Welcome to the next 100 years!

Not planning on being around that long?

Too bad, but this is not about us it's about our descendants, our children, grandchildren and in  my case great grandchildren; but it's not just about them either, it's all of us, the human race, the species Homo Sapiens.

Millions of us have wondered what we can do to stop our species destroying itself. Why are we so hell-bent on fouling our nest, eating our future, poisoning the air we breathe and the water we drink?

How I found out the answer to these questions and what I ended up doing about it is the subject of these writings.

Two Americas - or more?

"The last job of capitalism – having won all the battles against labour, having acquired the ultimate authority, almost the ultimate moral authority over what's a good idea or what's not, or what's valued and what's not – the last journey for capital in my country has been to buy the electoral process, the one venue for reform that remained to Americans."

This is from David Simon, creator of The Wire, and is part of an impromptu speech he delivered in Sidney.

His thesis is that there are 2 Americas, and one of them is not connected to the American way of life. In "The Phoenix Nation" I depict the US as divided geographically as well as socially. In my version of the future, the part of America we call "The Bible Belt" splits from "The Atlantic States of America" and become "Christ's Kingdom of America". A third nation is Spanish speaking.

If America were to break up into smaller nations it seems probable that California would separate too. A geographical split would not of itself deal with the two nations in Simon's piece, but the whole process would be revolutionary and it seems unlikely that there would be a place for the dominance of wealth and capital in smaller, less powerful nations.

LAUNCH PARTY

Plans for the LAUNCH PARTY on 9 May are progressing.  Andy and Karen, who used to work in S4C and BBC Wales are cooking up a press release. They say it's no good me doing it because I would be too modest! Moi? The plan is to hit the media (mainly Welsh) a few days before hand and offer them a filmed and edited version all ready to be broadcast. Of course it may not come off, but would be great if it does. 

 

If you scroll down you will come to a post with a cartoon heading it. Anthony, the artist, has offered to do a personalised cartoon as a prize for the competition. The prize will also include a signed copy of the print book, and the competition (deadline end of May) will be for:

• EITHER the most interesting review of any or all of the books. The judges (yet to be appointed) will be looking for good ideas and a well thought out critique.
• OR the most interesting comment on this blog or on my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/authordickturner  There is also a Facebook event where you can indicate if you are likely to be coming.

Karen (see above) has undertaken to interview me, and she can be relied on to include some searching questions so I'm a little nervous about it.  

If the weather is fine we will  be out in the garden with a glass of bubbly and some tasty treats, but even if it is not, there is a conservatory and a fair amount of room indoors. I'll have a modest pile of books to autograph, but there won't be any pressure to buy - an interesting discussion is my first priority.

The Floating Voter

I'm still a floating voter - a novel experience for me. Some 16 years ago I read the Plaid Cymru manifesto and have voted for them in all elections since. I find little to criticise in this year's manifesto, which includes some pleasant surprises: the emphasis on 'the nations of the British Isles working together regardless of their constitutions' being one, and the acceptance of all who have made their home here (which includes me) being another.  Altogether, a quick skim through the manifesto leaves me feeling more positive about Plaid.

Job done then?

Not quite. There is one issue which seems to me to be the most important of all: 'climate change'.  I deplore the use of this term as if it were in the same category as say 'immigration' or 'unemployment': -

"Oh yes, and we mustn't forget to do our bit for Climate Change, that goes down well with the tree huggers." It's not one of a list of issues,  It is the ONLY issue if we want our species to survive.

I certainly want at least some of our species to survive, and there is only one party which puts "healing the planet" right at the top of their agenda: The Green Party. So, logically I should vote Green, but it's quite clear now that this election will not be won by anyone offering long-term solutions to our problems.

Perhaps I should be voting for the party which has the best chance of making some of the changes needed to change tack on the climate. If I take this view then in this constituency (Carmarthenshire East and Dinefwr) I should vote for our MP Jonathan Edwards of Plaid Cymru (The Party of Wales). Plaid, in potential alliance with SNP and the Green Party could make a real difference.

Against that is the Green slogan: "If you think Green vote Green". The Green party manifesto commitments are UK wide, but I really don't like the way the party is perceived by the media as "to the left of Milliband". This is not what new politics should be about. I would be much happier if the Green party were saying something along the lines of:

"We reject the stale old politics of Left and Right. The present system is leading us to disaster. If we wish to save our species from probable extinction this is what we have to do:

·       Stop burning fossil fuels,

·       Reduce our population by more than half

·       Allocate our resources equally." 

