Redbook1:193][19710117]{Professional bodies}[17th January 1971]

17.1.71.

            I suppose that in line with the upgrading of job-names which results in such apparent absurdities as dust-men being known as refuse disposal operatives, we had better start referring to prostitutes as professional bodies.

[PostedBlogger08062013]

{‘... And a fool as well’}[16th January 1971]

[Redbook1:193][19710116]{‘... And a fool as well’}[16th January 1971]

16.1.71. [continued]

            I must record this passage from Evelyn E. Smith’s short S.F. story, “BAXBR|DAXBR”, as published in BestSF 4.

            The setting is mundane, present-day London.

            “ ‘If you'll excuse me for asking, what language is it in?’

            ‘... You'd call it Martian.’

            ‘Oh,’ George said.  ‘And I suppose your correspondent would be a Martian, too?’

            ‘Yes, and a fool as well.’ ”

[PostedBlogger07062013]

{The Legal Arsenal}[16th January 1971]

[Redbook1:192][19710116]{The Legal Arsenal}[16th January 1971]

16.1.71.

            The Law may be an ass, but so are most of its clients.

            I suppose that with the coming of the Sexual Offences Act 1967, it might be said that truly the Law is an arse.

[PostedBlogger06062013]

{Relative Freedom}[14th January 1971]

[Redbook1:192][19710114]{Relative Freedom}[14th January 1971]

14.1.71.

            There is -- of course -- no such thing as freedom; there are simply degrees of captivity.  If civilisation is co-operation, co-operation restricts freedom; and, again, we are all prisoners of our own selves, our own experience, and we are none of us free.

            Therefore, when we talk of freedom, we talk of an acceptable degree of restriction.

----

            ‘A free society is as much offended by the dictates of an intellectual oligarchy as by those of an autocrat.’

(Devlin, ‘Law, Democracy and Morality’

(1962), 110 U.Pa.Law Rev. 635 at 642

reprinted in ‘The Enforcement of Morals’ (1965), p86.

[PostedBlogger05062013]

{Vietnam}[13th January 1971]

[Redbook1:191-192][19710113b]{Vietnam}[13th January 1971]

13.1.71. [continued]

            In case I haven't put it on record before, I am shocked by the revelations of American atrocities in Vietnam.  I am ashamed to say that I used to think they were all made up by lefties.

[PostedBlogger04062013]

{Political elites}[13th January 1971]

[Redbook1:191][19710113a]{Political elites}[13th January 1971]

13.1.71. [continued]

            Interesting remark at the C[ambridge] S[tudents] U[nion] meeting, against the principle of an elite who claim to speak for the masses.  And what exactly were we doing, if not exactly that?

[PostedBlogger03062013]

{World Citizenship}[13th January 1971]

[Redbook1:191][19710113]{World Citizenship}[13th January 1971]

13.1.71.

            I've just been to the Rudi Dutschke* meeting at the C[ambridge] S[tudents] U[nion].

            An awful lot of balls was talked, of course, but I have come out changed: before I was uncertain, though I knew which way the public opinion lay.  Now I am certain that Dutschke ought not to have gone, though I think he may well have been ‘dangerous’.  It's just that, believing as I do that a man should not be discriminated against on the grounds of his political nationality any more than on the grounds of his race, I think Dutschke should have been treated in the same way as an ordinary citizen.

            Above all, he should have been presumed innocent until found guilty, not deported (the equivalent of imprisonment of an English citizen?) in order to stop him doing something he hadn't yet done.

            This principle of world citizenship is something that the average politician -- and the average citizen -- will find very hard to accept.

*[Rudi Dutschke (March 7, 1940 – December 24, 1979) was the most prominent spokesperson of the German student movement of the 1960s....  On April 11, 1968, Dutschke was shot in the head by a young anti-communist, Josef Bachmann. Dutschke survived the assassination attempt, and he and his family went to the United Kingdom in the hope that he could recuperate there.  He was accepted at Cambridge University to finish his degree in 1969, but in 1971 the Conservative government under Edward Heath expelled him and his family as an "undesirable alien" who had engaged in "subversive activity", causing a political storm in London. (Wikepaedia, Rudi Dutschke’ at 12/05/2013)]

[PostedBlogger02062013]