The Virtual Rambler

Number thirty four: 20^th March 2013

Autobiography

When he came to put an elderly pen to paper , the Rambler's perspectives proved to be highly subjective. In the tradition of much modern fiction , his focus dwelt upon a solitary chap voicing irascibility , whims and confusion from his teenage years onwards. Irritation becomes the default setting for lives in which a constant drizzle of frustration , commodity fetishism and rush-hour travel became the norm. His was a narrative that blazed no new trails – indeed , its momentum took us from nimble sport to lame old age , from bold presumption to limping resignation. From youth’s wild pleasures to their steady subtractions. What could be more traditional than that ? In the best tradition of investigative journalism he probed the psychology of the slacker and nailed management mystagoguery. Repeatedly. No comprehensive Theories of Anything were advanced at any stage. He preferred repeated confessions of how little we really know about events in the past or the present , let alone the future. Unlike Maimonides⁽¹⁾ , he offered no Guide For the Perplexed but preferred to join them in saying “You bowled me a fast one there” when confronted with each knotty question. He never issued any practical advice on interior design , sartorial make-overs or culinary preparations ; nor was he tempted to offer tips on investment in foreign property , or on the relative merits of fixed-rate and tracker mortgages. He regarded Economics as a branch of Astrology.

His was just another face in the crowd. He was a chap whose days and years passed in common business and periodic amusements. Crack squads of formidable paramilitaries , agents of international espionage and pairs of burnt-out , maverick cops played no part in his hour upon this world's stage. The unread Money , Family , Work and Travel sections of a single weekend newspaper were used to light his outmoded log fire and if he knew of any little-known areas of unspoilt natural beauty , he kept their location to himself. Notwith standing some private doubts about one or two statesmen , he eschewed the search for extra-terrestrial influences on earthly affairs. Head-scratching was his default activity throughout. Why Evolution , why Elvis , why stone circles , why Stromboli ? No answers were forthcoming. His was a mind unable to come to any conclusions. An outside glance saw him scaling the class ladder as depicted in John Braine’s glum fictions but it was groping , first explored in teenage mode , that became a lifelong dynamic. He was not here to tell you how it is , beyond offering the suggestion that human society is as mad as a hatter and its history a roll-call of innumerable idiocies and wanton bloodletting. Progress ? We are searching for a bit of elbow room on a road to nowhere.

Prone to picture himself when younger as an innocent abroad , he intermittently inclined to the outward life , to be out on the edge of things and returning as a stranger to his home town. He went off climbing rocks from time to time , being fond of what the Greeks called the katascopos - a view from on high usually reserved for birds and gods. My mother responded to these expeditions with the regular query “when are you going to pack in these mad stunts lad ?” What others regarded as his failure to capitalise on early academic promise , he saw as haplessly but steadily distancing himself from any public idea of success , a condition guaranteed to drive its incumbents away from what is most inward in themselves. In our lives , as in our dreams , we imagine we’re treading the boards of a theatre managed by ourselves. Our agenda of productions was a blend of the old and the new. From angry young men in drainpipe trousers to philosophic ancient Greeks in their robes. Towards the end of the rocky road , he realised how ill white hairs (or none) become a jester as he waited for the curtain to fall.


Wig

⁽¹⁾ Mosheh ben Maimon (1135-1204) , called Moses Maimonides in the West , was a medieval Jewish philosopher. He was one of the most prolific Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages. He was born in Cordoba but his family were obliged to move to Morocco when he was an adolescent. He wrote and studied at Fez , travelled in the Middle East and finally settled in Egypt.

Archive

Virtual rambler #1 – Posturing, 9^th March 2010
Virtual rambler #2 – Managerialism, 17^th March 2010
Virtual rambler #3 – Nostalgia, 27^th March 2010
Virtual rambler #4 – The Alpha Male, 13^th April 2010
Virtual rambler #5 – General Elections, 3^rd May 2010
Virtual rambler #6 – The Leisure Industry, 15^th May 2010
Virtual rambler #7 – Guide to The World Cup, 15^th June 2010
Virtual rambler #8 – Human Nature, 12^th July 2010
Virtual rambler #9 – Communities, 13^th August 2010
Virtual rambler #10 – Worlds Apart, 6^th October 2010
Virtual rambler #11 – Dawdling, 22^nd November 2010
Virtual rambler #12 – ELVIS, 24^th December 2010
Virtual rambler #13 – Transience, 4^th February 2011
Virtual rambler #14 – Regional Accents, 15^th April 2011
Virtual rambler #15 – The Afterlife, 21^st July 2011
Virtual rambler #16 – Bizspeak, 27^th August 2011
Virtual rambler #17 – Night Walks, 3^rd October 2011
Virtual rambler #18 – Bob Dylan & Charles Dickens, 8^th November 2011
Virtual rambler #19 – Another Nutty Professor, 16^th December 2011
Virtual rambler #20 – Customer Choice, 16^th January 2012
Virtual rambler #21 – Wearing Shorts, 18^th February 2012
Virtual rambler #22 – A Brief History of Progress, 17^th March 2012
Virtual rambler #23 – The Myth of Sisyphus, 16^th April 2012
Virtual rambler #24 – Natural History, 20^th May 2012
Virtual rambler #25 – European Self Importance, 26^th June 2012
Virtual rambler #26 – Sweet Dreams, 25^th July 2012
Virtual rambler #27 – Excess, 17^th August 2012
Virtual rambler #28 – In Denial, 20^th September 2012
Virtual rambler #29 – The Way, 21^st October 2012
Virtual rambler #30 – On Rambling, 14^th November 2012
Virtual rambler #31 – Gazing Into The Abyss, 18^th December 2012
Virtual rambler #32 – Intellectual Gloom, 25^th January 2013
Virtual rambler #33 – Great Human Achievements, 20^th February 2013