Off the Beaten Path

Everyone is sick of certain subjects, however admittedly important or topical, and so, out of consideration for alI of us, I am not going to here be writing anything about Brexit. But I never do write anything about Brexit! That’s true too. I admit I never got that excited about the subject. That particular collapse of Western civilisation moment didn’t for some reason particularly capture the zeitgeist of myself. I could have spent several years furiously immersed in the seriousness of it all, stressed out of my mind, digesting everything everyone wise and serious said about it, before suddenly - a traitor to the cause - abandoning the subject and moving onto some other topic, and being even much more furiously immersed in that, however that could be managed. But I didn’t.

You might have thought we would have only so many reserves to dedicate to such issues that make one’s joy in life evaporate, but no, it seems one could spend one’s whole life doing little but being immersed in them. Maybe there is some kind of pay-off in tandem with that evaporation, but it’s not, whatever it is rushing to mind. Maybe it’s a sense of belonging, and the co-habitation within this communal depression, fed by a diet of devoted news watching, gives a sense of purpose to one’s meagre life. Otherwise, not partaking in the cult of fear - that description is disrespectful and unfair but it’s just the words that came out - but anyway, as I was saying, otherwise you might be comparatively happy going about your life comparatively untouched, but on the other hand you’re anonymous, the great moments of history are passing you by, and you could even say you’re insulting everyone with this obliviousness. It’s disrespectful to the great moments, to the great issues that bind us and make us who we are.