A Ton Of Proust Isn’t Worth An

God Was A Clever Idea ... The Human Race Came Up With A Winner There.

I Suspect That Many Of The Great Cultural Shifts That Prepare The Way For Political Change Are Largely Aesthetic.

In The Past We Have Always Assumed That The External World Around Us Has Represented Reality, However Confusing Or Uncertain, And That The Inner World Of Our Minds, Its Dreams, Hopes, Ambitions, Represented The Realm Of Fantasy, And The Imagination. These Roles, It Seems To Me, Have Been Reversed. The Most Prudent And Effective Method Of Dealing With The World Around Us Is To Assume That It Is A Complete Fiction - Conversely, The One Small Node Of Reality Left To Us Is Inside Of Our Own Heads.

For The Sake Of My Children And Grandchildren, I Hope That The Human Talent For Self-destruction Can Be Successfully Controlled, Or At Least Channelled Into Productive Forms, But I Doubt It. I Think We Are Moving Into Extremely Volatile And Dangerous Times, As Modern Electronic Technologies Give Mankind Almost Unlimited Powers To Play With Its Own Psychopathology As A Game.

Civilised Life, You Know, Is Based On A Huge Number Of Illusions In Which We All Collaborate Willingly. The Trouble Is We Forget After A While That They Are Illusions And We Are Deeply Shocked When Reality Is Torn Down Around Us.