I’m known for my somewhat sombre outlook on life, but this post on FaceBook kind of killed any party that was going on.

I had this dream last night that was sometime in the future. Our civilisation had collapsed because we had lost sight of the Greek God of Aspiration (I doubt there was such a character, but that was the gist).

The problem with the “painful choices” is that they are just that: painful. We are being constantly being battered down with…
• International Terrorism stories
• Economic disasters
• Social collapse
• Climate change
horror stories not only from the media, but from government itself which legislates with the clumsy hand of a toddler as a knee-jerk reaction.

There is no optimism any more. Nothing good to look forward to, nothing good to look back on. We are trapped in a sea of grey oppression from which there is no escape. Hell, we can’t even take a bloody photo in London without being arrested now.

That is how far we have come. That is where we are. Any more “painful choices” will be the death of us - before such choices are even put on the list of things to discuss, we need a sea change: a change of attitude, a change of outlook, a change towards a more optimistic future.

I think the 2000s have been, and clearly the 2010s will be, the most depressing decades I will live through.

When our civilisation collapses, it will not be down to the list of excuses above. It will be because we failed to see a bight future and head for it.

I find it very hard to be optimistic at the moment.

We have to put this into context. This was in repsonse to some comments about David Cameron, who will no doubt murder the NHS if his bunch of renegate Thatcherites get elected this year.

In this article on the BBC’s web site, he promises no “swingeing cuts”. Like we believe him.

Following on from this, we have a comment on the FaceBook stream which rightly points out that there will never be the kind of decisive action needed because politicians just don’t have the backbone to make them. This kind of action will hurt. It will hurt big time. You think it’s bad now, well that’s just peanuts. Etc..

This all leads to a very bleak picture. The future is going to be far more grim than the past was.