“Listen, my children, and you shall hear…….”

 “Listen, my children, and you shall hear…….”. I think that I first read or heard those words when I was about eight or nine years old. We didn’t have much when I was growing up – my Dad a lorry driver and my Mother a cotton weaver in Preston, a north Lancashire industrial town. We lived in a tiny terraced house, no hot water, no bathroom and a lavatory at the end of the back yard but despite frequent shortages of money we managed and I never really wanted for anything. In today’s terms I suppose I might be described as a deprived child but in those long gone days about 70 years ago it didn’t feel like it; my friends on the street were all in the same boat and we knew no different.

One Saturday morning – it must have been summer since I remember it as being hot with a brilliant blue sky - I was taken by my Mother and Auntie on a trip. My Dad would have been at work hence them taking me with them. We caught the bus to a small village, Longridge, just outside Preston and after a short walk arrived at a large rambling house. There were lots of people there and I soon established that a sale was going on – an auction of the house’s contents. My Mother and Auntie bought one or two bits and pieces as I remember and as we walked around the house I spotted a set of books – ten thick volumes all sitting in a polished wood frame. Taking one of the books I remember flicking through it and being entranced. Even to my young eyes I could tell from the pictures that the books were old (I later discovered that they had been printed in 1925). The ten volumes were a complete set of “Arthur Mee’s Children’s Encyclopaedia” and after badgering my Mother and Auntie we came away clutching them. I remember having aching arms by the time we got back home from carrying those weighty tomes.

Arthur Mee’s Encyclopaedias sat in my bedroom for the rest of my childhood and teenage years until I left home to come to College in Nottingham as a 19 year old – and boy were they well used! In many ways they were hopelessly out of date; the Encyclopaedia had been published from 1908 until 1964 (the year I left home) so my set was quite an early edition but that mattered not to me. I would lie in bed at night poring over them, learning of British and world history, geography, famous people, strange places, scientific facts, poetry, reading précis of great books by authors like Dickens and the plots of Shakespeare plays, and trying (and too often failing) to learn basic French from the “lessons” that were dotted about in the volumes.……..In short, those old books opened up my world in an age when we didn’t have a TV or few other opportunities to learn about the world beyond our little street.

And it was in one of those books that I came across “Listen, my children, and you shall hear…….” – the great poem by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow called “Paul Revere’s Ride” telling in wonderful verse the exciting tale of Paul Revere during the American War of Independence in the late eighteenth century. I was smitten, excited, as I read and re-read it. In time I could recite it in full – and even today, in my 80th year, I can still recite sections of it.

For those unfamiliar with the poem it tells of Paul Revere a man, a messenger charged with taking news of any invading British troops arriving in the harbour or across the land to the farms and hamlets of Massachusetts. He rides through the night warning the inhabitants so that they can get their guns out to fight off the invaders and to me, a ten year old, this was the stuff of high adventure:

“Listen, my children, and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five:

Hardly a man is now alive

Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, “If the British march

By land or sea from the town to-night,

Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry-arch

Of the North-Church-tower, as a signal-light,—

One if by land, and two if by sea;

And I on the opposite shore will be,

Ready to ride and spread the alarm

Through every Middlesex village and farm,

For the country-folk to be up and to arm.”

Then he said “Good night!” and with muffled oar

Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,

Just as the moon rose over the bay,

Where swinging wide at her moorings lay

The Somerset, British man-of-war:

A phantom ship, with each mast and spar

Across the moon, like a prison-bar,

And a huge black hulk, that was magnified

By its own reflection in the tide.

Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street

Wanders and watches with eager ears,

Till in the silence around him he hears

The muster of men at the barrack door,

The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,

And the measured tread of the grenadiers

Marching down to their boats on the shore.

Then he climbed to the tower of the church,

Up the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,

To the belfry-chamber overhead,

And startled the pigeons from their perch

On the sombre rafters, that round him made

Masses and moving shapes of shade,—

By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,

To the highest window in the wall,

Where he paused to listen and look down

A moment on the roofs of the town,

And the moonlight flowing over all.

Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,

In their night-encampment on the hill,

Wrapped in silence so deep and still

That he could hear, like a sentinel’s tread,

The watchful night-wind, as it went

Creeping along from tent to tent,

And seeming to whisper, “All is well!”

A moment only he feels the spell

Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread

Of the lonely belfry and the dead;

For suddenly all his thoughts are bent

On a shadowy something far away,

Where the river widens to meet the bay,—

A line of black, that bends and floats

On the rising tide, like a bridge of boats.

Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,

Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride,

On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.

Now he patted his horse’s side,

Now gazed on the landscape far and near,

Then impetuous stamped the earth,

And turned and tightened his saddle-girth;

But mostly he watched with eager search

The belfry-tower of the old North Church,

As it rose above the graves on the hill,

Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.

And lo! as he looks, on the belfry’s height,

A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!

He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,

But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight

A second lamp in the belfry burns!

A hurry of hoofs in a village-street,

A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,

And beneath from the pebbles, in passing, a spark

Struck out by a steed that flies fearless and fleet:

That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,

The fate of a nation was riding that night;

And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,

Kindled the land into flame with its heat.

He has left the village and mounted the steep,

And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,

Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;

And under the alders, that skirt its edge,

Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,

Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.

It was twelve by the village clock

When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.

He heard the crowing of the cock,

And the barking of the farmer’s dog,

And felt the damp of the river-fog,

That rises when the sun goes down.

It was one by the village clock,

When he galloped into Lexington.

He saw the gilded weathercock

Swim in the moonlight as he passed,

And the meeting-house windows, blank and bare,

Gaze at him with a spectral glare,

As if they already stood aghast

At the bloody work they would look upon.

It was two by the village clock,

When he came to the bridge in Concord town.

He heard the bleating of the flock,

And the twitter of birds among the trees,

And felt the breath of the morning breeze

Blowing over the meadows brown.

