For those still wondering what brought about the swing to the right seen in the USA, Germany, France, India, the UK . . . look no further than the message: Let’s make America Great Again. In truth America never was that great. It enjoyed a golden period on the back of the post WWII lease lend agreement only to be swallowed up in the burgeoning Industrial/Military complex. The British too, can be made to believe that the empire lost was all things wonderful and can be restored. In truth the British Empire, at its gargantuan height, was a rotten place for the lower paid to live and work. There was the rich, the very rich, and the dirt poor. That there was no National Health Care, no National Insurance & Pension Service, were irrelevancies to the fact that 90% of the population didn’t have enough food; the children had rickets. Horse manure filled the streets of the big cities and millions died in unnecessary wars. There was nothing wonderful about those times.
The seven billion inhabitants of this planet no more need a swing back to the right than a nuclear bomb. What is needed is unity of purpose; we need governance of common goals by leaders with ambitions other than their personal wealth and we will get them. The cries of “Me First” are but cries for help; mere pimples on the face of a sanity otherwise engaged in the business of learning and leading and they will go away. They will melt below the upper dermal layers as the common sense of caring shines through.
We are probably powerless to bring about the changes our attitudes require to make the world a better place quickly but, we are able to prevent further decline immediately. Stopping Brexit is an easily achievable goal that will re-unify the countries of the United Kingdom and sustain our alliance with our old war enemies in Europe so that is a must. Ridding the United States of a rogue president might be harder but it is essential. Impeachment is the obvious route but it is likely to fail because the Senate is corrupt: it is strictly partisan which, in itself, is unconstitutional. The very fact that a trial by the Senate will fail to find Trump guilty of the crimes he so clearly committed tell us that the United States system is broken. Can we fix it? Can we rein in the NRA sufficiently to prevent another mass shooting; another mass murder of our children? Can we remove the messianic dictator from the White House? Of course we can; we just need a charismatic leader. Not 78 year old Nancy, or kindly Chuck Schumer of only 69, no. We need a firebrand to capture the hearts of the decent working stiffs and to carry common sense back to Pennsylvania Avenue to oversea an administration worthy of the nation it serves. We need to shake off the nonsense that is Brexit. We need to remember why the Common Market was formed, the lessons of 40 years of development, and look forward not to destroy, but to build a better union. We need to move onward and upward; drop the fairy tail past and wrap ourselves in the vigor of the future.
As early as 1999 Milton Friedman remarked of the Internet:
The US are in a panic. They are sending out letters warning of dire consequences to those known to have crypto accounts – they’ve even threatened to confiscate passports of law-abiding citizens who do not conform to laws yet to be defined. Such blunt hypocrisy in the face of technological advance has to be seen as Luddite in nature and oppressive in adoption. From whence comes such retarded thinking in a nation so advanced? Could it be from the top: from the pinnacle of industrial and military might? Let’s hope not; let’s hope against all odds that is not the case. Let’s hope the current administration cotton-on to the march of progress, recognize its inevitability and help the world move forward.
The chaos of burgeoning civil war had given her the cover she needed to set up camp under the guise of a stall holder in the little bazaar beside the Great Wall. Piece-by-piece she was able bring in, and assemble, her mining equipment, but she would need more than wood and canvas covers when the serious digging started. She peeked out to the open ground beside the mosque to see troops scampering. Then the slapping of gunfire and a soldier fell. Others scampered back to an empty street where they threw themselves against the nearest wall: More gunfire, this time from further away, up a street where she could see people flying into alleys and doorways. She waited: unafraid. This was a common occurrence now: almost daily as the rebel forces grew ever bolder. The prospect of death seemed not to bother them.
