21 January 2007

2007: the Year when the merde hits the fan?

Here is my own humble contribution to "predictions for 2007".

First, a question. What happens if a country is run along mediocratic lines for one or more decades? By which I mean:
  • quick easy-fix answers to everything
  • "no brainer" solutions (i.e. not thinking too deeply about anything)
  • style over substance
  • equality more important than quality
  • rejection of principles in favour of watered down pragmatism
  • rejection of bourgeois hierarchicalness in favour of "do what you feel"
  • pseudo-individualism i.e. "can't be bovvered".
Answer: everything will go on rubbing along after a fashion, by living off the previously accumulated reserves of capital, innovation, bourgeois forethought etc. That is, until there is a crisis which tests the system. At which point, depending on the severity of the crisis, you get either (a) red faces or (b) panic in the streets.

Here then is my Cassandra-like prediction. 2007 will be the year in which the British infrastructure gets severely tested and is found severely wanting. I don't know whether it will be the London transport system, the water supply, the "health" service, the state "education" system, the electricity grid, or the monetary system. Perhaps a combination of several of them.

2 comments:

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

I agree with what you say has happened to Britain. I hope one or more of the country's systems will not be put to the test in the way you say but fear your prediction may be right.

Fabe Tassano said...

I've added a question mark on the end of the title, just in case.

I don't think it's illegal yet to suggest that the way the ruling regime goes on is likely to lead to disaster, but you never know.

Perhaps in a few years time they'll introduce some legislation to this effect, and make it retroactive ...