Here we are again!

Hello peoples.

So a slack time at work during the spell between Christmas and New Year has gifted me some time to do some email housekeeping and I found you! I had almost totally forgotten about the masterpiece of regurgitation that is my 'Clouds in my Brain' blog.

It's been a while since my last rambling post which I note was also on a New Years Eve so there really should be some wise words of wisdom that I could say about taking stock of time passed on the last day of the year. If I had any.

I re read my previous grumblings about people and stuff in general and my personal outlook, and although several years have passed in between now and my last post, I can say that my views don't appear to have really changed very much, about people or stuff.

I find that as I get older my political standing leans further and further left which seems to defy the general populace whose self interest and possible wants and needs to take care of number one and your nearest and dearest often seems to lead to leanings to the right. I'm alright Jack and must stay that way regardless of the toll taken on any kind of community we still have left in the world, and of course our failing environment.

"Western" society and the world in general seem to be taking a nasty slip toward fascism, or conservatism (if you prefer) and our own dear government seem intent on forcing society to follow an ecclesiastic path - and additionally pushing the boundaries of what is good, decent or suitable for anything other than a small minority of super rich (or super religeous - or both!) on a daily basis.

The world seems to be run from behind the scenes by the Murdochracy and puppetry of what we identify as 'our' society - that is to say people that we identify with as being similar to ourselves such as those in the US, UK, Australia where Murdoch has a large portion of the populace entranced by his various 'entertainment' and 'news' outlets.

Our country is on fire at the time of writing, both metaphorically and in reality. Bush fires burn, our PM has hypocritically buggered off on holiday saying he deserves time out - incidentally after criticising a woman during the Victorian fires a few years back for taking a couple of hours out of her schedule to go for a meal. Disappearing for a few days, against taking a couple of hours out - not the same thing at all I realise. I am sick of the disdain with which we are treated by our government who should be in place to govern for the common good - the do as I say not as I do double standard attitude garners no respect from me. He seems to be doing the political equivalent of standing with his fingers in his ears singing "la-la-la" whenever climate change is mentioned, or any attempts are made to address making provision for the future and the possibilities of what a warming planet may look like and what we can put in place to mitigate against possible disaster.

My own personal feeling is that we have probably stumbling along far too long in the wrong direction to do anything meaningful that will save us and our planet from extreme changes to our lives and lifestyles. We have overpopulated the planet due to our successes in domination of all species and need to consider that if we don't arrest this headlong plunge we must accept that disappearance of species due to depletion of habitat, or even certain crops being no longer viable in certain areas due to changes in the 'Goldilocks' zone where things can be cultured.

Look at South Australia and the Goyder line - this was an area defined back in the 1860s by George Goyder as being the line between where on average areas above the line were considered drought affected, and those below were considered suitable for farming. Of course in these temperate zones, the climate for humans is also good, so we have conflict between housing the population in an area that is pleasant to live, and somewhere that is good to grow crops and graze livestock. Now 160 years later it's largely considered that the line has taken a shift Southwards reducing productive land - imagine this on a global scale, and our increasing world population that needs to be fed has a decreasing area that can be farmed - or lived on.

I don't have an answer. I think most people don't really want to even consider the issue and want to go on living a good life and doing their little bit by recycling, getting solar panels and in the future possibly buying an electric vehicle. But I think this is really where we fall down. Although people may want to do the right thing, the question about where it's all going and what can we do to try and address future provision is all too hard. So I think the best thing our leaders (who need to lead) could do is try and break down the questions onto smaller parts that can be addressed on a personal and daily basis.

Puts me in mind of a saying: (apologies for the theft of the image but it was the best one I could find)

I guess what I'm saying is that however we are affected by future changes to climate, whether you accept they are accelerated by mankind, or a natural phenomenon, we must all agree soon on a course of action. There is too much evidence to ignore that 'something' is happening, and unless 'something' is done to counteract where we are going, 'someone' is going to end up paying. And by someone I mean everyone. And by paying I don't mean with money. Depressing when you stop to think about it really isn't it?

To sign off I'm nicking someone elses words again too - and I'll paraphrase this from Monty Pythons the meaning of life - one of my favourite and most quotable movies of all time:

Well I know it's not much of a philosophy but.... well.... Fuck you!...
I can live my own life in my own way if I want to... Fuck off... Don’t come following me!