The great crisis question

Sonny Ferguson

MY piece in last month’s Life and Work about the birth of our third grandchild in the midst of a pandemic had an interesting, indeed heartwarming, response.

One kind lady in Orkney, Helen Wishart, who is skilled in many crafts, made little Sonny Ferguson a bib embroidered with the legend “Born in Lockdown 2020”. Sonny, born on April 8, is thankfully thriving (pictured in bed with his wee toy pal). My wife Cristine and myself still haven’t been able to travel down from Orkney to hold Sonny and give him a cuddle but – thanks to the good offices of Professor Zoom – we’ve been able to witness his cheerful progress.

Seeing Sonny’s wee scone face on screen has got me thinking some more sombre thoughts in the midst of the joy. (Hey, one couldn’t be a Presbyterian and a devotee of the great Dane Soren Kierkegaard without having a few melancholy thoughts.) What worries me is the undeniable fact that Sonny’s generation is going to be faced with the monumental task of clearing up the mess of the world made by my generation.

When I was researching the life of George MacLeod, founder of the Iona community, I was reminded of the fact that George was a leading light in the Ecology Party.

Remember them? They were the precursors of what evolved into the Green Party. That was way back in 1976. They were pointing out the potentially catastrophic climate changes that could challenge the future of the planet itself.

Yes, nearly half a century ago. Nowadays, with the earth aflame, many natural habitats destroyed and a climate change denier in the White House, have we progressed? Part of the problem is that over the past few decades, we have lived in thrall to the widespread myth of perpetual progress.

Its siren call leads to a cliff edge. (Remember that graffiti: “One hundred thousand lemmings can’t be wrong”?) One thing the coronavirus has reminded us is to beware what we pray for. Progress has tended to be measured almost exclusively in financial terms – leading straight to banking crashes and government bail-outs for the already wealthy.

The current crisis we are in has exposed once again the gross inequalities in our modern societies. When I was a minister in Easterhouse, Glasgow, in the 1970s, I saw the inequalities at first hand. You couldn’t not see them. The statistics showed time and again that people in deprived areas had shorter life spans than those who lived in well-off areas. I could have papered my house with official reports on the subject.

Yet only a few days ago I read yet again that a group had been set up to study inequalities. You don’t say? My generation has been part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

Yet the bills from these mounting problems will be coming in for years, and somebody – or rather some generation – will have to pay the price for our neglect and our greed and our preference for fantasies, rather than facing up to hard facts.

When precious little Sonny Ferguson grows up, he may turn to me and ask: “So grandpa, what did you do in the Great Crisis?” This may make for a rather uncomfortable discussion.

In the meantime, wee Sonny is due on Zoom, cheerfully wearing his bib. So, gentle reader how will you answer the Great Crisis question? Discuss.

This article appears in the August 2020 Issue of Life and Work

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