I was high watching a burning building. When we were told Grenfell tower was on fire, we naively imagined a small dumpster fire on the rooftop – Entertainment value, short work to put out, and likely a prank. We first walked to the bathroom window to get a clearer view. Then we walked to the building itself. No one spoke as the sirens of fire trucks drowned the atmosphere. The large crowd of local onlookers simply gasped and turned away as people fell.
How could such violent disregard for human life occur in one of the most financially well-off boroughs in the country? And why did we feel so numb in the face of it? When I wrote ‘The City’, I wanted to approach impending doom. The globalised world was caving in and eating itself, and we were all gonna be the first to go. The poor in this city eat cheap, fast food and inhale the car fumes, waiting for the River Thames to swallow them up. No matter what happens, the governments seem ineffectually uninterested in doing anything. The hope of any resolution shrinks daily.
More than anything, ‘The City’ grudgingly accepts fate. Violence, fear and immorality are inevitable features of life, and in the increasingly apocalyptic landscape of a climate crisis, nuclear threats and authoritarian regimes, it’s sometimes easier to surrender.
~BUCHANAN