RAGING BULL

Searching for Jewels

I wake up, exercise, make tea, look at the Guardian online,
make breakfast and listen to BBC’s Today Programme.
By then I’m upset if not to say distressed
from what may be true
and what may be half- truths
they’re telling me.

RADIO ON TABLE, Morning   Photograph: Robert Golden

For instance, since the early nineteen-eighties
we have all been living under the evolving Neoliberal ideology
with its undertones of materialism,
its anti-humanitarian and fascist ideals,
its elitism and all the economic, political and cultural changes
it has foisted on us.

But not until 2015, when Bernie Sanders,
running to become the US president,
actually spoke the word ‘neoliberal’
did the news ever reveal to us
that this odious anti-democratic set of policies
were slowly strangling our liberties,
our incomes and our understanding of the world.
In other words,
those paid to tell us what is going on,
ignored telling us about these tectonic changes in our world.
If you can’t name it, you can’t explain it
and you certainly cannot confront the unknown.

What do I read about and hear in the mornings?
A child has died because a coffee shop staff member
had not been properly taught about allergies.
I sense laziness, ignorance, lack of care,
and “me me me me”.

I hear or read about many more people dying
in Gaza, Ukraine, Somalia, Thailand
and I sense thugs thrusting for power, thriving munitions makers,
happy bankers, and our politicians kicking stones down the street.

I hear or read about  government ministers,
local bureaucrats, building corporations and manufacturing companies
ignoring what they knew to be dangerous,
causing the deaths of over 70 people
who either died from smoke inhalation or being burned to death …
I sense smugness, cruelty, stupidity, greed, laziness
and after 7 years of obfuscation and a projected 10 more years
before trials, I hear the guilty laughing outside of the court rooms

I hear or read about Nazi’s elected in Germany.
OMG.

I hear or read about Republican
anti-constitutional, anti-democratic raging barbarians
throwing legal mud at Tim Walz.
As the American humorist, Mark Twain wrote,
“when you throw enough mud some of it is bound to stick.”

I hear how water corporation’s CEO’s
want us to again have increased bills
to (perhaps) encourage them to stop poisoning
our lakes and rivers
by giving our previous payments
to their lusting investors and to their penny gouged bosses.

I hear dumpy senile Trump
proclaiming not an economic policy
but about how he is more beautiful than his adversary,
and I hear how the audience cheer his asinine remarks.
I sense under-education, stupefaction
caused by ranting right-wing tele-evangelists,
Fox News distortions,
the inability to think critically
and the murmurings of gun carrying psychopaths
lost and alone on the great American plains.

I ask, what is this world I live in?
Is this really what we think is the best we can do for our children?
Is this all that these forms of vengeful politics and greedy capitalism
can offer us?

I read in Friedrich Nietzsche’s ON TRUTH AND UNTRUTH:
“that man rests in the indifference of his ignorance…suspended in dreams”

And I have read,
“Our minds,
which are even now only just awakening after years of materialism,
are infected with the despair of unbelief,
of lack of purpose and ideal.
The nightmare of materialism,
which has turned the life of the universe into an evil,
useless game,
is not yet past,
it holds the awakening soul still in its grip."
(from "Concerning the Spiritual in Art" by Wassily Kandinsky)
written in the early 20^thcentury

by Wassily Kandinsky who struggled to paint from his spirit (Expressionism) rather than to describe the world (naturalism).

I do not believe in the gods,
I have studied history
and thus despise how the international church corporations
have encouraged so much slaughter,
and as for the liturgy of religion,
it makes more sense to the women haters and murders
amongst us then to the sane.

What does make sense to me
is that which offers a way out and hope.
It is that which serves as a balm to all the above,
that which embraces our spirits (spoken of in a non-religious way)
with truths and beauty:
the embracing love of art,
the true jewels of our species.

---

I have been working on my next exhibition
(see below)
and with Shaniqua Benjamin’s appropriate, perceptive
and very moving poetry she has specially written to illuminate
each of the 10 sections of photographs.

We knew we needed to avoid the lecturing, the didactic,
the programmatic, the propaganda
to offer something that will first be grasped by the heart of the viewer.
We offer the audience kindness, delicacy, kindred spirits,
and an inclusive view of the world.

We both know we are one, it’s as simple as that.