Mental map

By: Hatto Fischer, Athens

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Arrival at Waterloo train station is a bit strange. It is early in the morning, July 7th 2005. The newspaper in the stands speak about the G8 meeting going on in Scotland, about the violent demonstrators and what Bush may not do to agree with Blair. People rushing by just shake their heads. The quickly disappear in the crowd heading towards the staircase leading to the tube. But the arrival around this time is strange for a very specific reason. The UK holds since 1st of July the EU Presidency over what is left of Europe. After the disasters in France and Holland when a majority of voters rejected the ratification of the Constitutional Treaty and then with no agreement reached at the EU summit about the new budget, many things are happening at European level. The tumble of the EURO is only one of the many indications that the European perspective has been lost or experienced a severe set-back.

What to observe then when setting foot again on this island having kept a distance to the continent? Busy as always – above all the Red buses dashing through the streets as if mechanical camels towering over everyone and yet docile, gentle and careful at every pedestrian cross-over to let old ladies and school children pass first.

At street level it is not so important to watch the gap, as the case in some tube stations under ground, but more the need to look Left, not Right. The warning is painted on the pavement for those coming from the continent and therefore used to a different flow of traffic. When leaving the train station, the first thing I got to do is to make myself a mental map based on how I used to know London and what it means now to move through a different city compared to 1969 – 70 when I lived here.

Some things have not changed. Acquaintances with pigeons can still be made everywhere, not only at Trafalgar square. Then there are the many tourists upon which London depend much more than a Greek island. They move about, hustle and shuttle back and forth, diverge into different categories and then emerge as one crowd all fascinated by Buckingham Palace and the changing if the guards. Rituals lasting over centuries seem to have that endurance and besides it is fun to have your photo taking when beside one of those with the bear hats.

The forward look of a group of Japanese tourists attracts in that group the greatest attention. They are by comparison to the chaos around them much more ordered. When thinking of what I saw on CNN, they appear as if following the advice of Hpackett since this logistic company claims to be the best when it comes to consolidate things. They claim it regardless if a pack of dogs in the streets or else just mess in an oversized office. There is, however, another touch of reality existing outside the language of advertisement to be made out on billboards as the Japanese group makes its way on to the next destination. They seem to like small talk as they move swiftly on. The pitched sounds compete effectively with the traffic sound and show even more robust feelings when astonished to be understood by the other walking just behind. As these bits of information they give to each other matches with their tiny steps through this amazing city going rampant over future prospects of hosting the Olympics in 1912, they do add to the measure what success entails.

While the Japanese group disappears around the next corner, I make out another call made by a grey haired newspaper man selling the Daily Mirror. Everything has the strong accent in the way he pronounces things. It is as if he wishes to uphold some notion considered to be still valid today as it was when London was hit by German rockets in Second World War. By directing attention to here the glorious British people, there the enemy he seems to subscribe to the thesis that smoking guns can always be found with those not to be trusted. He repeats headlines which are still aimed at those readers preferring a classical view on history.

This is done quite often by evoking Hitler like images to keep up prejudices, complained most recently the German ambassador to Great Britain. He did so at the height of a scandal involving German foreign minister Joschka Fischer with regards to diplomats serving in the German foreign ministry although they held membership in the Nazi party before the defeat in 1945.

What is true about such images evoked over and again as if a classical paradigm when in reality just a notion about another nation is that people got stuck on a sandbank like an old boat and since then waits in vain to be floated again.

Practically that kind of squabbling about what images nations may hold of each other flared up when Chirac made some comment about British and Finnish food just before the decision was made in Singapore as to which city would be awarded the bid for hosting the Olympic Games in 2012. It is rather silly to call this still a careful deliberation prior to making such a decision but then media works in one way and only some politicians understand better than others on how they can use in turn the media to make their ideas about things become known to everyone. The saying but he has a threshold name says already a lot about what is to be taken critical, what not.

