I have a theory that bureaucrats and businessmen, who trespass so sorely upon our liberties, suffer their grievous character defects as a result of being protected from the wind and the rain in the course of their endeavours. The other day, while struggling against a gale-force headwind and stinging rain on open moorland, I thought how humbling it is to have to face the elemental forces of nature, and how insignificant ordinary mortals are in the scheme of things.
The thought was to some extent the effect of reading some of the epics of Antarctic exploration during the previous week. Of course, nothing in civilised experience approaches the challenges for sheer survival which faced Scott, Shackleton, Amundsen, Mawson and their companions. But finding oneself in a force 9 gale with hail thrown in on a bleak ridge devoid of cover does convey a pale hint of what battling with untamed natural forces feels like.
In our industrialised society, where we spend much time in heated cages of metal and glass or sitting in padded chairs goggling at a lighted screen, having to face atmospheric nature is a rare event. Only when a tree crashes down upon the road, or a river rises and floods it, or an earthquake topples our homes, do we begin to understand that we are not really the lords of creation to do as we choose with the flora and fauna that illuminate our lives, but only puny agents in the grand scheme of things. Our outstanding advantage is that, unlike the rest of creation, we are capable of meditating on the forces that circumscribe us and in many ways shape our lives from day to day.
If I were asked to suggest a resolution worthy of being taken into the new year, I would mention the need for adopting a humble and contemplative attitude to the world, free from the ghastly hubris to which we are subject. We should take time to stand and stare, to think about the aspirations and suffering of other people, and to pause in our mad competitive rush to secure all the goodies before our neighbours reach them. While arrogance and selfishness reign, we shall continue to reach for drugs to soothe or stimulate us. Once we adopt a more relaxed mood, the need for artificial aids will cease to exist for us, and we shall feel free.