Three things I learned this week
#12—Can you connect the dots?
Welcome to Mind Flexing, your weekly thought expedition to everywhere and anywhere. Strap on your boots (or put your feet up), take a deep breath, and let’s get flexing.
Lesson number 1
On the rarest of rare occasions, our TV flicks onto something other than kids programming. It happened today after The Wiggles. Rather than push the off button and begin building skyscrapers, drawing fabled creatures, or watering the children in an attempt to wet the vegetables, you know, normal-day stuff, I flicked over to ABC News Breakfast. From time to time, I like to see what I’m missing from the world of ‘adults’. It turns out, not much.
Apparently, every 10 years since 2004 (so 2014 and this year, 2024) locals from the town of Noonamah on the outskirts of Darwin line up along the railway tracks at Badlands Siding and moon the passengers on The Ghan—a rather expensive tourist train that chugs 2,979km through the Red Centre between Adelaide and Darwin. It all began 20 years ago when The Ghan, having departed Adelaide on its maiden voyage, approached its destination in Darwin with then Prime Minister John Howard on board. The third incarnation of this event was captured by ABC cameras today, and I was an unfortunate witness.
Lesson number 2
Robert Reich, who was Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Labor between 1993 and 1997, has become quite an advocate for equality, especially financial equality. He also likes to draw cartoons. Robert posted a short video this week that points out that the world’s five richest people (all men: Bernard Arnault, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Ellison) have each doubled their fortunes since 2020. That’s some insane growth in just four years! They’re now worth a collective US$869 billion. To put that in perspective, Robert says that if they each spent US$1 million a day, it would take 476 years to exhaust their combined fortunes. Meanwhile, 5 billion people globally have become poorer since 2020.
It’s an aspect of wealth most people forget. Money is limited. While central banks do, under controlled circumstances, release new funds into circulation, it generally stands that for someone to become wealthier, others become poorer. The illusion that money trickles down from the top still reigns supreme. The word the masses seem to miss is ‘trickle’. Put it this way, they’re not turning the tap on.
Robert says financial inequality can be reduced with three key political changes: corporate monopolies must be broken up; a wealth tax must be introduced; and politics must be rid of “big money”. I think he’s right, but he’s fighting an uphill battle that feels further out of reach than ever. Good on him for sticking to his principles. I’d gladly be wrong on this one.
Lesson number 3
Apologies to my UK readers; this one’s about Oliver Cromwell’s head, which you must surely know about, so forgive this ignorant Australian (see video of the moonies above). But for other ignoramuses like me, this is an astounding story and one that only came to my attention in A Pocket Guide to Cambridge this week. Now, I know who Oliver Cromwell is, having seen enough history programs about English monarchs (there always seems to be one on TV, a little like shows on air crash investigations or scenic railway journeys (see video of moonies above). But, when it comes to his head, well, the short version is:
Oliver Cromwell advocated for King Charles I’s execution, then took power and ruled England, Scotland and Ireland as Lord Protector for a few years from 1653 until he died naturally in 1658. When the monarchy returned, King Charles II had Cromwell’s body exhumed in 1661. Cromwell needed to be punished and was executed posthumously by hanging, then beheading. His head was placed on a 20-foot pole and displayed, with two others, on the roof of Westminster Hall, where Charles I had been sentenced to death. We know it was up there for at least 24 years, but its whereabouts between 1684 to 1710 is debated. The story goes that the head fell to the ground in a storm late one November 1688 night and a sentry picked it up and carried it home where it stayed until he died, after which it was passed around various collectors. In 1960, it was buried in a secret location at Sidney Sussex College at Cambridge University. They are very sure it is his real head.
What all this could mean for King Charles III, I’m not yet sure.
The assignment
When I started writing these observations from this week, I felt they were unrelated. Now I’m not so sure.
Dr Tyson Yunkaporta, senior lecturer in Indigenous Knowledges at Deakin University and author of Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World and Right Story, Wrong Story: Adventures in Indigenous Thinking, through his work, encourages us to seek out the patterns and connections between things.
And as I collated the above, I could start to see connections between the moonies, the billionaires and Oliver Cromwell’s head.
Can you?
See what you come up with in the comments below and I’ll let you know my thoughts next week.
Things I’ve enjoyed on Substack this week
We’re Not Saving Time—by Kent Peterson
Thoreau, cats and Kafka in less than 60 seconds. Brilliant!
Wound is the Origin of Wonder—by Maya C. Popa
Maya’s approach to poetry inspires many on Substack. Here, her thoughts on taking the gap between language and what it suggests and turning it into a catalyst to revisit words and themes from new angles, is fascinating.
Advice to Passengers—by Constantine Markides
For anyone who has been through US customs, you may get a laugh.
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I’ll be back next week. Until then, keep 💪.
So many great things in this article, and now I’m wondering how the sentry’s family reacted when he walked in with Cromwell’s head 🤪
Thanks, Alia. I appreciate the mention!