A Novel Oracle

A couple of years ago now, I started to write a novel.

It was something I had always wanted to do, so really it was just for myself more than anything. However, it was still a stupid move, as having not done any serious writing for a number of years, it turned out to be somewhat more than I could swallow. I’ve basically abandoned it for about 9 months and there’s a number of reasons for this, including a new job, family time, more musical projects and suchlike, but really, if I’m being honest after re-reading it, the main reason is that the 90,000 or so words I’ve written so far are a massive shit-stained lump of illegible wank that bores in ways I never thought possible.

However, there was something interesting about the read-through. The story is set in the near future, a political thriller I suppose (of course) which essentially warns of the coupled threat of automation and apathy. You see – you’ve switched off already, don’t worry, I get it – it was never going anywhere, despite having a talking dog in it.

But bear with me – the main protagonist is a chap who feels isolated and powerless, having lost his only child to a preventable illness due to a decaying health care system. He is head-hunted by an underground resistance group fighting what essentially is an autocratic government disguising itself as a democracy using social media and a software group that has inadvertently become the most powerful entity in the country. Most people are unaware and don’t care. The whole premise really is a question of how bad do things have to be before people start caring, and how history continually repeats itself regardless of any cultural or technological advances.

Now here’s the ‘fun’ bit – and if you’re still ready, well done, just imagine how bad the actual book is – basically, to cut a long and very boring story short, they don’t really get anywhere until the country is hit by a massive Flu epidemic (no, really!), and millions are directly and radically affected, with nothing left to support them within their decayed social structures. Then, they wake up.

Just call me the oracle.

But on a serious note, although my cynical mind means that the story couldn’t possibly have a simple, happy ending, with hints at the end that the old ‘establishment’ is regrouping, and history will once again repeat itself, it’s made me think about what’s happening today, and perhaps that maybe, just maybe, we may be able to see some positivity emerge from the coming months of isolation and change.

I don’t mean to distract from the imminent hardship that people are going to face, and by no means want to diminish what is going to be some serious suffering for a lot of people, but we are now in a situation where our current extremely broken system is beginning to show itself for what it is. Just this morning, we’ve seen the list of ‘key workers’ published. I did not see banker, hedge-fund manager, ‘job creator’ or even CEO in that list, the people who, we have been told for decades, are the most important to placate for our great nation’s growth. No – we see the nurses, the carers, the teachers, the checkout workers even. The true wealth creators. The true key to our economic and social progression.

We see the response from other countries. More socially-minded countries, such as Denmark, have already offered wage protections and they certainly aren’t the only ones. There will be a concerted effort no doubt in this country to subvert comparisons with other nations, as there always is (because Britain knows best!), but these countries are going to come out of this a damn-sight healthier than we are unless something drastically changes. Countries that haven’t inflicted extreme ideologically-led austerity on their citizens for the last decade are going to be relatively OK because basically, they still have some semblance of infrastructure to fall back on. It’s easy to blame 40 years of indoctrinated individualism for the extreme panic-buying we see in England and elsewhere, and there is undoubtedly an element of that, but perhaps there’s also an element of mistrust in the government and the powers that be. Maybe, deep down, even the most staunch defender of the political class knows that it’ll be their moneyed-interests that are protected first. The question is – are they going to continue to simply accept it now that the lives of their own friends and family are potentially at risk?

Perhaps not – we can only hope. The downside to this positivity is that we’ve already been there to a point of course, in 2008, when the current system first ran out of money. What happened then? Did the people rise up? Did we replace the failing system? No – governments bailed it out, and the bill was passed on to ordinary working people in the form of ‘we’re all in it together’ austerity. The structures that caused this initial hardship were rescued, ironically, by government, and therefore remained relatively unscathed, and then continued to decry state intervention and democratic socialism without even the slightest trace of irony or embarrassment.

Perhaps now, now that this terrible event is beginning to affect rich and poor alike, we might wake up. Maybe having people who actually care at the top isn’t such a bad idea after all? Perhaps now the government are actually forced to invest and forced to commit to what essentially are democratic socialist policies in order to rescue the nation, we might open our eyes to the fact that this is exactly what we should have been doing all along? That ‘market forces’ are merely an excuse for free-market immorality? Will the hypocrisy and selfishness that our current economic system is built on finally be seen for what it is, and dealt with accordingly?

I don’t know. The problem with history is that it repeats itself. That’s why I couldn’t end the story without some hint of darkness – the powered and moneyed-class always seems to find a way back. They’ll shift the blame, just like they did in 2008, using the pandemic to mask the economic hangover of austerity. But maybe, just maybe, a once-in-a-century pandemic might just be what it takes to change our course, at least for the immediate future. The cynic in me still doesn’t see it, but I’d love to be wrong.

I suppose we’ll find out on the other side. Until then, stay safe and look after each other, and think about what’s really important.

Perhaps the story can have a happy ending after all.