Kindness

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For the past couple of weeks I’ve filled the gap between my regular Tuesday and Sunday posts with a look back at Tuesday offerings from a couple of years ago, but I thought I’d do something a little different this week. It has been a while since I posted an opinion piece, and I feel one coming on…

In this week’s Tuesday Tunes I played a song by Frank Turner and, as often happens, this has prompted me to listen to some more of his music. I’ve played a few of them for you before, one of them twice, and that is the one I’m concentrating on today. I first played this song in a very early Tuesday Tunes piece and included it again last year when I celebrated the centenary of those with a retrospective. Unlike the one I played this week it is a quieter, more reflective song, and it says much that is so relevant to what is happening in the world today, which for me makes it worthy of another airing. The song is Be More Kind:

I think that is absolutely beautiful, both in sound and meaning. I was thinking of posting the full lyrics, as they deserve to be read in their entirety, but that would have made the post longer than I wanted. You can find them here if you’d like, though I think they speak for themselves. Frank wrote this song after a US tour in 2016/17, as a response to what he saw as the polarisation of views both there and here in the UK, following the election of Trump and the UK’s referendum on leaving the European Union. It would be naive of me to suggest that those two events are responsible for the divisive nature of politics in both countries today, but I think they acted to crystallise views. He comments that people don’t even talk to each other anymore, and reminds us of our common humanity – something which is sadly lacking in many things we see. Taking just three examples from the lyrics:

Firstly: “In a world that has decided that it’s going to lose its mind” – I think you would need to have been living under a rock for the past seven or eight years not to see the truth of this statement. The two main political parties in the US have grown ever further apart, and an element of childish, name-calling behaviour has begun to dominate to the detriment of serious governance. Just doing something because it is the opposite of what the other party will do or has done, or because it will annoy them, isn’t a sound basis for running a country. And who suffers as a result? Ordinary people, those ‘hard-working voters’ the politicians claim to be working for. Bullshit. And we are no better here. The 2016 referendum vote was the outcome of a campaign of lies and distortions, which appealed to the lowest common denominator and fuelled the inherent racism which had always been lurking just below the surface. The ongoing battles around Brexit – which show no real sign of reaching any kind of sensible conclusion – can hardly be unexpected. There have been a number of other lurches towards extremism in politics, both in Europe and elsewhere, and then there is Putin’s war. Can you doubt the veracity of Frank Turner’s statement that the world has decided that it’s going to lose its mind? I can’t.

Secondly: “We’ve stopped talking to each other and there’s something wrong with that” – we shout at each other, trying to make our voices heard over theirs, but do we listen? Are we really communicating? Are we really debating issues in a civilised manner? Take Twitter as an example. I joined it in 2011 and for a few years I really enjoyed it. I found a like-minded group of people, we chatted, laughed and had fun. But it has gradually become a vehicle of hatred, and I barely venture near it nowadays: just the occasional foray for my blog and to post my daily Wordle score. The number of news reports which relate to who has abused whom on Twitter are plentiful: the vehicle to express views has been made very easy to use by modern day technology, but in doing that we have lost the art of talking to each other, or even to converse in a civilised manner. There is indeed something very wrong with that.

And thirdly: “So before you go out searching, don’t decide what you will find” – how many of us have prejudged people or issues, without even looking for facts to back up our opinions? I know I have done this often, and it is very hard to avoid, but we should all make more of an effort to understand how others see things. In doing so, we will either confirm what we already believed or will come to see that there might actually be another way of viewing matters. Is that so bad? Don’t we have the right to accept that we may have been wrong and to change our minds? Of course we do but we have, I think, become too entrenched in the way we see and do things.

In a world that has decided
That it’s going to lose its mind
Be more kind, my friends
Try to be more kind

He’s right. What we are lacking is what used to be known as ‘the milk of human kindness.’ It is due a return, and then maybe we could begin to try solving some of the enormous problems facing the world and establishing a future for those who will inherit the current mess. The lovely Carolyn posted this as part of her Tuesday’s Thoughts post this week – maybe it is something to which we should all aspire:

Please…

43 thoughts on “Kindness”

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  5. One can only hope that what goes around comes around and that kindness and respect for others will return threefold a great message Clive…I hope you are looking after yourself and being kind to yourself…Take care xx

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  8. Very well put Clive and I agree with all your sentiments. I find when people talk to one another in many ways there is actually a common ground, something that can be built upon.

    And thanks for the Frank Turner song, I am aware of him but know little of his music, which I will check out to listen to more.

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    • Thank you, Paul. Glad to know we’re in agreement.

      I’m a big fan of Frank Turner. His voice can be a bit harsh for some tastes but he mixes the upbeat, more raucous stuff with little gems like this. Plenty of videos on YouTube: I’d recommend Photosynthesis and Recovery as starters, but there are loads more to enjoy. If you’re going the listening only route, try his album Tape Deck Heart.

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  9. Very well articulated, Clive. It saddens me that we’ve gone this far down the rabbit hole of divisiveness. Hypocrisy has run amok. Yet, I think these things have a natural ebb and flow, and we eventually will find our way back. I just hope it doesn’t require a worldwide or national catastrophe to get there. In the meantime, I think it will continue to serve us well to be the best people we can be despite how far off the deep end others have gone.

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  10. Beautiful song and I couldn’t agree more with your post. It is sad how we don’t talk anymore. Lack of communicatin is the reason for so many problems!
    I am humbled that you used one of my quotes for this post, it did fit perfectly. 🙂 Thanks for sharing the link and glad i used that quote this week. It had almost been saved for next week!

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  11. It’s a strange strange world we’re living through at the moment. I rarely- about a minute before I roll my eyes and throw the remote at the screen- can stand to watch the big two news ‘stations’ broadcasting out of the States. One has its own point of view to skew, the other relies on presenters/propagandists who propagate what they personally know to be untrue. Left, Right, take your pick because there’s now only a battleground, any middle ground has been lost and surrendered long ago. Or, Left, Right, march away to a quiet place consider the facts and make up your OWN mind, away from the small bloody minds interested only in rank lies and the Almighty Ratings.
    Hmmm, went off on a rant myself there, sorry Clive!

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    • We don’t get either of those here, but we have our own versions of the Fox News approach. It used to be on here but they withdrew as ratings were too low to make it viable. I have apps on my Apple TV to watch a couple of them for free, but Fox want payment and there’s no way I’d give them my money! It’s a subject to make most of us rant, I think.

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  12. Clive, a powerful essay and reflections on a beautiful song. I listened & read the lyrics before returning to your post and your words echo so many of my thoughts! My family and friends often say we have never know a time like this, with total lack of leadership from so many governments and their innate ability to do NOTHING for the people that elected them. I truly despair and have to step back from going slightly crazy with the world and especially the state of the UK at the moment!

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    • Thank you, Annika. This one has been bouncing around in my head for quite some time, as I share your despair at the state of government here and elsewhere. It was listening again to this song that brought it together for me, as the lyrics say it all so well.

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  13. Oh, what a beautiful song to say that we still have it in our hands to do our part for making this world a bit of a better place, regardless of how it looks like right now. That’s exactly what I try to spread too: The darker life appears, the more light we need to share. Only light brings light. Thank you for this song, Clive!

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