And one was safe and asleep in his bed

Who at the bridge would be first to fall,

Who that day would be lying dead,

Pierced by a British musket-ball.

You know the rest. In the books you have read,

How the British Regulars fired and fled,—

How the farmers gave them ball for ball,

From behind each fence and farmyard-wall,

Chasing the red-coats down the lane,

Then crossing the fields to emerge again

Under the trees at the turn of the road,

And only pausing to fire and load.

So through the night rode Paul Revere;

And so through the night went his cry of alarm

To every Middlesex village and farm,—

A cry of defiance, and not of fear,

A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,

And a word that shall echo forevermore!

For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,

Through all our history, to the last,

In the hour of darkness and peril and need,

The people will waken and listen to hear

The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,

And the midnight message of Paul Revere.”

A stirring tale, one to make those early Americans and today’s American proud. It really is the stuff of legends. All peoples and nations need stories and legends to help them make sense of the world and give a context to their lives and place in the great scheme of things. At the time Paul Revere made his ride and throughout the War there were militia men who were called “Minute Men” and these part time soldiers were ready to drop everything and at a minute’s notice defend their infant nation against the invading British Redcoats. It was to these Minute Men that Revere was riding that night and I can remember reading twenty or so years later that some of America’s ballistic missiles pointing at Russia were also called “Minute Men” – ready at a minute’s notice to defend modern America. A nice, if thought provoking touch.

But, as I think of and re-read this wonderful poem and the stirring tale that it tells, today in 2025 I can't help feeling a tinge of disappointment. America, a nation that was born out of the need and desire to throw off the yoke of occupying British forces and British rule has, for the whole of my life, seen itself, and told the world, that it is “the land of the free”, the guardian of freedom and democracy. In short, fulfilling the first “American Dream” - freedom from oppression. Indeed, many thousands of Americans have died across the world striving to fulfil that perception and that desire to bring "freedom" to others. In the American War of Independence, and I guess in the minds of the Minute Men, and, I suspect, Paul Revere there was no thought of compromise, of making “a deal” – America and the American colonists wanted freedom from what they saw as British oppression – full stop. So, it was for me a disappointment and, I think, a complete reversal of what America has always stood for, believed in and been about, when its current President treated another President and nation so poorly – being unable to support Ukraine’s valiant quest for freedom unless they were prepared to compromise, “make a deal”. And I wonder if President Trump and his charmless cronies have any sense of history, of culture, of their nation's short but meaningful and sometimes glorious narrative. It is true, the USA does not have the ancient and rich historical tapestry that many European lands have but I wonder would not Trump be stirred by such words as these to describe his country's past and beliefs: "And yet, through the gloom and the light, The fate of a nation was riding that night; And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight, Kindled the land into flame with its heat." I have absolutely no doubt that President Zelenskyy would understand the meaning and the feelings of those words for he sees a land, his land, "kindled into flame" every day and night in Ukraine. And what of "A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door, And a word that shall echo forevermore! For, borne on the night-wind of the Past, Through all our history, to the last, In the hour of darkness and peril and need, The people will waken and listen to hear....".Sadly, America 2025 in the shape of Donald Trump does not "waken and listen to hear" - it seems that the American narrative, the march of history has been halted while "a deal" is made by a charmless and ignorant man and a group of philistines with no sense of their nation's history or long held purpose. Paul Revere (and, I would hope, many present day Americans) would, I suspect, find that unacceptable and very difficult to understand. 

Dancing & Prancing in the White House or "If you tell a lie long enough, it becomes the truth".

 

Anyone with even the minimal knowledge of Nazi Germany and other fascist/totalitarian states will be aware of the critical role played by propaganda in the establishment and “success” of these states. That Hitler could rise from obscurity to become the leader of a nation within a few short years was almost entirely due to the skilful use of propaganda to change the mindset of the nation. The architect of that propaganda was Joseph Goebbels – and, whatever one might think of him as a person, it cannot be denied that he was hugely successful, a master of his craft; his frighteningly skilful use of misinformation and propaganda ensured that a previously quiet and law abiding ordinary people became in their thousands and millions monsters, capable of the most terrible crimes against others; a whole population obsessed with and utterly believing of what the state told them.

History can teach us things so it’s worth looking at some of Goebbels’ comments about propaganda to see what we can learn in 2025, an age when, with social media and 24 hour news, everyone is vulnerable to what powerful people say and do. In America, the UK andother nations right wing and populist extremists are having a corrosive and powerful impact upon the mindset of millions. So what sort of advice did Joseph Goebbels give to those wishing to promote their ideas in the minds of a nation? Here’s a few of his tips from his hugely detailed diaries and letters:

"There is no point in seeking to convert the intellectuals and the learned. For intellectuals and the intelligent will question and will never be converted. But they will yield to the stronger, and this will always be "the man in the street." Arguments must therefore be crude, clear and forcible, and appeal to emotions and instincts, not the intellect.”"Propaganda must facilitate aggression by specifying the targets for hatred."

"Those who are to be persuaded by propaganda should be completely immersed in the ideas of the propaganda, without ever noticing that they are being immersed in it."

“The masses need something that will give them a thrill of horror."

"It is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public opinion."

"If you tell a lie long enough, it becomes the truth."

"Propaganda works best when those who are being manipulated are confident and they are acting on their own free will."

"The rank and file, the ordinary man in the street is much more primitive than we imagine. Propaganda must therefore always be essentially simple and repetitious to appeal to man’s basest and animal instincts."

"We enter parliament in order to supply ourselves, in the arsenal of democracy, with its own weapons. If democracy is so stupid as to give us free tickets and salaries for this work, that is its affair. We do not come as friends, nor even as neutrals. We come as enemies. As the wolf bursts into the flock, so we come."

"We shall reach our goal, when we have the power to laugh as we destroy, as we smash, whatever was sacred to us as tradition, as education, and as human affection."