Still, when Tony Blair said he would not be tempted to go down that wrong alley when asked whether or not he would comment on the statement made by Chirac, it just shows two things: who is on a loosing streak, who senses the dynamics of present times behind him. But it will make a difference as to what is said not in public but behind closed doors. It does spell a continuity of bad faith. The two could not agree already about the European budget with Chirac refusing to acknowledge the need to change the EU budget for agriculture while Blair saw quite well if he would give in to rethinking the rebate Britain is getting ever since Thatcher handled that in the most crafty manner, then certainly he could not appear to cave in at this moment of time. Certainly by making the Luxembourg EU Presidency fail in an effort to find a consensus, he knew that the task of the British EU Presidency would be easier. It is simply called ‘management of expectations’. This can be said not withstanding that the French voters made a tremendous gift by not ratifying the Constitutional Treaty. It freed Blair from the obligation of holding a referendum in Britain since that had become due to the French and later on Dutch ‘no’ something making no sense at all.

Where then should I take materials for my mental map so that I can move through London in 2005? As a friend said, we are not using the right concepts to relate to developments of today but are still inclined to use old models of thoughts. Another person would say the complexity behind political issues are no longer grasped as the case back then in 1970 when students did question things rather than take political statements at their face value. Unfortunately the media has groomed many more speakers into power point presentation like delivers of half truths.

The other half of the truth not spoken about cannot be called an outcome of declining industrial power in the face of globalisation but rather should be taken as Fleet Street rumouring out of the own grave. Much has been written and said about the decline of that street ever since Murdoch moved in temporarily only to break the union by moving out the printing press of the newspaper and locating it elsewhere. There mechanical conditions made it hard for the union to have any say. Since then the social climate has changed. It is said by those who used to work there, that gone are the days when journalists would phone in the contribution on behalf of their drunken colleague who had too much to drink before he could say anything decent to his editor. The infiltration of this world by all kinds of take-overs, Murdoch but one example, has been a rhyme British people have made out of what is happening around them by now for a long time. They say even Manchester United football club will no longer be the same after the take over by an American billionaire. But even if they can buy our clubs, so goes the British defiance in the eyes of all defeat, they cannot buy our soul. No, England never was never known to have an inkling of similarity to the German Faustian tradition with knowledge gained only in exchange of giving the soul to the devil.

Yes, the UK with Tony Blair having been re-elected for a third time makes a very strong impression of people composed to meet their fate both collectively and individually, and this as always with a charming as much disarming style of humour playing like a skilled rock music star on the ironic twists life chooses to take like a river when searching for a path through rocky terrain. I have to find first my way through this new London even my daughter is excited about after her first visit here last year. The going has been rough but so it seems not to the same extent as on the continent where much more unemployment prevails. Here the economics is based on solid accounting and off shore companies and while Blair and Brown plead for debt relief for Third World countries especially in Africa, they remain silent about the fact that over 1 Billion Euro of weapons have been sold to these very same countries. Debt relief for what purpose? Sometimes everything has more the appearance of needing powerful illusions in order to just keep on going. It was something Andre Maurois touched upon in his lecture series I read 1970. In that context he used the beautiful metaphor of how a man should love a woman, namely like a sailor the sea for if the going gets rough, then he should lower the sails to ride out the storm but while doing so never to forget loving the sea.

So what to see in a city of a land stunned by its own fervour? My practical guidebook for making a mental map of the city has here no clear position. My thoughts trail of with a nasty question, what if the typical composure of the British people melts down and people loose their bearings?

