‘You know Camp, I read somewhere that we would be better off today if Trump would have won the 2020 election. It would have been his second, lame duck term and he would have been in charge during the high inflation and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Instead, he had 4 years to hone his anger and revenge, surround himself with crypto billionaires and crackpots like Musk and Kennedy and now look what’s happening.’

            ‘You may have a point there but then we could all go back to the fantasy world where Al Gore won instead of Bush or Hillary beat Trump in 2016. We’d be living in a different world, for sure.’

            ‘I just wonder how we’re going to get through four more years of this roller coaster. In just one day Trump scuttled Ukraine and caved in to Putin and at the same time warbled on about a beautiful golden defence dome that is more fantasy than reality.’

            ‘Did you ever read anything by Aldous Huxley?’ Camp asked me. ‘Brave new World or Island? I came across a couple of quotes by him which perfectly apply to the present. This is Huxley’s message: ‘Misapplied science and soulless political machines, driven by greed and a fanatical will to power, will bring us ever closer to the destruction of civil society and meaningful human life.’ And here is another one: ‘The price of liberty, and even of common humanity, is eternal vigilance.’

            ‘True words, well written but just words. We need to be vigilant in the face of so many who think liberty means chaos and libertarian, even Darwinian laws should supplant our civilized rule of law.’

            ‘While we’re discussing philosophy and polemics, this is a quote from an unlikely quarter, from Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis: ‘All the changes in the world, for good or evil, were first brought about by words.’  

            We both drank to that. 

‘Words are often all we have to oppose lies and tell the truth,’ I said, ‘like in the twisted world of the other Kennedy, the one in charge of health in the US. He is recommending treatments of measles with vitamin A and cod liver oil. ‘The decision to vaccinate is a personal one,’ he wrote, denying in fact public responsibility for the outbreak in Texas, afflicting the un-vaccinated, many of them children who have no choice.’

‘Cod liver oil?’ Camp said, shaking his head. ‘How about snake oil?’

‘He was a heroin addict for 14 years, before he became a quack and charlatan.’

‘No wonder he is afraid of needles and vaccinations.’

‘My fantasy is to awaken to a new renaissance where people leave their smart phones at home, gather in parks and community centres to talk and tell stories; where the rich share their wealth and where artists of all manner are once more revered and respected and politicians are civil servants who govern for the people.’

‘And where a pint of beer is a quarter and lunch is free,’ Camp interrupted me. ‘I’m not sure what you’re smoking.’

‘Just dreaming, that’s all Camp. The sad thing is that I know there is a better way to run the world then by fear and conspiracy theories, hubris and revenge. We have the science, the systems, the technology and the evidence.’

‘All that’s missing is the will of the people to wake up and come together.’

‘Well, it’s nice to daydream and you can fantasize, as long as you come back to earth and the reality of the $ 10 pint of beer.’

‘You two should come in earlier for happy hour,’ Vicky said, having overheard the tail-end of our conversation. ‘Pints for five bucks.’