“When we have power, we will never give it up again unless we are carried out of our offices as corpses”

"It would not be impossible to prove with sufficient repetition and a psychological understanding of the people concerned that a square is in fact a circle. They are mere words, and words can be moulded until they clothe ideas and disguise."

"Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play"


One only needs to read these comments from almost a century ago to feel a chill, a frisson of fear at what is happening in today’s world. The most powerful man in the world, aided (or probably led) by the richest man in the world has used these titbits of advice from one of the most evil men who has ever lived to grab power and rapidly change the mindset of his country and perhaps the whole world. Millions have taken on board his easy to understand “crude and clear” lies repeated over and over again in the media - just as Goebbels recommended: “America First”, “Drain the Swamp”, “Make America Great Again”, “Build A Wall”, “Lock her up”………. Goebbels' “displacement of aggression by specifying the targets for hatred" made real in America 2025. These unsubstantiated assertions and subliminally violent mantras have been cleverly cobbled together by evil men and women to appeal to the emotions and baser instincts of ordinary people often incapable of understanding more nuanced and complex arguments - the sort of person that arch Nazi Goebbels identified as simple, open to persuasion, unthinking, unquestioning, accepting of lies, innuendo and blind hatred. And so potent is the propaganda at play in the USA and further afield that these same ordinary citizens are unaware that they, and their minds, are being manipulated, they think they are acting of their “own free will”.

Joseph Goebbels would recognise all this and be proud that his message still resonance in 21st century America. And should we not feel a chill when we read Goebbels’ comment that "…… If democracy is so stupid as to give us free tickets and salaries for this bear's work, that is its affair. We do not come as friends, nor even as neutrals. We come as enemies. As the wolf bursts into the flock, so we come…..We shall reach our goal, when we have the power to laugh as we destroy, as we smash, whatever was sacred to us as tradition, as education, and as human affection….. When we have power, we will never give it up again unless we are carried out of our offices as corpses " As I read these words I remember the invasion of the Washington Capitol in January 2021 when Trump’s supporters mindlessly and terribly challenged the democratically elected people and institutions of American civic life. Trump’s refusal to accept the decision of the electorate, and then his pardoning of those responsible for these heinous crimes chimes completely with Goebbels' comments. Trump's declared aim on taking up the Presidency in 2025 that Americans would “never need to vote again” spells out clearly his long term intentions; Trump and Musk have learned the lessons of Joseph Goebbels well – sadly and worryingly, however, many in America have failed to take note and are, in their ignorance, happy to be led like lambs to the slaughter as, to quote Goebbels “the wolf bursts into the flock”.

We, in the UK should not gloat on America's malaise, or be unworried, thinking that this is all happening a long way away in the USA, that we are much too sensible to be taken in by such things. Our very own William Shakespeare five hundred years ago had his finger on the pulse and recognised immediately the ability of unthinking men and women - English or of any other other breed - to follow the herd, unquestioning, uncaring, happy in their ignorance; in King Lear he sums up our present day discontents perfectly when he says "Tis the times' plague, when madmen lead the blind". Quite. Think of the propaganda surrounding the Brexit debate, the “Boris Bus” promising millions for the NHS through Brexit “savings”; think of the lies that became for millions a “truth” about the “hordes” of immigrants who were crossing the Channel, think of the riots after the Southport murders when thousands took to the streets following “true information” fed on social media about the alleged killer…………. . We are just as vulnerable as anyone else, and especially so in this day and age when so many get their “truths” from social media platforms. Be it Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram or any other outlet they all have an inbuilt ability to generate misinformation and potential propaganda - untruths. They exist on brief, arguments, ideas reduced to their bare bones, black and white, no room for discussion - and in another throw back to Goebbels they simply reflect back to the reader or the listener their own deeply held fears and prejudices. Goebbels knew this, that successful propaganda or moulding opinion was all about building upon the prejudices, fears and unspoken convictions of the masses - we saw this with startling and dreadful clarity in the street violence in the UK following the Southport murders. Few will bother to read a post like this one, it’s too long, too boring many will say; they want their feed to be sharp, quick, hard hitting, black and white, no place for nuance or explanation. And that is the well spring of propaganda, for as Goebbels told us the message must be “crude, clear and simple”. But there is more, for “simple, crude and clear” arguments with no place for nuance, or another point of view, and with no supporting evidence to bolster an argument or an assertion are the first steps into tyranny. As American Jewish film maker Albert Maysels reminded the world half a century ago, “Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance”.

American and we are on a spiral to hell, repeating the errors of the 1930s, unable to learn form history. And to this end it is worth thinking about two comments from America written in those long gone times, from two of the world’s great journalists.

In the Baltimore Evening Sun on 26 July 1920 the hugely famous and revered American journalist Henry Louis Mencken wrote: “When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental — men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack or be lost... All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

And, in the late 1930’s world famous American journalist Dorothy Thompson, recognised at the time as the second most influential woman in America after Eleanor Roosevelt, met Hitler as he was rising to power. Following the meeting she wrote: “No people ever recognise their dictator in advance … When our (American) dictator turns up you can depend on it that he will be one of the boys, and he will stand for everything traditionally American. And nobody will ever say Heil to him, nor will they call him Führer or Duce. But they will greet him with one great big, universal, democratic, sheeplike bleat of “OK, Chief! Fix it like you wanna, Chief! Oh Kaaaay!”

Dorothy Thompson was the first journalist to be expelled from Germany by Hitler.

