Darrell Goodliffe
Darrell Goodliffe is a freelance writer and political commentator. He maintains his own blog, Moments of Clarity, and is a regular contributor to LabourList and Huffington Post UK, amoung many sites. As a member of the British Labour Party he has had a varied political journey which has taken him from the far-left, through the Liberal Democrats and finally back to his political home in Labour. Politically, he would describe himself as a democratic socialist and is constantly frustrated by people who think the two things are incompatible. Outside of politics he has had a varied life experience, travelling and living in various places and even, for a time in New Zealand. He enjoys films, reading, which has diminished a bit the more he writes, and is an avid supporter of Peterborough United Football Club, who he informs us are the most entertaining team in the UK.
?!X: What’s the Future You Choose?
DG: I choose a freer and more socially just future, if you look at the world around us, there is not enough freedom in the world and too many people are starving for no good, rational reason when we have the resources to feed everybody. My problem with capitalism is that the wealth we socially create is undemocratically hoarded by 1 to 2 % of the worlds population while the rest of us are forced, to scrimp, save and barely get-by or suffer the privations of truly desperate and dire poverty.
?!X: What’s a ‘think’ to create this future?
DG: My think would be any random act of kindness I have encountered. Probably the most recent one was during a particularly monsoon-like deluge of rain, as per usual, I was rather badly dressed for an occasion such as this, dressed in a t-shirt and sporting my shades. No umbrella either, (in my defence, it looked sunny when I stepped out), so I was getting very drenched looking sorry for myself, hiding under an equally sad tree. Somebody came out of the house opposite, invited me in and even gave me a lift back to my home. Moments like that remind us that we are more than a sum of our parts when we act cooperatively we are a better species than a glance for the morning papers would lead you to believe.
?!X: What’s an ‘act’ to create the future you choose?
DG: If you could set aside 5 minutes a day to take in a little of the news in and give it some consideration that would be a marvelous act. I tend to swim in news but am conscious that most people don’t want to do that; but people do need to be engaged at some level because the essential problem with democracy is, if you don’t use it, you do tend to lose it. Maybe you are rightly angry at politicians over an issue like expenses, good, you should be, but don’t just get angry, get even, and get involved.
?!X: What’s a ‘vote’ to create the future you choose?
DG: At this point I am definitively not going to make a pitch for Labour because, as things stand, it is sometimes questionable how far voting for them would bring about the future I would like to see. I would be happy to see people getting involved with the world around them at pretty much any level and even if it was with my direct political opponents. The more people are involved, the more they collectively take ownership and control of their own destinies, the better. The future should not be created by the few with the vision and will to do so but should be the property of the many.
?!X: Future Soundtrack – What song would you take with you into the future?
DG: What a Beautiful Day – Levellers
?!X: Can you share with us up to 5 weblinks that you find interesting and inspiring?
Follow Darrell on Twitter @DarrellGoodliff
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