<<> It is an irony that Lawrence and Richard decided to prune (but not
> cutback) their gardens rather than going into the crowd to listen to
> its silence. This withdrawal, in effect, to keep intact staple leftwing
> ideas on the media, class, and the 'masses', all the while with one eye
on
> the comfort of one's own flowers, is not a "brave stance", as they
> themselves described it, but an imitation of the Royals laagering at
> Balmoral.>
Oh dear
I didn't say I was pruning my garden. I said _back to gardening and
poetry_. There is more to gardening than cutting back especially the way I
do it. _Cutting back_ was Ric, not me. Btw *I* was *being* ironic. It is
less than ironic that it was not understood.
I didn't withdraw. I couldn't nor did I want to. I didn't need to be at any
mass *there*; I had plenty to do *here*. I did a funeral the week before
and that was enough.
As well as writing on the Saturday I went out into the silence, a deep and
unprecedented silence far out from London and different to the silence of
absence. The houses were full and televisions and radios were on, but they
were all turned down. It was also I imagine different to the silence of a
huge crowd, but not I think less significant or interesting for that...
I don't think my not BEING THERE made my experience less authentic than
that of anyone who was there. Less happening perhaps.
I wasn't trying to keep _intact staple leftwing ideas_ on anything.
I *was* trying to keep my ability to think independently; and I believed,
apparently correctly, that standing back a little was the best way of doing
that
Some staple leftwing ideas - in so far as that phrase means anything - are
worth keeping, though not necessarily intact. Some ideas always were - I
thought -obviously suspect and not worth acting on. One such is that you'll
learn something if you listen to the people en masse.
I didn't say I was brave. Ric said he thought I was. I happen not to agree
with him. I thought about denying it on the list but it would have looked
false.
And there are other and similar laagers than Balmoral.
Lawrence Upton
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