“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards”
So said the Danish theologian Søren Kierkegaard, or approximately anyway. More precisely:
Det er ganske sandt, hvad Philosophien siger, at Livet maa forstaaes baglænds. Men derover glemmer man den anden Sætning, at det maa leves forlænds.
It is perfectly true, as the philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But they forget the other proposition, that it must be lived forwards.
Søren Kierkegaard, Journals IV A 164 (1843)
As this year ends, with all the demands it has made upon so many, a look back in anything but anger seems impossible, therefore I do so with no more than a glance, and done (and off the top of my head) in just a few brief paragraphs. The whys and wherefores will be attended to in time and, hopefully, to follow Kierkegaard with understanding, but not now.
No, I didn’t welcome in the year 2023 with terribly much optimism, but that it would be so unsparing and, for some, so brutal, I did not foresee. In the Big Wide World trouble was afoot wherever one looked; Russia’s continued war against the Ukraine; China sabre-rattling in the Taiwan Strait; conflicts to various extremes on the African continent (incl. Sudan, Mali), in Yemen (still), in Myanmar (still); natural disasters aplenty (incl. catastrophic earthquake in Turkey/Syria, the warmest year in human history & all that implies in all regions of the world – floods, drought, fire, famine, etc.); political turmoil, in places expected and places not (right-wing populists elected in The Netherlands, Argentina). This all just a small sampling.
The inflation that dominated the world’s western economies began to subside by the end of the summer (here, in Germany, the double figure mark was touched mid-year) and is now nearing the desired 2% in some. Zooming in, the EU will probably end the year at about 3% and Germany at 3.7% and seemingly still trending “south” (though still not reflected in the weekly shop, I can tell you!), the US figures and trends are not dissimilar. Elsewhere, in Turkey and Argentina for instance, inflation remains entrenched at a mind-boggling rates (e.g. Turkey at 60 odd %, Argentina 185% p.a.!) – but that’s another story, upon which I am unqualified to speak.
As people everywhere were born, so many – but not as many – died; and, of those, one knows only the near (and sometimes dear) or those of renown. This latter group included: Glenda Jackson, Michael Parkinson, Barry Humphries (and with him Dame Edna), Henry Kissinger, Sandra Day O’Connor, Dianne Feinstein, Tina Turner, Jeff Beck, Michael Gambon, A.S. Byatt, Martin Amis, Cormac McCarthy, Jane Birkin, Ryan O’Neal, Bacharach, Bennett, Belafonte – all old or very old, and mentioned by me without judgement and only because with each I associate something special – an event, a book, a film, a song, a particular moment in my life; and then there were, as always, those well before their time (so to speak) … of whom I come up blank at the moment (…oh, there was Matthew Perry). That it should be in the finality of death that we meet up with that one certainty in life that awaits us all.
Oh, and the King was crowned. Long live the King, I say. God knows he’s waited long enough to show his stuff.
I end with the two things from the year gone that, in my mind, will continue to dominate this new year, and potentially pose the greatest risk to global security and the well-being of many. Firstly, the deadly 7th October attack by Hamas on Israel and the aftermath that sees an ongoing retaliatory, and even more deadly, incursion by the IDF into Gaza. The stability of the entire region, always fragile, has now been seriously undermined, with the way forward towards some sort of resolution unclear. Problematic, also, is that this regional conflict has found resonance globally – especially in the media, and on the streets and campuses of Western countries; in which protest has taken radical partisan forms (the gamut of the political spectrum from left to right, secular to religious, anti-Semitic, anti-Islam), intermingled, and often created strange (more than strange: bizarre!) bed-fellows.
And, secondly, the unlikely – or so I thought – reemergence of Trump and Trumpist America – and all that that implies. Heading into election year, Biden’s popularity is at its lowest ebb, and Republican contenders to usurp Trump’s crown appear doomed. What can be said? Be it the courts, be it (mainstream) media, be it economic stability, be it pure ‘reason’; nought seems to deter this man from his pursuit of that which he believes to be his to take, nor hinder his ability to convince his MAGA ‘fans’ likewise. America survived one Trump term, would they seriously risk another? The world looks on aghast – and waits.
Alone to be said: Another year has found its end and a new one just begun, and already on its inexorable way to just as certain an end. What fate awaits in the year 2024? What will it bring, what is to be left in its wake? … But I resist the temptation to predict! Instead, the best one can do is accept the living of it, the muddling through it, and with some modest good intentions – one day at a time.
