Left and Right united

It is a strange fall-out of the events of 7 October

That my perceptions have altered.

Yes, the whole world has changed and that day

Which will live like 9/11 and 12/7 in infamy has also wrought

A shift in my mind.

I had previously sat

Not to the extreme left, but far from the center.

As a boy I remember my brother saying,

‘So, you’re a communist!’

This was before I knew the meaning or significance of the word,

It was simply that I could not see the reason behind much of the way of things,

Principally difference.

The diversion from individuality to a collectivist sense that as there is enough to go around, we should all settle for enough rather than a minority too much and the remainder barely a thing. (A foreshadowing of the 1% concept.)

Time has changed me.

I’ve not become a Capitalist.

Money hasn’t been the driving force of my life although I have been fortunate, and a good career and professional life has taken me away from aspiring to a Trabant.

And yet, my politics have remained Left.

Even when Corbyn, on the ascendant allowed Antisemitism to run wild in the party,

I stood with him,

Disbelieving the allegations.

Yes, I was proven wrong, I had misinterpreted the dialectic which he championed

Moving onwards, I have seen over the past two months the positions of world leaders as they either have supported or attacked Israel.

Justified criticism of Israel is OK.

Empathy with the Palestinian People is OK.

Support for Hamas is not.

Ripping-down posters of kidnapped children is not.

What I have seen, during this time has been a divergence,

People I saw as allies have veered away into a righteous indignity at Israel’s actions and those,

I never considered to share any of my values have perceived the urgency of supporting the Jewish State.

And this is perhaps the revelation.

I had, to a greater or lesser extent been an absolutist.

Those on the left, the people supporting the greater good, the poor, the disadvantaged, I gave an ear, and those on the right, the Conservatives, the status quo-nicks, the everyone for themselves brigade were not worth considering. And now all that has been disrupted.

I see good in those I previously criticized

and failure in those I supported.

Topsy turvy.

A turning upside down of the world ‘me-ha-pecha’ (מהפכה) is the word in Hebrew.

And with this I have perhaps grown, matured, my perceptions have broadened and my view of the world more nuanced than on October the 6th.

Events shape us, even when we would prefer to stay the same, it is life, it is revolution.

That day our world changed forever.