I’m getting on. Not really getting on but definitely getting on a bit. I was born in the swinging sixties, a few years before the age of flower power, psychedelia an all that. I don’t remember much about my life before about 5 years old. It’s not that it’s a long time ago and recall isn’t what it was. It was just that the first five years are a selection of snapshots and fill from parents and siblings. My real growing up happened in the 1970s and 80’s. Those were the decades that I remember more vividly. I’m sure there are those that look back with a warm glow at the 1970’s but I don’t. I had a comfortable happy childhood and not much happened. There were no great traumas apart at the end of the 70’s when I lost both grandfathers. I’m not entirely sure what growing up in that era has done to my current outlook in life. I suspect it’s more a combination of nurture as well as era. My folks were and still are open and accepting of different. They didn’t fill me with prejudices and a narrow view of the world. I had plenty of freedom and played out a lot.
The 1980’s were more fundamental in forming the current me than the 70’s. I finished school and started work. I fell in love several times before getting married in 1989. I moved a couple of times before ending back up in Yorkshire. It’s fair to say I did a lot of growing up in that decade. It was a time of huge societal upheaval particularly for a leftie like me who at least had a hate figure to pin the woes of our world on. It’s fair to say I wasn’t in the Thatcher fan club. For some, her presence was positive or left a sense of indifference. I can’t imagine how you could have ever been indifferent towards her and her governments. She polarised the UK rather like our current miserable attempt at a PM does.
The subsequent decades have centred mainly around my family. Having children really does change your whole world. You can never go back to a time before you had them because they have such a profound effect on every aspect of your life. It’s a positive experience but not without pain, heartache and problems. If you have any empathy or emotional bonds with your children, you will be changed. You should be changed because they need you to be. You lose your name and gain another. For six human beings, I am dad. I’m not John. I have a granddaughter who only sees me as grandpa. I like being dad and grandpa, it fills me with pride.
As I’m getting on now, has the modern world begun to leave me behind? I struggle with some modern attitudes and concepts. It isn’t because I don’t agree with them. I am accepting of pretty much any concept that promotes equality, tolerance and positivity. I do however struggle with the notion that I have to learn the jargon and affirm my beliefs as much as some in modern society expect me to. You have to speak out and be overt in your views. The alternative approach of quietly agreeing can be perceived as being against. Did this attitude exist in the 1970’s ? Were my parents and older siblings pushed into being out there with their beliefs ?
We can blame social media, the rise of the internet and 24 hour non stop news. They all have undoubtedly had an affect on the modern attitudes. The herd mentality works on such platforms as Twitter where people feel obliged to pile in to every topic current and developing. I do think this had its embryonic beginnings in the 1980’s. This decade of mass unemployment, the emergence of HIV AIDS, mass starvation in Africa and social unrest over the Poll Tax; forced many of us to speak out and let others know where we stood. We could never go back to keeping our opinions to ourselves. We could no longer be allowed time to work out what these new challenges meant and what we felt about them. You had to have an opinion.
I don’t go on Twitter much now, mainly because I find it a tad intimidating. It was fun when I started on there. It was a community of interesting folk who shared fun and warmth. It’s become a howling pack of wolves, an angry mob, a poisonous place. These good people are still around but they are less engaged. I worry that the new owner (Elon Musk) has a free speech agenda that will allow the likes of Trump and Katie Hopkins back to spread their hate and lies. Free speech also requires responsibility which these far right mouthpieces fail to grasp.
I do wonder if my parents began to feel less current when they were the age I am now. Is this all part of the ageing process, where we become detached from younger people who have more forthright opinions? I think age can give you more of a sense of perspective. You see history repeating itself and those in power, making the same mistakes they did forty years ago. I am interested in current issues and feel strongly on many of them. I’m just not sure anyone wants to hear my views now. I’m past the age of being vital. We have come a long way since my youth. I still believe in fairness, social justice, social equality and protecting our delicate planet. I believed these things in 1982 and nothing has changed to doubt my convictions on any of these. I just wonder if my voice is worth listening to now?
The John Linney 