The New Year's Eve Post
Right. So it's the last day of 2011, we're going into 2012 and...well...it really doesn't feel like the end of the year. All the same, it is, and I've decided to do a blog post attempting to sum up 2011.
I guess when people call it the year of revolution, they're right: the year started with the Arab Spring and protests only spread and spread. Now we have Occupy as well, and all this only looks set to continue. We want our voices back, we want change - and yet it's also been a year of repression, with governments in the western world cracking down further, both on the streets and by floating, or trying to pass, measures that roll back or completely trample over civil liberties. If anything, both these trends are set to continue in 2012, and while I want to believe that we'll one day end up with a better society, I honestly have my doubts.
The persistent theme, particularly as the year draws to an end, is that we're running out of time to make things better and that we need to act quickly. More to the point, we need more people to act quickly as well! Though quite a lot of people are now aware, most still rationalise their decision not to do anything in various different ways. Listen to me very carefully, I shall say this only once...we cannot continue this way. Do something now, because it may be difficult or impossible later. The more you put things off, the worse the prospects look.
In slightly sillier news, we've survived two Raptures, both of which failed to show up, and a third one is predicted for today...guess what, it's not going to show up either.
Finally, I think I shall blather on a little about my personal life. For me, this has been a year of change and growth - not just growing up, but hopefully becoming a better and deeper person. I wasn't a good person before; I try to be a better one now. I won't go into details, but suffice to say I suffered for a couple of years; I stopped denying I was suffering, because for various reasons it got quite obvious that I was; I almost killed myself and I'm only alive today because I have wonderful friends and acquaintances who decided that stopping me from dying was a good idea. No, I don't know why. Yes, I can figure out snarky, cynical rationalisations. No, I'm not going to post them. So where was I...? Well, I quite quickly figured out that I needed something to live for, spent a lot of time on Twitter puzzling it out, and now I've got leftism and some of the most intelligent and humane people I've ever known. I also learnt a lot about privilege, tolerance and being open-minded, things that I hadn't known about before in my privileged, closed-minded existence. I learnt the meaning of hard work, how to tell respectable society to fuck off (preferably involving a shovel and a rusty dull pickaxe), and that a blog post a day is achievable. In many respects this year was better for me than it was for the rest of the world.
Happy New Year's Eve to you and yours. May 2012 be better for us all.
I guess when people call it the year of revolution, they're right: the year started with the Arab Spring and protests only spread and spread. Now we have Occupy as well, and all this only looks set to continue. We want our voices back, we want change - and yet it's also been a year of repression, with governments in the western world cracking down further, both on the streets and by floating, or trying to pass, measures that roll back or completely trample over civil liberties. If anything, both these trends are set to continue in 2012, and while I want to believe that we'll one day end up with a better society, I honestly have my doubts.
The persistent theme, particularly as the year draws to an end, is that we're running out of time to make things better and that we need to act quickly. More to the point, we need more people to act quickly as well! Though quite a lot of people are now aware, most still rationalise their decision not to do anything in various different ways. Listen to me very carefully, I shall say this only once...we cannot continue this way. Do something now, because it may be difficult or impossible later. The more you put things off, the worse the prospects look.
In slightly sillier news, we've survived two Raptures, both of which failed to show up, and a third one is predicted for today...guess what, it's not going to show up either.
Finally, I think I shall blather on a little about my personal life. For me, this has been a year of change and growth - not just growing up, but hopefully becoming a better and deeper person. I wasn't a good person before; I try to be a better one now. I won't go into details, but suffice to say I suffered for a couple of years; I stopped denying I was suffering, because for various reasons it got quite obvious that I was; I almost killed myself and I'm only alive today because I have wonderful friends and acquaintances who decided that stopping me from dying was a good idea. No, I don't know why. Yes, I can figure out snarky, cynical rationalisations. No, I'm not going to post them. So where was I...? Well, I quite quickly figured out that I needed something to live for, spent a lot of time on Twitter puzzling it out, and now I've got leftism and some of the most intelligent and humane people I've ever known. I also learnt a lot about privilege, tolerance and being open-minded, things that I hadn't known about before in my privileged, closed-minded existence. I learnt the meaning of hard work, how to tell respectable society to fuck off (preferably involving a shovel and a rusty dull pickaxe), and that a blog post a day is achievable. In many respects this year was better for me than it was for the rest of the world.
Happy New Year's Eve to you and yours. May 2012 be better for us all.
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