The last century or so seems to have been utterly dominated by isms.
Marxism, Nazism, socialism, conservatism, monetarism,
capitalism, nationalism, secularism, modernism, expressionism, symbolism…
In practice, while each purports to be a useful way of seeing
the world, they each become elephant traps, where beliefs turn into
straitjackets, blocking the intrusion of fresh thinking.
When I played with the Idle Hands at the Witches Cauldron in
the 1960s, I got to know the sage of the clientele. He was older than me –
mid-20s perhaps. I asked him: “What’s at the source of your beliefs.”
“I’m a nihilist,” he proudly announced.
I wonder whether he ever escaped?
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