I look around me and find no one close by to ask this question. I wonder: can it be that both the observation and the question is a part of a guessing game as to what is really happening in a society steeped in tradition and therefore unable to shake off the legacy of the Royalty claiming not merely its place in history but in the present? Certainly Prince Charles gets quite a lot out of the EU subsidies for agriculture and reports indicate that he made more money than many others during the last year. Prof. Louis Baeck explains that it is the economic gain of the wealthy that exceeds by sometimes 35% or more the normal growth rate of 3 to 5 % that underlines the Chinese challenge to the Western Industrial Nations; compared to what wealth increases the rich in Europe experience over the past few years, the Chinese who earn wealth yearly increase not only in numbers but they exceed by far the 35% growth rate. That means real power is in the making. These global challenges has many in the West thinking for wealth is accumulated now according to a different law. They cannot make out as of yet to what extent their economies are up to these new challenges, or is it merely ingrained in seeking the greatest profits only for the own national groups leaving Europe to deal with its own transportation and other problems? Some things are not yet buried and forgotten. Marx buried here in London knew certainly that. Still the mounting success of the British economy has to be seen as many media explanations depict it: the success of the Post Thatcher era insofar as Blair has succeeded together with Brown to mask more successfully the neo-liberal model without thereby loosing touch with the New Labour slogan as defined by Giddens: a social model making only sense once there is full employment and economic growth. It masks well all those possessing lands and properties while upholding an accountability to the public in terms of taxes paid and money received from the state to keep going as before. So the one side is the progressive element; the other is safeguarded as if the tradition considered to be holy because not merely part and parcel of the way British culture is codified and packaged, but also as holy side it makes a difference if values are set to be believed in all the time or merely for the moment. The outside world does not seem to grasp that significant difference and therefore especially the French Left speaking about a political and social Europe deride the British for their pragmatic optimism. They oversee the deeper commitments made by the British people over time and therefore they hold onto things very differently. It safeguards those on the ship called island from not falling over board.

I let these thoughts trail off into the distance as if watching one of those high speed trains pulling out of the station: an elongation of dreams without knowing how to confront the reality of feelings. They exist, but their plead goes un-recognized in this cold blooded world in which everything goes and nothing is forgiven.

I hum the song of Pink Floyd just sung in Hyde Park during the Live 8 concert: ‘money’ last Saturday: amazing display of lyrical refrain transcending all commercial boundaries. There is nothing like it nowadays. What comes to mind when listening to “on the dark side of the moon3, that there prevails hope some light may exist on the other side despite all the cold felt on this side. With that idea it comes to my mind that it might be better to cross over to the other side of the street where the wind blowing rain into the face is not so strong. By stepping into the full snarl of traffic, the lyrics heard over the weekend fade away. My mental map tells me I have entered another kind of territory in which the power holders do not like rescuing romantic notions over into the present; they prefer that the past fades out and only solid but unarticulated tradition remains. As another train of thought slides out of one of the stations hardly noticeable on my mental map, I wonder who else is taken along for the ride? My question, although hidden since posed only inside of my own universe made up of imagined things, seems to be heard by many to my amazement for even the wind seems to stand suddenly still to wonder how my train of thought gathers speed when leaving not the station but ending up going down an imaginary street only Calvino could have made visible by a simple description.

Such observations about power gathering strength were made according to Thomas Kuhn when the engine of the train was still a steam locomotive with all the hissing and puffing making visible transition into power underlying the rules of transformations. If only people could translate love into energy for looking ahead in their lives! After all there is no going back. I step into this new London and braze myself for what lies ahead. Much appears without the illusions of power given to the city by New Labour still desolate as it was in 1970. Even in those tiny alleys with no space for more than one car life is squeezed in-between red brick walls and rubbish cans with children and cats in-between to depict another land. Some youngsters would call it the Harry Potter land: bewitched by magic helping to fight off boredom in everyday life and ever more so proud about fighting off those who come to haunt those who have suffered already enough. Forgotten is in this Potter tale that everyone has someone who died in the family. Little boys, when growing up, are tempted to cross over from the land of the imagination to that of legends since they wish to give themselves an importance the reality in the school yard does not offer to them (nor does it protect them sufficiently against the hecklers accompanying their walk from the chauffeur driven car to the dormitories where they are going to stay during their time at boarding school).

What my mental map tells me at this juncture in time: everyone is made into a sort of fool when tempted to spin the legend still further than what mothers can mythologize in their narration about family background and what has proven to be the right direction in life.

 

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