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Magazine
The fallout of disaster
BILL KIRKMAN
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It is understandable that at a time when there has been so much gloomy news, many may relish the opportunity of lavish celebration as a shield against grim realities. The trouble is that in the process, it is only too easy to become insensitive.
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The quest for material possessions is no safeguard against unpleasant happenings.
IN my "Cambridge Letter" at
the end of last year I discussed
-- not too seriously -- the British
habit of predicting disaster
from routine or run of the mill
events. I remarked that, as prediction
was an occult science, I would
wait until the end of the current year
to make my predictions for it, so that I
could do so with the benefit of
hindsight.
No one, I imagine, could have predicted
the events of September 11, or
the wide-ranging repercussions that
have come in their wake. It is certainly
difficult at the moment to envisage
what repercussions are still to come,
and difficult to be optimistic about
them. Once again, therefore, I shall
make no attempt at prediction for
2002.
If I had been forced to make a prediction
last year, I would have stated,
with great confidence, that Britain's
materialistic society would become
even more materialistic. I could then
have pointed to many examples
throughout the year confirming the
truth of that forecast. The examples, as
always, reach their zenith at this time
of year.
Anyone who has been in Britain
during the Christmas season will
know that the country virtually closes
down for several days. Trains, for example,
do not run on Christmas Day
or the day following. In preparing for
this closure, however, many people's
reactions are grotesque. Visiting the
local supermarket this afternoon, for
instance, I found myself watching
people laying in supplies as if for a
siege. Food in vast quantities was
piled on the shopping trolleys. Some
staple items had run out. A kind of
competitive panic seems to take hold
of people as they shovel up not merely
food but toiletries and cleaning
materials.
Another example, much more evident
this year than before, is the expensive
decoration of the outside of
houses with Christmas lights. In some
roads, even in my fairly low-key village,
neighbours have been vying with
each other to install bigger and better
displays, the lights twinkling and
changing colour in a way that would
not disgrace Piccadilly Circus.
Complaining about this kind of ostentation,
and this evidence of conspicuous
consumption, of course
makes one sound like Scrooge. And it
is doubtless understandable that at a
time when there has been so much
gloomy news to face, many may relish
the opportunity of lavish celebration
as a kind of shield against grim
realities.
The trouble is that in the process, it
is only too easy to become insensitive
to some realities which ought to impinge
on one's consciousness -- and
one's conscience. My daughter-in-law
gave me an example of this. which she,
and I, find depressing. She is a nurse,
working part-time in two clinics in the
large local teaching and general hospital.
Patients had brought in many boxes
of sweets and biscuits as Christmas
gifts for the staff, and my daughter-in-law
was horrified to be told by one of
the administrative staff that these gifts
were only for the full-timers. As a
manifestation of petty selfishness and
greed such meanness is hard to credit.
It is, obviously, a trivial and essentially
unimportant example, but it reflects something far more serious and
far from trivial.
In what is generally an affluent society
-- far more so than half a century
ago -- there are still many citizens
who are in need, and whose circumstances
are far from affluent. At a time
of year which should be above all a
time of good will, it is disturbing that
many of the well-heeled choose to ignore
them.
Part of the explanation lies in the
fact that the reality of Christmas as a
Christian festival has been increasingly
submerged in the commercial imperatives
of a largely non-religious
society.
Interestingly, since September 11
there has been an increase in the
number of people seeking a spiritual
dimension to their lives, and an increasing
recognition of the significance of religions (I use the plural
advisedly). It is happening, presumably,
partly at least because we have
all become more conscious of our vulnerability.
Material possessions provide
no safeguard against terrorist
attack.
It will be interesting to see if this
spiritual search leads more people to
focus their attention less on materialism.
If it does, and if that is accompanied
by a growth in tolerance and
understanding of others in their spiritual
search, there just may after all be
a case for some cautious optimism in
our predictions for the coming year.
The writer is an Emeritus Fellow of
Wolfson College, Cambridge. E-mail
him at wpk1000@cam.ac.uk
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