One time at University I was befriended by Carol and her boyfriend. She soon became my girlfriend and we spent hours before bedtime in earnest discussion. She was an International Socialist and we discussed topics like "what would have happened if Lenin's train from Germany at the end of the first world war to Russia had been bombed".....
It so happened that the Americans had arrived in the port and were progressing with fixed bayonets (Harold Wilson was prime minister and there was an incident). I chanced to walk down the street where a demonstration of students sitting in the soldiers path was happening. As I passed by I saw that Carol was out in front.
I walked across and persuaded her to leave with me.
When I saw her again I noticed a change in her. Gone was the scintillating conversation and the intellectual discussions, instead there was only the little noises of an animal in distress. I then saw the small bandage on her head. She had been luecotomised and was no longer "Carol". I took her in my arms and carried her down to reception for help.
Nothing could be done, she was put on welfare and the last I heard she was raising my child in a small cottage in the west country.
I'm not particularly interested in politics but I think I could have been happier had I lived in the former Soviet Union as a scientist in one of their institutes. However I chose to work for a British scientific institution until my psychiatrist decided otherwise and I was put into work as a technician in a school.
I never heard from Carol and I have had no news of my child.
Chris.
02/01/2010