Epitaph for a lost cause, or hope for the future?

13 December 2019

Writing this on Friday 13th December 2019 (unlucky for everyone), the day after the UK general election which ended all hope of stopping Brexit and ensuring that Britain remains in the European Union, I am reminded of the words of William Morris, who wrote (I paraphrase):

‘We try to achieve something and fail

And what we tried to achieve happens despite our efforts

And turns out to be not what we wanted

So others have to start from the beginning, and try again.’ 

Do these words give us hope for the future: that we can learn from our mistakes when we try to achieve something and fail, and inch forward as we start again from the beginning and try something new?

Or is it more like the Myth of Sisyphus: that whether you want Britain to leave or remain in the EU, we are all now condemned to the endless torture of having to push a rock nearly to the top of the hill, only to see it fall to the bottom again, and again, and again … for ever?

The words William Morris actually wrote, in A Dream of John Ball, published in 1888, are:

‘I pondered all these things: how men fight and lose the battle, and the thing that they fought for comes about in spite of their defeat, and when it comes turns out not to be what they meant, and other men have to fight for what they meant under another name.’

 

Comments

[Gerold Firl]

Amid the generally dismal prospects of Brexit there is one possible ray of compensation: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/02/17/can-farming-make-space-for-nature

This article suggests that Brexit just might open the door to ditching the unsustainable model of industrial agriculture supported by EU policy.

A slender reed, but I'm grasping at straws here.