Liminal State!

It is easy to mourn the certainties of our past, which with the benefit of hindsight, appeared safer and more certain than the world we face today.

There is the impression we are less safe, and our children are at greater risk, but that's all it is; an impression. Memory always plays the trick of letting us recall the good things from our childhood and teens years - whilst masking, hiding and burying those aspects of past life which contradict our memories.

Take a look at Shakespeare's Winters Tale, Act III, scene III, when the character the shepherd wishes youths between 16 and 23 would sleep, to reawaken beyond the time of drink, violence, theft and getting wenches in trouble.

It was largely the same in the 16th century as it is today with one exception, the cloak of mystery and magic surrounding our establishment (royalty, politicians, judiciary, and in the 21st century; captains of industry) has been lifted to reveal a tawdry world of self interest and a blatant unwillingness to be held accountable.

The explosion of 24 hour, wall to wall media, has brought with it the uncompromising truth about our leaders, culture and society in all its raw and savage clarity. We are currently in a "liminal" state in our history, very much like the transition from feudal communities to industrial structures as we now move away from a mechanized to the electronic environment.

I commend the work of Emile Durkheim, so you too can see, what is happening today, is simply a variation on a long line of historical themes.