We have been warned. History has given its lesson and just as Goebbels fed Hitler’s ego and provided the propaganda framework to ensure Hitler’s rise, so today in the White House Elon Musk prances while Donald Trump dances their macabre dance of malevolent celebration. And millions across America are bewitched, soaking up lies as the world’s great truths, unwilling to comprehend that they are being played, unable to discriminate truth from lies, being given a “horror story” of hatred reflecting their own prejudices and fears to twist and bend their “basest instincts and emotions”. And as Musk and Trump dance and prance they are, as did the Nazis nearly a century ago, “destroying and smashing whatever was sacred as tradition, as education, and as human affection” in American life and institutions. Trump and Musk must be unable to believe their luck, comprehend the ease with which they have usurped a nation - and all by following the simple steps in Joseph Goebbels' idiot’s guide to propaganda; easy-peasy, like 1,2,3, join up the dots, follow the playbook that advised them that “….the rank and file, the ordinary man in the street is much more primitive than we imagine”……easily fooled, easily taught a new reality, easily made to do our bidding". These two morally bankrupt, pernicious and egregious charlatans shout with glee as they reel and dance and prance around the Resolute Desk in Oval Office, they've learned well the lessons of history as set out by Joseph Goebbels …….and, meanwhile, the world looks on, shaking its head in bewilderment, uncomprehending, fearful, fixated, unwilling to take action, unable to learn the lessons of history........

Solace and understanding in a world gone mad.

In a world gone frighteningly mad I find myself increasingly turning to greater minds than mine for some understanding and perhaps even solace from the world’s ills – although solace seems in short supply given our turbulent and unhappy times. My office is filled with books on politics, economics, history, biography, the world’s great literature and, above all, philosophy. Plato’s Republic, Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Bertrand Russell’s magnum opus his History of Western Philosophy, Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan, Michael Sandel’s Justice, Immanual Kant’s Pure Reason, Machiavelli’s The Prince, John Locke’s Concerning Human Understanding and many, many more. I’ve read them all and return to them ever more frequently in these worrying times to try to understand the human condition and what increasingly appears to me to be mankind’s ability to sink to ever greater depths.

Read the ancient Greek play, The Oresteia, by Aeschylus and you will discover in this wonderful tale how it gave the western world the roots of its justice system – our own independent and jury based justice system. Plato’s Republic, a book that I first read when I was about nineteen, wide eyed and open mouthed as it opened the world of philosophy to me, describing the perfect community and the rights and responsibilities of those living within it. Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan written in the 16th and 17th century describing in detail man’s relationship with the state; Hobbes wrote his great work in times of great national peril at both a societal and individual level - the Spanish Armada, religious unrest and persecution, the English Civil War, plague, abject poverty and food shortages - he famously said life in his world was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”. And his answer to these ills was that only good strong, enlightened government could protect the individual from the worst that the world could throw at him or her. And what of Immanual Kant? – I turn to him to remind me and advise me what is the right thing to do, the right way to act in my dealings with other people and in every situation. In short, Kant is my moral compass, he questions the motives in my words and actions - he tells me that the morality of my words and my actions lie in my motives. I wonder how Trump, Musk, and Vance's words and actions would be judged  when assessed against Kant's moral imperatives - poorly, I think?

Today, as America, a nation that was a short time ago revered and venerated as “the land of the free”, a beacon of hope for much of the world, is in thrall to a mad President and Vice President and an unelected billionaire monster – a wanna be James Bond super villain – and both supported by millions of easily led voters I need these works more than I have ever done in my life. For these are the accumulated wisdom of mankind over thousands of years. They make me think, help me to decide on issues that I read about in the news or witness on the TV, give me intellectual and spiritual sustenance. Our world is being turned upside down; the old truths and wisdoms cast aside by unthinking, uncaring charlatans in the most powerful countries of the world, men of no understanding and less humility but filled with great hate and even greater malevolence: Donald Trump, Vance and Elon Musk playing some kind of villainous race to the bottom game aided and cheered on by their millions of ill intentioned, self-obsessed, and mind-numbingly stupid supporters and acolytes. We truly are spiralling into what another philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, termed the abyss; which, Nietzsche promised, would, if we were not careful suck us all into its bleak blackness.

Against this backdrop, however, three great works stand out. Books written not by philosophers sitting in their ivory towers, but by people who have lived through the worst that mankind can do and that they have seen for themselves: things that can so easily happen when those with evil intentions and no understanding gain the upper hand. The three books are seminal works, works to inspire and terrify, books not written thousands of years ago but within my own lifetime by people who have been there and seen the worst.

So, what are these books that I find myself returning to again and again? Not in any order they are: The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt, The Open Society and Its Enemies by Karl Popper, and A Theory of Justice by John Rawls. I don’t expect any of those who cast their vote for the Republican Party in America or cling to the every mad and dangerous utterance of Vance or Trump have ever read these great works, for if they had then they would not have acted as they did when the entered the polling booth. I do not expect that Donald Trump or Elon Musk, or JD Vance could quote or comment upon these works for they are so caught up in their own narcissistic worlds that they have no time or inclination to understand the human condition or consider the terrifying repercussions of what they are doing.

Hannah Arendt the most taught and arguably most influential political thinker of the 20th century was a German Jew who was forced to flee her homeland when the Nazis came to power. After working with the French Resistance she eventually found her way to the United States where she took citizenship. Her works cover a broad range of topics, but she is best known for those dealing with the nature of power and evil as well as politics and totalitarianism. She is especially remembered for her comments about the nature of evil as she watched the trial of Adolf Eichmann for his war crimes. In her book The Origins of Totalitarianism she explains how ordinary people become unthinking “actors”, removed from reality in totalitarian states. Ordinary, unthinking people become monsters, she suggests, "The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil. Evil comes from a failure to think. It defies thought for as soon as thought tries to engage itself with evil and examine the premises and principles from which it originates, it is frustrated because it finds nothing there. That, said Arendt, is “the banality of evil” a phrase that has echoed down the years: in short anyone can be evil, it’s easy, just don’t think. I ponder this now in 2025 when watching or reading of millions of Americans, decent but unthinking people clinging to every word uttered by Trump and Musk; how easily they could and are being misled, made to do the bidding of these manipulative charlatans, turned into unthinking monsters.

