I went to the Lightroom in Kings Cross last week to take my seat for the Moonwalkers experience. It was fabulous. Worth the entrance fee? Well, £27 seems a bit steep to me, but I got in half price with my student card so I was happy. It’s an all consuming experience, blasting away at the senses for nearly an hour. But it starts with the profound, inspirational and historic speech given by JFK at Rice University in 1962. That’s what leadership looks like. Someone who sets out the path ahead, who stands for just and inclusive values, who encourages those who follow to be the best version of themselves. A month later, Soviet nuclear missiles were being installed in Cuba, and the world stood at the precipice, staring into the abyss. JFK found a path away from the edge of catastrophe. That’s also what leadership looks like.
Half a century later, and we stare into the abyss again. There are numerous human catastrophes ongoing around the world, some with civilisation-ending potential. They threaten to push us over the edge and into the abyss. We shouldn’t put ourselves in these situations. We don’t end up here by accident. We go down paths that we know from past experience we should not tread. There are always ample opportunities to halt the march before it reaches a critical mass. Trump should have been convicted by the Senate in 2021. Russian oil and gas supplies into Europe should have been turned off in 2006. And yet, here we are.
We don’t have the leadership, in any key part of the world, with the ability, desire or imagination to find a way back. Presidents and prime ministers can be flawed characters, they may have unpalatable policies in their manifestos, but ultimately, their greatest long term contribution to society is to unite, inspire and lead the people they represent. Alas, significant portions of western populations are increasingly drawn to politicians who have pinned their futures on their ability to draw out the worst in people. In the East, populations have little choice.
We’re doomed. Probably. Happy New Year to you. I’ll raise a glass to see out 2023, to see in 2024 and in the hope that there will be a 2025. And to the brave folk who walked on the moon, which may soon become the safest place to watch global events unfold.
The Mexile 
JFK was young but was tested by war-he knew how bad war is and it may have got him killed. His leadership skills as well could be a factor in his killing. People who can remember his murder will all be gone before that ugly chapter of world history is told.
The contest today is no different from when Kennedy was coming up, fascism, lopsided economies, threats of atomic warfare from authoritarian states. You are right, the caliber of leadership is not as good as it could be but a good deal of that problem is the electoral system. We have elections here where the person with fewer votes gets the prize. We have a system where a vote in one state is worth 15 times more than one in another for the same office-it is nuts. Crap in-crap out
I figue fascism is our big threat today. It could well swallow us all in the next five years. It is that close.
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JFK had no problems with his bone spurs, that’s for sure. And if he had, it probably wouldn’t have stopped him.
You’re absolutely right about the electorate in our part of the world. I blame the internet. It put morons in touch with one another and helped them normalise ‘stupid’.
And yes, I do believe we are standing at the edge…
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I’m not so sure the moon would be the safest place to be to view the destruction of the earth.
When you consider the science that put men on the moon you have to also consider the scientists that thought it was ok to set off a small atomic bomb in the upper atmosphere to destroy one of the Van Allen belts so there would be a better chance that the shuttle wouldn’t get scuttled on its way there and back from space debris and cosmic rays. I’m not sure if that was a close call or even a contributing factor in so called global warming we have today.
Trusting the science but distrusting the scientists? Oh well look who we are stuck with, some times I wonder how gullible we have to be to accept that there are some things we can’t control and hope for the best.
Happy New Year to you and Mrs P, best of luck with your new career riding the trains and flashing your student card..
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