FEEL FOR THE DONKEY
Peter Nelson
Economist and Fellow Chartered Accountant, as an International Financial Consultant have carried out assignments for all major international donors in many countries.
As one ages, daily one can feel more like George Orwell's Donkey Benjamin, whose only narrative is that he has to live a long time. You are there appreciating that the masses of Sheep will just plod along and the tired workhorses like Boxer will vote for political parties which allow them to toil on to pay their taxes. You see yourself like a Snowball on ideology to improve the world but can only see the Benjamin. You see yourself like a Snowball on ideology to improve the world but can only see Pigs like Napoleon enhanced by the Squealers controlling the roost ignoring the inputs from the past leaders the likes of Old Major. Of course there always has to be a Moses offering eternal salvation while the Mollies everywhere crave the attention of “Likes” where ever they can score them.
The point is how once you get to a certain age having seen and almost done it all, while you appreciate how your children might know how to better manipulate their devices, apart from people collecting sound bites if they don't take too long, they have not the time to study history in depth nor from that are able to project this into the future. Their problem is going to be not that they won't be able to catch up in time but with sheep numbers heading for dominance while we are ruled by the Napoleons and their Squealers there seems little hope.
On the bright side, what if Donkey didn't just shake his head and try and do something before he headed to the glue factory? This raising the question of whether there is not a role somewhere for the retired experts not generation bound by outdated political leanings to present the options for the future in a way they can be believed? And these people cannot be confined by those who have made their millions through use of the system which often is the route cause of the problem. The final question becomes whether in letting votes of Sheep determine future Napoleons led by Squealers to determine what's best for them, what will be the outcome on Orwell’s arrival of now Yuval Harari's Useless People?