Karl Popper was an Austrian who like Arendt fled his native country when the Nazis took over Austria. He eventually settled in England and became one of the foremost philosophers in the world. His book The Open Society and Its Enemies published on 1945 is considered one of the top three most influential books of the 20th century. Popper had witnessed in his own country and wider Europe how easily legitimate, elected democratic parties and politicians caved in and failed to prevent the rise of fascism and totalitarianism He was also troubled by the influence that powerful people - like Hitler and Mussolini - had over millions, moulding opinion to their own evil ends. Popper was clear: “If we are to survive then we must break with the habit of deference to great men.” But he identified another important issue – what he termed the "paradox of tolerance". Democracies, he argued, are by their very nature tolerant; they see everyone’s point of view, they understand and value everyone and their opinions equally. But, he argued within that there is a potential problem, a paradox. Unlimited tolerance, he argued, must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. “We must therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate intolerance". If a society is tolerant without limits, then the intolerant – the Trumps, the Musks, the Vances and all their acolytes - will eventually destroy the society's ability to be tolerant - just as Hitler, Stalin and Mao did in their countries. If intolerant ideologies are allowed unchecked expression, they will exploit a society’s values and erode or destroy tolerance itself through authoritarian or oppressive practices. We have seen this in the USA in recent weeks, at the Washington Capitol in 2021, we have seen it in other right wing countries. In America and the UK in 2025 extreme views are gaining an ever-increasing foothold because we “tolerate” those who hold them – on University campuses, in the right wing media, in the political life of the nation, on streets in sleepy Southport and across other cities as the flames of hatred were fed by misinformation, and we see it weekly in the chanting immature mobs of men-children in our football stadiums. We should be very afraid when unelected extremists such as Elon Musk or Tommy Robinson have a voice, the slope downwards is very slippery – we saw it in 1930s Germany and we are seeing it increasingly in our own world, bit most terrifyingly in America, a country that has long prided itself in "freedom".

My final book of solace – and solace is indeed the right word here – is John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice. Rawls experienced, during his life, several worrying and tragic events which increasingly shaped his views of the world and what it might or should be. He lost his two bothers to illness as a child and served in the American army during the Second World War. He witnessed intensive trench warfare and traumatizing scenes of violence and bloodshed and the result was that he lost his previously strong Christian faith and became an atheist. He became further disillusioned with the way the world and America was conducting itself when he witnessed first hand the aftermath of the atomic blast in Hiroshima. His criticism of this led to him being demoted from an officer to private and he consequently left military service in disgrace and returned to academia.

As a result of his lived experience Rawls believed that the world needed to do better, be a better and more just, fair, decent place. He believed that disputes in societies and between societies, (think of that between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza) and the basis of justice were often found in, or as a result of, bias learned from birth. For example, why investment bankers and wealthy oligarchs often disagree with the likes of and social workers and teachers about issues such as what is a fair rate of tax. From this Rawls developed the idea of what he called “a Veil of Ignorance”. If, said Rawls, we were unaware of the facts about ourselves – rather than the prejudices and belief systems that we have each grown up with - then, Rawls thought, reasonable citizens would endorse certain and similar values for they would realize they were all in the same boat and it was in their long term interest. We would want, he argued, the maximum liberty and rights compatible with everyone else having the same. We would want everyone to have fair equality of opportunity. And most interesting of all, Rawls claimed, we would only accept inequalities if they were to the greatest benefit of the least well off. To explain in simple terms: suppose, suggested Rawls you are behind “a Veil of Ignorance”. You don’t know if you’re going to be born rich or poor, healthy or sick, born in a palace or a ditch, highly intelligent or poorly educated, black or white, male or female, old or young, straight or gay, a city or a country dweller, a lover of sports or the arts etc. You have no knowledge whatsoever of your talents or lack thereof and what your future life might be. From this position of ignorance, you are asked to select the principles of fairness and justice to regulate society, including those regulating the distribution of wealth and income. Rawls suggested that given that scenario, most reasonable people and societies would choose a world where the sick are taken care of irrespective of wealth, where, everyone has an equal chance in life to a good education, where there are systems in place to ensure that particular groups are not disadvantaged, where everyone’s talent and skill has an equal chance to be developed and to rise to the top..... and so on. People would choose this because it was in their own interests to do so.

Hannah Arendt and Karl Popper’s views of the real world are frightening and in these 2025 days are the new normal in many parts of the world – especially the USA, parts of Europe, the Ukraine, Gaza, Russia and the rest. But I reread these two magnificent works to help me understand and have a “position" on these matters, so that I can read the newspapers and watch the TV with some kind of understanding . Rawls is different. I read him to inspire me, to show me what might be, what the human condition and humanity could and should be. When I read of modern day America with its gun mentality, its aversion to some kind of cohesive and affordable healthcare system, its vast inequalities, its rampant drug problem largely caused by these inequalities, its mafia like modern Republican Party, its vilification of various ethnic groups and the notion of building walls, expelling and imprisoning those it despises, its disproportionate and racially biased prison population, its use of the often racially biased death penalty…………. I think that Rawls would, if alive today, weep at what the country he loved and served has so easily become.

These three books are very much books for today – even though they were written decades ago. Their authors hoped that the things they had witnessed during their lifetimes might be avoided in the future – indeed that was their reason for writing these volumes. The paradox of 2025 is that our fathers and grandfathers knew, like these three philosophers, the horrors that come with totalitarianism and evil leaders; our generations, however, lulled by prosperity, extravagance and increasing narcissism have forgotten and no longer value the very things that our parents and grandparents worked and fought for – a better, more caring, more thoughtful world. With the coming of Trump, Musk, Vance and the resurgent and twisted "Grand Old Party" - the Republicans - we are about to pay for our lack of diligence and the nurturing of our inheritance. Read Arendt and Popper and you will understand today's world and why the USA in particular has become what it has - and what it will become if we allow these madmen to have their way. But, read Rawls, too, for in him you will find what America used (sometimes imperfectly) to endeavour to stand for – common decency, essential goodness, fairness and hope; what it might be like if we stand firm and say no to Trump, Vance and Musk et al  and their evil, delusional and narcissistic intentions and actions.

