How can we save the future for our grandchildren

George Monbiot is a writer who inspires me to take on problems that are way above my pay scale and beyond my street. He writes about the power of oligarchs and corporations. A level of our society who have always believed they had the ability to lead us and that it's their duty to do. However leadership often fails under the egos of those who have the wealth, support and power to lead.

The quote "price of freedom being eternal vigilance" has been attributed to a 19th century British politician, Leonard H. Courtney who probably said something a little different and the quote has been attributed to others since. However I have benefitted from the idea since I don't have the money or fame of billionaires, vigilance is all I have until the day I die.

Monbiot who had the private education of aristocratic sons knows the propaganda we are up against. "Opinion writers ... insist they are oppressed by a woke mafia, by the rise of Black Lives Matter and other cultural shifts. From their national newspaper columns and slots on the Today programme, they thunder that they have been silenced. The president of the United States portrays himself as a martyred hero, the victim of oppressive liberalism. This politics of resentment is taken up by the foot soldiers of the nascent far right on both sides of the Atlantic."

Can I be a foot soldier for humanity? How best can I broadcast my vigilance? By writing letters, reading different sources and checking their credibility.

There might be only three or four readers of this blog but they may interpret as they see fit and go on to form their own opinions, and do their own research.

I also write poetry which has influence in its potential longevity.

Power doesn't have to dominate others into submission. In fact the greatest power that England had on me was the quality of their education system after WWII and council housing.  I grew up believing that Great Britain was a great country although I was ignorant about what we were doing to the nations we "colonized" and by the time I read 1984 I had emotionally aspired to civilization through social justice.

It was the local people and their abilities to teach, to heal and to care that allowed me to be empathic after listening to the lives of Canadians.

Now I am convinced that domination is poison to those who are expected to dominate.  That leadership is not about instilling fear. Being human is not having to be right all the time and being wrong is a way to learning how to be better.

Truth is all around me. In the garden. In the pond. In the minds and hearts of my friends.

It's not the right wing or the left wing movements that are to blame for our problems. It's not the oligarchs or the corporations who are evil.

IT'S THE ABUSE OF POWER! 

We can fix that by doing, writing, saying what we can. War is not the answer. Violence is not the answer. Social justice is never guaranteed forever. It is the vigilance of the common people to inform ourselves, acknowledge our habits, our opinions and our actions.