Peaceable Land 16 - Wayward steps
Chaise longue bonfires!
By now we’ve all sensed the approach, even the arrival, of a downturn in self-examination. It’s a reflection recession. Bullet journals and chaise longues have crashed. Eras is out, Short and Sweet is in, and a tattooed friend is actually irritated by her boyfriend wanting to ‘communicate’ and ‘have a conversation’! Reflection might resurge, but for now and the next while the water-mark is fixed. It may have been covid lockdowns, it may have been something else, it may have been nothing at all – the new order would have us give up our hopes of knowing.
The Times’ What I Wish I’d Known podcast is reflective. Its hosts consider early trauma rich fuel for later success. Their favourite stat is that of our prime ministers, 45% lost a parent in childhood and 69% had some kind of trauma. And the show actually features prime ministers. I listened to the Blair episode on my lonely drive to Cheltenham after you all collectively rejected the offer to join me.
You do see their point. Blair was a supreme communicator. When he was ten his father lost the ability to speak after stroke. It’s hard to imagine any chosen training could teach you what that would.
Prior to the stroke the father was a barrister and lecturer with his own tv slot, then a party chairman, and was just about to stand for parliament with hopes of becoming prime minister. Blair’s own path was barrister then MP then PM. Often in biographies you discover the outlier figure was only a few short steps from a parent. Lately, for instance, I read that Farage’s dad was the snappiest dresser and best storyteller in the City.
As for reflection itself, Blair said “I’m absolutely hopeless at self-analysis… I just think if you’re not careful you’ll get obsessed with introspection…The West’s endless desire to just go into endless self-absorbed introspection is not very healthy.” Other leaders are similar. Starmer claims to have no favourite book. Johnson grew exasperated with Stephen Bartlett’s ‘deep’ questions on a podcast.
Churchill was angry to be sent into the rain by a general for no reason. His dugout was destroyed by a German shell while he was out. “Now see from this how vain it is to worry about things,” wrote to his wife. “It is all chance or destiny and our wayward footsteps are best planted without too much calculation. One must yield oneself simply and naturally to the mood of the game: and trust in God which is another way of saying the same thing.”
George Eliot describes Hamlet — in The Mill on the Floss, one of the best books ever — as ‘speculative and irresolute’. Maybe leaders think speculation endangers resolution.
Or maybe it’s just us. It’s easy to miss how different we are to older generations, but if we recall the Peaceable Land theory of history:
Guillotine, 1789: The self can be perfected through suffering.
Pill, 1969: You can choose the suffering to endure and so the perfect self to realise.
Facebook, 2009: Your choice, suffering, and perfection are publicly visible.
…we remember the idea of choosing, so needing to think about our pain and perfection is quite new.
Deep apologies for mentioning ‘pop music’ this week – we’ll get canonical as fuck when I’m back. Next weekend is a guest issue from my interesting friend Dan, who always strikes me as having done more in life than time should have allowed. Thanks for reading and very very warm wishes,
GM