One Decade Down...

At the turn of the millennium there was much optimism around. A 21st Century beckoned free from the dead hand of the cold war or the likely prospect of military super-power conflict. Economic prosperity for many, and a growing awareness of the injustice that was denying it to more, and the extraordinary advance and capability of technology, promised, if not a bright new world, then, at least, some cause for hope.


At the end of the first decade things seem decidedly less bright. I’m usually very reluctant to join in the, always to be found, chorus of how terrible the world is, and how we’re all going to hell in a hand-cart, I was however struck by these two reflections. The first, a reworking of a familiar model from Mark Greene, the second a quote from Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks …

Blessed are the brazen for they will be applauded.
Blessed are the beautiful of body for they will be adored.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for fame for theirs is the kingdom of Cowell.
Blessed are the selfish and the individualists for their ends will justify their means. Blessed are those who don't strictly believe in anything for they can dance to any tune.
Blessed are the drug-dealers, dream-weavers, make-over mavens and jingle-writers who help us forget our fractured hearts and our clipped wings and the echoing chasms of our souls.

“The richer Britain became the more cynical it grew. It put its faith in a financial house of cards. It looked at house prices and thought itself rich. It created the religion of shopping, whose original sin was not having this years model or must-have, and whose salvation lay in spending money you didn’t have, to buy things you didn’t need, for the sake of a happiness that doesn’t last. Rarely was a faith more seductive…”