Dearest Foxy,

There is a fascinating article in the Guardian about Adela Pankhurst:

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/dec/24/wayward-suffragette-adela-pankhurst-and-her-remarkable-australian-life

It would make a riveting Ph.D. for somebody to study the movements to and from the Marxist Left of people like Pankhurst, George Orwell, Howard Fast, Douglas Pike, Sam Wanamaker, Karl Popper, Isaiah Berlin, Frederick Hayek, and so many others - sorry, I can't think of anybody who has moved the other way.

Why did they move towards the Right (or in Pankhurst's case, to the extreme-Right) ?

Was it a personality trait, some fundamental belief which eventually couldn't mesh with Marxism, or was it because the movement moved - as far as they were concerned - in wrong directions, or was taken over by the usual gaggle of careerists ?

Or because of events like the sell-out in Spain, the Molotov-Ribbentrop deal, or the coups in eastern Eruope in the late forties, or the repression of the people in Hungary or the invasion of Czechoslovakia ? Or Cambodia ? Tien An Men ? Bosnia ? Kosovo ? East Timor ?

Hopefully, we learn from our mistakes, so Popper says. T. A. Edison too, with his 2000 failed light bulb experiments. Blueprints, daydreams, can be beautiful, but not if they don't match, or keep up with, reality. If lofty ideals require the sacrifice of other people, perhaps that's a huge mistake right there.

There you go, Foxy: I'm sure that for many people, there have been more than enough incidents to go around.

All the very best,

Love,

Joe

Dear runner,

Thank You.

And I again wish you and your lovely wife and
family every Happiness, Joy, warmth, and contentment
in the New Year.

Dear Poirot,

I'm so glad that you're still here. I've missed your
sage wisdom and I fully agree that it would be good
if on this forum there was a way we could find out
what happened to people who suddenly disappear from
contributing.

Dear WmTrevor,

It's good that you still keep up the belief in Santa for
members of your family. I feel that the spirit of
Christmas is something that is worth maintaining.
We shouldn't forget that Christmas is about more than
just gifts giving.

Dear Joe,

We can learn a great deal from the challenges that life
throws at us. It's not always easy to do (as a famous
politician once stated) but it's up to us how we deal
with things. I know that you've been through a lot in
your time. What impresses me is that somehow you always
see more than just the one-side. That's something that I
am only just beginning to learn to do.

Dear Foxy,

Wondered where you were, sorry to hear about your trouble; get well soon and have a happy Christmas and all the best for the New year.

Dear Joe,

I've just read your last post.

It certainly would be interesting to sit down
with the famous people you mentioned and try
to find out what prompted their life-changing
decisions. Although keeping an open mind is
not always easy. Trying to be objective is
no easy task. I would find it very difficult
to understand the motivation of someone who
tortured other people - as in the Nazi and
Soviet concentration camps.

Dearest Foxy,

There is something beautifully adolescent about revolutions - flash ! and it's all done. But for grown-ups, we know what has to come after. And after that too. And so on. Beautiful propositions, once tested, usually don't stand up.

What was a pivotal incident ? We lived for years, across the seventies, in an Aboriginal community. You get to know everybody, wave to them even at a distance, flirt with the women, joke with the men, cuddle the kids. You take for granted what you 'see'. Years later, after my dear wife and I went off to tertiary study, and after coming back many times over the intervening four or five years, being passionate about community development, I did a research thingo about the development at that community. As an afterthought, I did an income study with a good friend from there: we found that median incomes were equal to the Australian average.

Yes, that was traumatic: I really contemplated suicide and since the community was on the Murray, I had visions of swimming out and just going under. Nice and easy. But I came to my senses, and I've been trying to deal with that ever since. Why ? How ? I couldn't understand how that could be, and what were the implications, for the entire Indigenous movement ?

There have been a few others like that, but not as pivotal.

Oops, back to the baked vegetables - and sh!t, the salad ! And for Christ's sake get the pudding out of the bloody freezer ! Lay off he plonk.

Love,

Joe

Merry Christmas to all here on OLO.
I hope you all have a wonderful day.

Cheers, Suse.