"Nothing gets you nothing, Everything has got a little price......" Trump - the demise of altruism and the loss of humanity.

In the world of Donald Trump and his cabal of chancers the name of the game is “the deal” - indeed, Trump has even written a book about this, "The Art of the Deal". Trump thinks only in transactional terms, for him everything in life is a zero sum game – if you want this, then you must give me that. This is the language and underpinning of Trump’s “offer” to continue supporting Ukraine only if he gets a “deal” to extract valuable minerals from the earth of that nation. It is the language and culture of everything having a price. He also advised President Zelenskyy that Ukraine had “no good cards in its hand” – no chips to “bargain” with – again transactional, nothing is “free”.

Tonight, one of my grandsons is going with friends to see the wonderful musical ‘Les Miserables’. I’ve seen this great show several times, whenever my wife and I drive through France it is Les Mis that plays on the car’s audio system. And I think for everyone, one of the high spots of Les Mis is the gloriously funny (but so true) song “Master of the House” (see video) by the devious and thoroughly unpleasant innkeeper Monsieur Thénardier:

“Welcome, Monsieur, sit yourself down

And meet the best innkeeper in town

As for the rest, all of 'em crooks:

Rooking their guests

and crooking the books

Seldom do you see

Honest men like me

A gent of good intent

Who's content to be

Master of the house,

doling out the charm

Ready with a handshake and an open palm

Tells a saucy tale, makes a little stir

Customers appreciate a bon-viveur

Glad to do a friend a favour

Doesn't cost me to be nice

But nothing gets you nothing

Everything has got a little price!

Master of the house, keeper of the zoo

Ready to relieve 'em of a sou or two

Watering the wine, making up the weight

Pickin' up their knick-knacks

when they can't see straight

Everybody loves a landlord

Everybody's bosom friend

I do whatever pleases

Jesus! Won't I bleed 'em in the end!

Master of the house,

quick to catch yer eye

Never wants a passerby to pass him by

Servant to the poor, butler to the great

Comforter, philosopher,

and lifelong mate!

Everybody's boon companion

Everybody's chaperone

Jesus! Won't I skin you to the bone!

Enter Monsieur, lay down your load

Unlace your boots, rest from the road

This weighs a ton, travel's a curse

But here we strive to lighten your purse

Here the goose is cooked

Here the fat is fried

And nothing's overlooked

Till I'm satisfied

Food beyond compare. Food beyond belief

Mix it in a mincer and pretend it's beef

Kidney of a horse, liver of a cat

Filling up the sausages

with this and that

Residents are more than welcome

Bridal suite is occupied

Reasonable charges

Plus some little extras on the side!

Charge 'em for the lice,

extta for the mice

Two percent for looking

in the mirror twice

Here a little slice, there a little cut

Three percent for sleeping

with the window shut

When it comes to fixing prices

There are a lot of tricks he knows

How it all increases,

all them bits and pieces

Jesus! It's amazing how it grows…..!"

As I think of this song and read its words I cannot but think of the arch con-man and crook Donald Trump. Watch the video and it seems to me that we are watching a metaphor for American 2025. How well Trump has taken in half of America and how well he is using his misbegotten talents and usurpation of power to – in his words -“screw” the world. Monsieur Thénardier would have understood this well and admired Trump; they are two of a kind, each trying to pull a fast one over others for their own advantage. For that is what is at the root of transactional actions and at the root of the gambling man’s ethos; men like Trump sitting in smoke filled rooms playing poker, each trying to “screw” the other card sharps by whatever means fair or foul.

In this world, the world now being made real by Trump and Vance, there is no room for philanthropy or, more important, altruism. As the song tells us “Nothing gets you nothing” – that was the bleak message to President Zelenskyy. But, I ask, where would the world and mankind be without altruism – doing things for others just because they are the right thing to do, not for payment or other rewards. In the past other rich Americans such as Andrew Carnegie – an immigrant from Scotland gave away much of his wealth to good causes across America and the wider world. And what sort of world would we live in if people only did something for an agreed “pay back” – doctors, nurses, teachers, policemen, the man next door to an elderly neighbour, the woman police officer who arrives at a crime where someone has been badly injured? I don’t remember there being a transactional aspect, a deal being made by the Good Samaritan when he found the injured traveller on the road; the Good Samaritan didn’t look down at the injured man and say “You don’t have many good cards in your hand……so what’s in it for me if you want my help” as Donald Trump would undoubtedly have done.

Not many weeks ago we watched firefighters in America working night and day, going the extra mile to keep the blazes in Los Angeles under control. I would wager not one of them thought of their pay back as they did this – it was their job but above that it was the right thing to do and at that point in time payment was not the thing they thought about. And at that time I seem to remember both Mexico and Canada – two nations in the gun sight of Trump at the moment – sent firefighters and equipment to California without asking for payment or payback; they did it because it was the right thing to do. And, I read this morning “One hundred and thirty six countries offered assistance to the USA in the aftermath of 9/11 – America’s darkest hour – and none asked for their money back.” Mmmmm – Trump and America might need to rethink their moral compass.

In the transactional, begger my neighbour, world of Donald Trump, a world without altruism the weakest “go to the wall”, the fires can rage or the towers tumble unless a “deal” can be made. Many Americans might not understand the aphorism “the weakest go to the wall” but it tells us much. It dates from mediaeval times when many of the great English and European churches and cathedrals were constructed. In those long past days churches were not only places of worship but gathering places – markets might be set up, people might go there for warmth and protection and they could often be very full of people. It became the custom to build a ledge, a seat running around the walls of the nave of the church where the old, the infirm, the weak could go and sit away from the crowded central area – “the weakest go to the wall”.

