Charles Dickens begins his novel A Tale of Two Cities (1859) with this as memorable as it is wise and perceptive reflection:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; the age of wisdom, and also of madness; the time of beliefs and disbelief; the era of light and darkness; the spring of hope and the winter of despair. We owned everything, but we had nothing; we walked straight to heaven and lost ourselves on the opposite path. In a word, that time [that of the French Revolution] was so similar to the present [that of Dickens's Victorian age], that our most notable authorities insist that, as regards both good and evil, only superlative comparison is acceptable.”
It is as if the brilliant English author spoke directly to us, as if he understood the dilemma we are facing, since ours is also the best and the worst of all worlds at the same time. We have a lot but we have nothing; We set out for heaven, only to end up in hell. We walk lost, fearful, empty of content. We feel threatened, the apocalypse just around the corner.
Still, life goes on. Not a day goes by without us finding out about some technological advance that will change our lives forever, although we don't know if it's for better or for worse, as is the case right now with AI. And all this while the past, increasingly questioned, refuses to die, as it enjoys a bad iron salute, as we have seen with the coronation of Charles III of England.
Arriving in London on August 9, 1902, the American writer and adventurer Jack London was able to witness the collective jubilation of the masses on the occasion of the coronation of Edward VII, the long-lived son of Queen Victoria. But Jack London's journalistic assignment had nothing to do with covering the accession to the throne of the new king, but consisted of investigating the underworld of poverty that was opening up in the East End, a stone's throw from Buckingham Palace.
Disguised as a penniless American sailor, London spent months living low with beings not only immersed in extreme poverty, but persecuted at all hours and everywhere by implacable police and authorities. He collected his experiences in The People of the Abyss, a shocking book whose reading still makes your hair stand on end.
Shortly before the coronation of Edward VII, Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad's novel that revealed the horror of the European overseas colonies, had gone on sale in bookstores. But it is only now, after so many wars and atrocities, that we really begin to become aware of the atrocities committed in the colonies, thoroughly plundered for centuries by heartless settlers and colonial administrators.
The coronation of Carlos III brought together the air of a costume party, of a cool episode with no budget limits, for example, Downton Abbey or The Crown, while, a few meters from so much pageantry, more and more homeless people live on the streets , people of all ages and backgrounds, desperate people, people with no future, people abandoned to their fate, just as the solemnly poor described by Jack London did.
But if anything has changed in the 121 years between these two coronations, it is not just that the UK has lost its colonies, but that Britons, increasingly divided and isolated as a result of Brexit, are not alone. Both they and the rest of the world live in a state of uncertainty and fear before what will clearly be the prompt certification of the immovable and inevitable expiration date not only of humanity but of our planet, how lucky it will be to survive us.
Jack London was right when he placed the abyss right next to so much pomp and circumstance, as Charles Dickens also hit the mark when recounting the times of the French Revolution. Perhaps we are still in time to avoid the announced apocalypse, but our rulers do not seem to be up for the job. In other words, we are still immersed in the best and worst of times, although, for now, without knowing how long.
