Let’s slow down

As the year 2018 unfolds with the threat of nuclear war, the looming hazard of climate change, the plastic pollution of our oceans, not to mention billions lost in tax avoidance and evasion and the Brexit crisis of British nationalism amidst the obscene face of capitalism, are we in fact losing control? It looks like we are being swallowed up by the speed of our increasingly complex technological computer and robot systems and that humanity itself may become obsolete.

Although in painting a bleak picture I remain certain, as hope, faith and charity is the very bone marrow of the human spirit, we will survive.

However, rather than the British Empire jingoism that will herald the centenary year of 1918, let us in 2018 celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of James Connolly in Edinburgh, one of the must perceptive thinkers on the universal cause of nationhood and the breakdown of class: “Be a realist; demand the impossible.”

GRANT FRAZER Cruachan, Newtonmore