In the world of Trump, Vance and Monsieur Thénardier nothing is free - as the innkeeper sings: “nothing gets you nothing, everything has got a little price” - and within that, the law of the jungle operates, where dog eats dog, man eats man; the basic courtesies, dignities and humanities - as we saw from Trump and Vance in the Oval Office last week - cease to exist. Then, only a few survive. The weakest may wish to go to the wall for a seat and for safety but they will find no Good Samaritan. Instead they will find a Trump or Thénardier  demanding to see their hand of cards before a deal might be made and a seat be given. And, if it continues, the very rule of law breaks down for there ceases to be a point where there can be common agreement upon what is the right thing to do, and what is right and what is wrong. And at that point, common humanity ceases.

Seventy years ago this year the great American novelist Jack Kerouac published his iconic and seminal work "On the Road" - a book that arguably changed the world (including me). In that book he posed the question "Whither goest thou America in thy shiny car in the night....". American needs to ask itself that hard question now in 2025.

Through the Front Door

Yesterday I settled for a morning of reading some philosophy in my favourite place, Bromley House Library. Surrounded by books, silence and overlooking what is regarded as one of the best examples in the UK of a Georgian garden Bromley House is one of Nottingham's greatest treasures.

 Only a few metres away the great Nottingham Market Square is its usual busy self. Trams and buses rattle by. Nearby Nando's and Gregg's are filled with people buying their lunchtime "Meal Deals" and as I approached the Library's entrance squashed between a Barnardo's Charity shop and a newsagent and sport memorabilia outlet I passed the Bell Inn where a homeless young man lay in his sleeping bag asleep on the pavement oblivious that just a few metres further on four burly hi-vis jacketed policemen were bundling another young man, this one flailing and aggressive, into a police car. Nottingham on a bright spring Wednesday morning.

But pass under the unassuming entrance arch and through the ancient front door of Bromley House Library and one is instantly transported, Narnia like, from the ordinary and the humdrum and the woes of city life to another world, a more attentive, comforting and certain time away from the madcap 21st century streets outside. Here, as others have done for over two centuries, I can soak up the silence and steadfastness of hundreds of years of wisdom and great literature seeping from the thousands of volumes that surround me and line every wall of its myriad of rooms, book lined passageways and storeys. Ancient books, much local Nottinghamshire history, the latest blockbuster novels, CDs, guide books, audio books and everything else in the literary spectrum is there.  No matter that I have been a member for many years, each visit is a journey of discovery, an ever-exciting experience of finding my way, like some bygone explorer, through the warren like jungle of rooms, doors, passageways and staircases, each leading to a different and unexplored magical trove of great works both ancient and modern. From the walls, old oil paintings, fading photographs and marble busts of past Bromley House members and Nottingham's great and good of yesteryear gaze down upon the winged armchairs, the soft cushions, the polished tables, the reading lamps and the engrossed silent, old and young literature lovers and academic researchers of today.

A gentle spring breeze drifts from the garden and in through the open window behind me and around the corner from where I sit the smell of coffee from the Library's little refreshment room fills my nostrils. A fellow member smiles as she passes where I sit in my winged armchair, the spring sun pouring through the window and warming my back. She is on her way to grab a coffee and as she passes she mouths a whispered "Good morning, isn't it a lovely day?" and then disappears to do silent battle with the coffee machine. I smile back in acknowledgment and mouth "Indeed it is", feeling warmed by her smile and courtesy; in Bromley House it is always thus - kindness and courtesy are almost written in as a requirement for membership. In this turbulent, uncertain, brash, shallow and often despairing world Bromley House is an oasis of solitude and solace, a haven of treasured certainty and continuity. It is, for me, the still small voice of wisdom, tolerance and peace in the disturbed, distracted and intemperate world that we now inhabit.

Rejoice in the Lamb: Ruddington & District Choral Society

 

In his programme notes Ruddington & District Choral Society’s Music Director, Paul Hayward, explained that the programme for their May 2022 concert had been carefully chosen as a response to the state of our contemporary world. In the event, his comments could not have been more perceptive. Originally planned for the May 2020 concert, which had to be set aside as Covid  first took hold, this evening of largely 20^th century English choral works seemed even more  prescient given that Covid and its effects have disrupted the life of the planet for two years and this nightmare has been compounded by the events in Ukraine and their dreadful consequences. We live, as Paul Hayward suggests, in uncertain times and to underline this, there were in the audience for Saturday night’s concert at St Peter’s Church in Ruddington a family of Ukrainian refugees who have found sanctuary in Ruddington from the present horrors of their own land.

 Like all other organisations, Ruddington Choral Society has felt the impact of two years of Covid led interruptions – practise and rehearsal time, singers’ illness, and simply getting a large group of singers back together and in the swing of things has meant that Paul Hayward, organ maestro accompanist Michael Overbury and most of all the singers themselves had to pull out all stops – organ and otherwise – to get the concert to performance standard. But pull out all stops they did – and especially so when one considers that the programme was a musically taxing one; there were no works in which the choir could “coast”, every bar and note had to be worked at……and it would not, I think, be inappropriate to suggest that everyone was asking themselves the question on Saturday morning, would it be alright on the night!

But all right it was! The choir, reduced in numbers following the Covid effect, rose to the occasion magnificently from the very first note. The concert began with the popular and haunting Choral Suite from Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man – surely something to cause us to reflect upon given the events in eastern Europe in recent weeks. Jenkins’ work, subtitled A Mass for Peace was originally commissioned for the Millennium celebrations and dedicated to victims of the Kosovo crisis. The work charts the growing menace of and a descent into war, interspersed with moments of reflection; shows the horrors that war brings; and ends with the hope for peace in a new millennium, when "sorrow, pain and death can be overcome". On Saturday, the choir’s quiet and evocative rendering of the work was not only a gentle, solemn and above all reverential opening to the concert but one which, I’m sure, caused every member of the audience to reflect deeply upon how thin is the gossamer thread that holds us all from falling into the abyss in our 2022 world.