The trouble with this scenario is not that it is fantasy - I suspect there are a large minority who think this is probably what we should be doing. The problem is it doesn't fit human nature. It doesn't square with what we feel our species is all about: some form of 'progress'. We are utterly committed to the idea that our history is about things getting better. This is what all our political parties aim to deliver. Try this one at the hustings and see how far you get:

"Vote for us and we will try to make the best of a bad job!”

 

Launch Party

For the last 4 years or more I have been focussed on the daunting task of actually finishing a book. There had been several false starts spread out over my working life, and I'm proud to have finally created something with not just a beginning, but a middle and an end.

However, like trudging up a mountain, you get to the top and then find another peak ahead. What seemed like the summit  turns out to be the beginning of the next huge task: Editing. Every time you go through the work you find things that could be done better, until slowly the mist ahead clears and you can see the peak:  Publication. At last all is agreed, the book appears in print and on  the web. Whew! Job Done!

Oh no. Of course not; nobody wants to be the author of a book which hardly sells any copies. There is yet another uphill struggle: Marketing, and that is where I am now. Within the framework provided by Cambria Books the actual nitty-gritty of selling books is down to me, and the competition is massive. How do I get people's attention in this age of information surfeit?

I got a bit depressed about this and wondered if I would have to fork out money I can't afford to pay a publicist. NO! Come on you, One last effort! I spent some time trying out different ideas, got some good advice and have now planned a marketing campaign which will begin with a LAUNCH PARTY.

Anyone reading this is invited, and I hope you will come and sample the drinks and snacks, listen to me reading extracts, take advantage of a special launch offer, but above all engage in some discussion. One of the main purposes of the books after all is to stimulate debate. Here's the details:

Launch Party for THE VANDERVELDE DOCUMENTS
Ty Jarman, Cilycwm, Llandovery SA20 0SS
3:30 pm to 6pm

THE OLD TESTAMENT

For most of my life I have ignored one of the great pillars of literature in any language; one of only two books assumed to be essential reading by those marooned on the fictional Desert Island of BBC Radio.  That is not the only thing The Bible shares with the works of Shakespeare. In its best known form -" The Authorised Version" or "The King James Bible" -  it is a celebration of the language of Shakespeare, the form of English which, in the seventeenth century, still had evocative echoes of its roots in Anglo-Saxon.  

Now, at 70 years of age, I have set myself the goal of reading that same version from cover to cover, or rather from digital page 1 to "mark this book as closed". (I haven't risked losing my place in the bible e-book to see if this phrase is there. It would be a rich irony if it were!)  It's hard work I can tell you. I had got as far as the wanderings of the Hebrew tribes in exile when I decided I would need some help. First I looked to the web, and was immediately swamped in all manner of commentaries, almost all from America and many of them  reflecting their peculiarly frantic brand of fundamental Christianity. Some were very helpful, but in the end I decided I would need a book - a real printed one which I could have to hand beside my screen.  I was fortunate to discover "A Beginner's Guide to the Old Testament" by Robert Davidson, an academic and one time Moderator in the Church of Scotland.  Davidson succinctly explains the background and significance of all these strange and ancient writings. This morning I found this in his account of  Psalm 8.

 

"The Bible is only too grimly aware - as we are or ought to be today - that when we grasp at independence, when we decide to go it alone, accepting no restraints except our own desires and needs, we are on the way to disaster. All that we have and are has been given to us to be used responsibly within the context of the adoration of God the giver." 

Now one of the central tenets of environmental politics (the Green Movement) is the repudiation of the Christian and Judaic belief that human beings are set above the animals - "You make him master over all you have made." We now know that has no basis in fact. Our beginnings were as accidental as any other life form. Religion has many things to teach us but the origins of life are not amongst them. This is not a question of "belief" but empirical knowledge. Evolution is simply the best hypothesis to explain what we see around us. The idea of an omnipotent God doesn't square with what we know, and the more we learn about genetics the less distinct from other animals we become. 

At the times when the books of the Bible were written people had no way of acquiring that knowledge, but they were the same species with the same needs and desires as us, and  I am confident that with Davidson's help I shall find inspiration from all these stories and poems. Returning to the quotation above, I  can see a parallel with the idea that humans face disaster when they turn away from God, to our present belief that we face disaster when we ignore the lessons of evolution - "accepting no restraints except our own desires and needs."  Time and again in the Old Testament the tribes of Israel are dealt with in what to us is a shockingly violent fashion whenever they start to think they are above the Lord their God (The Hebrew word Jahweh).  

If I substitute the word Evolution for the word Jahweh I open up the possibility of a better understanding of religion, or even of  life in general. I have a gut feeling that Jahweh would see our current profligate use of fossil fuels and the obscene wealth of the top 1% as eminently worthy of a plague of boils or even a flood….now look where that's taking us!