Last night I wanted to enjoy an evening G&T with my wife. She’d been back for a day already after visiting friends, so we had caught up personally, but she wanted to catch up on the news (flooding in Valencia, the execution of a German-Iranian in Iran, the upcoming US elections) and so she switched on the TV. I watched, for a little while, too. But as soon as they started reporting on stupid Republicans spreading doubt about the legitimacy of the vote and the security of the polling stations, and they showed a clip of their stupid candidate raging about something, I couldn’t take any more. Feeling viscerally disgusted, I left the room and went upstairs to finish reading the final chapter of Hillary Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light.
Those of Henry VIII were dark days, for most people: of an omnipotent yet inconsistent absolute ruler and his councillors, most from ancient ruling families who couldn’t countenance any move towards a less feudal system. Of the jostling between the great powers in Europe (France, the Pope) with no consideration or care for individual lives.
This is my visceral fear for today, of thuggish, childish, nihilistic autocrats returning to the fore: something dark that I - thankfully, but also tellingly - don’t encounter in my daily life and so don’t feel I can counter: I try to tune out that noise from the media, tune out those concentrated slugs of negativity bias, and be nice and courteous to the people I meet.
