roll the rock up the hill (but do it quietly so that no-one notices)

'things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

mere anarchy is loosed upon the world...'

- w.b.yeats, the second coming

horsemouth has just survived another meeting of the communal endeavour. 

it  always leaves him frustrated and angry.

it went well. horsemouth didn't rise to any bait scattered on the surface of the waters. (well ok maybe just the once). 

'herding cats' is the famous description for how democracy functions in small voluntary organisations. horsemouth is  working with people with good intentions. they're smart enough and they're nice enough (on the whole) but he doesn't detect any great commitment or focus. 

this is a pity because the communal endeavour has a budget, it has assets, it has resources, it has paid staff it has all the ingredients you could use to do good (and lord knows that in the middle of a housing crisis people could do with that) but no people would rather have a new bathroom extension or whatever (err....that's your priority?). 

the trick (as far as horsemouth understands it) is to detach from the task in hand and treat it as a piece of bureaucracy. roll the rock up the hill but do it so quietly almost no-one notices. 

horsemouth has achieved equilibrium. (ok no an intrusive thought just disturbed him). but his decompression is going well. he's reframing it well. a sneaky sisyphus. getting the good deed done. by means of stealth.

he was just watching something about port talbot on the tv. he was just drinking a bottle and a half of beer. martin sheen (is it?). what do you do when the old radical dream refuses to die? but look at this inversion - it is the old radical dream destroys port talbot (not brexit or net zero or carbon credits  or tata steel gouging the government for subsidies). 

is horsemouth the only one who thinks that the old radical dream is actually dead? does everyone else horsemouth sees actually still hold tight to the radical phantasms of the thatcher years? do the ghosts of dead miners and steelworkers still march? doesn't horsemouth actually agree with the MP when he tries to demobilise the crowd (and then flees to london) - the structures that supported struggle are gone, the power isn't 'here' anymore. 

'things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

mere anarchy is loosed upon the world...'