In his chilling 1979 story The Long Walk under the pen name Richard Bachman, Stephen king paints a picture of a nightmare right-wing America where an oppressed, militarised society invokes a Hunger Games type event annually for the horrified amusement of a degraded populous.
As I re-visited it last week one section struck me
forcefully.
In describing the main character, Garraty and his
first encounter with The Major (the military leader), we are told that –
“Garraty’s father, before the squads took him away,
had been fond of calling The Major the rarest and most dangerous monster any
nation can produce, a society supported
sociopath.”
While we can all understand why such a monster is
particularly dangerous what is worrying is that rarity can no longer be
claimed.
America’s Trump was one such. Putin (Russia),
Bolsonaro (Brazil). Erdogan (Turkey), Assad (Syria), Orban (Hungary). Then, of
course, while he also juggles the international reputation of buffoon, the UK’s
own Boris Johnson also fits the bill. Plus of course we have Le Pen in France, currently champing at the bit to join this expanding club of chaos makers.
Considering the parlous state of the world,
socially, economically and environmentally, it is important to ask why a dark,
divisive and destabilising phenomenon – the society supported sociopath - that
could justifiably be regarded as rare in 1979 in the so-called civilised world –
is now uncomfortably common.
*
And – in a sort of split blog this week – I will
just veer off for a quick comment about the underlying main issue of our time –
climate catastrophe. As I pen quite a lot about it – and in particular the mad
consumerism that drives much of the damage it is worth pointing out that one of
the biggest monsters is the throw-away clothing industry. Here are some
interesting figures
According to Clothes Aid UK more than 30% of our
unwanted clothing currently goes to landfill. The UK puts 700,000 tonnes of
clothing to recycling centres, textile banks, clothes collections and to
charity each year. That's enough to fill 459 Olympic-size swimming pools. The
Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 5% of landfill space is taken up
with discarded clothing.
And – to prove that I try to put my opinions where my
mouth is – below is a pic of my Mother of
the Bride outfit for my middle daughter’s wedding a couple of weekends ago.
All charity shop sourced. Additionally I got my eldest daughter’s outfit from a
charity shop – also my eldest grandson’s fab trousers and funky braces, my
mum’s super swish wedding hat. Plus my small silver backpack for storing snacks
for the kids and my shawl. Additionally – though not items of clothing – all
the cake storage boxes to get the cake to the venue in one piece, the cake
decorations and the cake stand were from charity shops and a dozen of the eggs that went into the cake were from the 'no waste' box run by a neighbour.