Musical Director Paul Hayward

To take us up to the interval we enjoyed the talents of Michael Overbury playing a Bach organ solo the Kyrie Gott Heiliger Geist – a plea for God’s mercy upon us – Michael’s keyboard skills and sheer musicality displaying all the intricacies, piety, magnificence and richness of Bach’s devotional music to perfection. This was followed by three short choral works: As Torrents in Summer by Elgar, Parry's Music, when soft voices die, and The Long Day Closes by Arthur Sullivan. These  profound and deeply reflective works were given a lyrical and poignant quality by the choir – perfect for a May evening and for a world looking for solace and certainty as it recovers from a deadly pandemic and a world tormented by other ills, mostly man made.

Five Spirituals from A Child of our Time by Michael Tippett was a splendid opening to the second half of the evening. Tippett’s famous and hugely popular oratorio written in the early years of the Second World War was inspired by the events of Kristallnacht in Nazi Germany and the subsequent violent Nazi pogrom against the Jewish population. As the programme notes rightly commented: “it is a work of profound sympathy with oppressed people the world over”. The choir’s rendering of the spirituals captured beautifully the essence, the humility and inner strength that we recognise in all spirituals and within all oppressed people or whatever colour, creed or belief. The sheer musicality of Steal Away Jesus, the humility of Nobody Knows the Trouble I See, the gentle power of Go Down Moses, the sorrow and despair of By and By clearly spoke to the audience and as the words  and the haunting music of the final spiritual Deep River gently filled the St Peter’s evening air I doubt that there was anyone in the audience not moved and humbled by the words and the music. The Five Spirituals was a balm, a comfort, in these troubled times and a timely reminder to those of us who sat in St Peter’s of how very fortunate we are to be able to sit quietly and safely on such a spring evening to enjoy such music and ponder the power of the words.

Organ Maestro Michael Overbury

And so to the concert moved to its final works. Michael Overbury gave a lovely ethereal rendering of his own arrangement of Lamento di Tristan & La Rotta based upon 14^th century Italian dance music – a few minutes of innocence and beauty in an otherwise solemn evening, a reminder perhaps, that in these times of dismay and disharmony our very souls need the refreshment that goes with peace, beauty and gentleness. And finally, Michael’s work was followed by Benjamin Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb first performed in 1943 and commissioned for the 50^th anniversary of the consecration of St. Matthew’s Church in Northampton. It is based upon the poem Jubilate Agno  by Christopher Smart and probably written between 1759 -1763. The poem, written while Smart was in an asylum, depicts the idiosyncratic praise and worship of God by all created beings and things, each in their own way. While in the asylum Smart was left alone, except for his cat Jeoffry. He felt lost and homeless feeling that his life was in a "limbo… between public and private space", lost in his introspective and deeply religious thoughts. He had nothing or no one  to turn to and thus inwards devoting himself to God and his poetry. He was released from the asylum in1763, but his poem was not published until 1939 under the title Rejoice in the Lamb: A Song from Bedlam. This, became the focus of Britten's composition and as with many of Britten’s works, is taxing; the choir had to be at their best – and they were! Under Paul Hayward’s baton and with Michael Overbury’s  accompaniment they dealt superbly with the sheer musical variety and ever changing demands of the work. After  negotiating a quiet beginning followed by a jubilant series of verses inviting man and beast to come before the Lord, then a beautiful hymn of creation leading to a lament as Smart described in his poem the difficulties he encounters in his life  the choir responded perfectly to their Director and Accompanist’s leadership.  The four soloists, Grace Bale, Sarah Atkinson, Simon Lumby and James Gaughan, too, were splendidly “on song” and  perfectly at one with the choir. The poem and Britten’s music speak of those who are in turmoil,  who are struggling with their world and their own lives. It is a theme that Britten often returned to, most notably in his great opera Peter Grimes; inner personal turmoil, mankind's potential for cruelty but also his capacity for goodness. Rejoice in the Lamb was a fitting work for this concert concerned as it was with the uncertainty and turmoil of our current world  and the famous line from Peter Grimes "I hear those voices that will not be drowned" would, perhaps, be a suitable subtext for not only this work but perhaps for the whole evening

Britten’s work is not and was not an easy listen – but that, surely is the point. Saturday night’s programme was music for our troubled times. It was music to prick our consciences, to make us reflect upon our times and the trials of others, to encourage  us to strive to create a world more attentive and faithful than our own present and to make us realise our own great good fortune. But at the same time – and perhaps more importantly – to give us some certainty in this ever changing world by reminding us that we are all part of humanity and God’s creation. There were no standing ovations or rousing cheers at the end of the concert, just a subdued and reverent applause – and that is how it had to be - the message of the evening and the music had got home. And that message, if  indeed there was one, was of our humanity, our dignity and love and respect for our fellow man and woman, and how we  must respond to that and them. It was music to reflect on, to take away in our hearts and minds and ponder as the next 24 hour news broadcast reports of some other tragedy – big or small, personal or international, man made or natural - in our ever changing turbulent world. 

It has been said that all art – be it painting, music, literature, dance or any other art form - should, if it is to be considered worthy or perhaps even great, “comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable” – and on Saturday night The Ruddington & District Choral Society choir members, the soloists, Michael Overbury and Paul Hayward fully acknowledged and met this criteria. Paul Hayward wrote in his programme notes that he hoped it would be "an evening to to find solace" -  and indeed it was.  The final words of  the spiritual Deep River perhaps summed up this desire for some comfort and consolation both eloquently and humbly: "O children, don't you want to go to that gospel feast, that promised land, That land where all is peace. Walk into heaven and take my seat, cast down my crown at Jesus' feet". Many thanks to all concerned for a wonderful night.