BANNING AND BURNING

 

BANNING AND BURNING

 It is so much easier to ban and burn books than it is to ban assault rifles.

As a writer, a student of philosophy, history and the humanities I am not only concerned about the erosion of democratic values all around the world, but also how our democratic minds are submitted to an unhealthy kind of censorship by banning books that are in the opinion of some educators, lawmakers and politicians, considered inappropriate.

First I want to take you back to 1812 and the first publications of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm and the fairy tales they wrote to great acclaim: Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, Snow White and Beauty and the Beast, just to name a few examples of their prodigious output that stand out.  Some are now deemed unsuitable and too graphic, while others continue to be made into movies and musicals.  Our sensitivities often resemble the weather; changeable and hard to predict.

Of course you realize that Little Red Riding Hood couldn’t have been swallowed up in bits and pieces by the Big Bad Wolf, otherwise she couldn’t have been retrieved by the hunter in one piece!  The tale of Jonah and the Walrus is cut from a similar cloth.  We have always been imaginative in our fables and fairy tales and just about anything goes.  Some of the brothers Grimm tales are now considered ‘Dark’ and unsuitable for impressionable young minds.  Take a hard look at what has been coming out of Hollywood and even Disney these past couple of years and it makes you wonder if they didn’t get that particular memo as to what is suitable and appropriate.  The blood and gore drips from the screens.  It does come with some disclaimers and guidelines and they’re about as sincere and effective as any adult site asking for age verification that doesn’t require verifiable proof of age provided by an adult.  It is all voluntary.  A pang of conscience entering the mind of a minor for a few seconds before clicking—yes, I’m of age!  How many parents would seriously consider taking the devices away or constantly monitoring its uses?

So, why do we censor, who do we censor and who does the censoring?  Who are the gatekeepers of today’s morality squad and do their sensibilities actually qualify them for the job?  Who gets to decide what is appropriate to read and what is not?  In my humble opinion as a writer a book should only be considered inappropriate if the work in question inspires or promotes hate or demonizes people for being different.  One of the perks of living in a true democracy is the simple fact that an individual gets to decide.

Reading is not only about absorbing information, whether what you read is fiction or nonfiction, but how to interpret what we’re exposed to and that it may lead to a better understanding of a subject or topic and inspires critical thinking and original thought.  Pulling books from shelves and banning them, how does that promote a better understanding?  We broaden our intellectual horizons by considering all aspects and information of a particular subject or topic and not by being selective as to what we should or should not read, leading to pre-established opinions rather than reaching a conclusion based on considering all relevant information.  Even if some of that information treads on sensitive toes.

There is such a thing as age-appropriate and I will illustrate this with a simple example.  Take Das Kapital written by Karl Marx and Mein Kampf written by Adolf Hitler.  One an economic tract and the other an ideology expressed by one of history’s most loathsome villains.  Definitely not material for impressionable young minds and usually intended for serious scholars studying our past and the impact these two books had.  If available and signed out or purchased, should it come replete with a written request as to suitability, reason and purpose?  A background check?  Are certain books deemed to be as deadly as assault weapons and should therefore be subjected to a similar scrutiny?  A soundness of mind attested to by a certified psychologist?  Put on an official government watch list, red flagged as a potential risk?

Is turning ourselves into public mind keepers even healthy?  In many of my articles I challenge attitudes and human actions and activities.  Should I be banned?

Purchase my novel on KDP Amazon.ca before it gets banned too!

Feel free to comment or share.

HOW MILITARY SPENDING BANKRUPTS NATIONS

 

HOW MILITARY SPENDING BANKRUPTS NATIONS

 

All that intelligence and look where it is leading us!

 

Canada’s current prime minister is striking a combative military pose aimed at reassuring NATO and our not-so-friendly neighbor to the south that our nation is ready and willing to meet and surpass defense targets by aggressively investing in domestic weapons industries, new planes, submarines and vessels.  The price tag of meeting and exceeding the current 2 percent to 5 percent of GDP runs in the multiple tens of billions.  Money we don’t have and to raise that kind of capital we either increase taxes or borrow more.  In all likelihood it will be a combination of both and the proposed amount exceeds the combined budgets set for health and education.  Killing and destroying is apparently more urgent than protecting life and educating young minds.  In all likelihood this spurious bit of showing off our manhood is in direct response to the increase in global posturing and the armed conflicts initiated by a dubious brand of psychopaths currently leading nations that have been itching to show off their latest lethal weapons and their ability to inflict  horrendous destruction on near defenseless nations.  As an aside.  Personally I am disappointed in the American military that without uttering any objections is responsible for raining death and destruction on nations that can barely defend themselves, inflicting massive civilian suffering, deaths and damage.  Apparently none have the guts to stand up to a delusional psychopath who delights in bragging about bombing nations back into a cave-like existence.  What Israel and the USA are doing to Iran can only be described as a slaughterhouse, shooting fish in a barrel.  There is no contest here.  Not a military one!

How bright are we?

A few decades ago Canada purchased 4 ageing and decrepit submarines from our Commonwealth master England, subs that spent more time in dry dock than performing actual duty.  The diesel-electric Victoria class is the kind of sub that is used for target practice by nuclear stealth submarines.  In my humble opinion you can’t sell, rank or classify military spending as an investment.  It is a net-negative expenditure of tax money.  From a defense perspective it is ludicrous for Canada to even pretend that we can effectively defend the nation due to our large size and relatively small population when compared to the US, China and India, or even Mexico.

It’s all about perception.

We purchase outdated weaponry from other nations to bolster our military to give it a semblance of parity and preparedness.  Nobody will sell us superior weaponry.  Nobody will allow us to become a serious threat to global stability, nor will we ever be more than a willing ally in NATO and contribute according to our limited abilities.  Military spending and aggression have toppled every empire past and present.  The United States, because of its over-the-top military spending and research, has become one of the worst debtor nations in the world in a matter of decades and with a psychopath at the helm of a financial and political ship cast adrift on global waters it will only be a matter of time before they follow in the footsteps of the former USSR and become basically insolvent.  Chapter 11.  How’s that for a deal!

Who benefits?

The only ones benefitting from this lucrative military spending spree are defense industries, contractors and arms dealers and the taxpayer is on the hook for this financial largesse to deep pockets.  Not a single conflict, not a single war, not a single bomb dropped or missile fired will resolve the multitude of problems our species faces.  Reducing waste, pollution, resource depletion, global warming, income disparity, corruption, fraud, crime, illegal drug use, money laundering and tax evasion schemes and the list of challenges we face goes on and on.  All these issues require global cooperation, not war!

Why would a nation spend horrendous amounts on expanding its military?  You do it either to defend or attack and currently we’re using a ‘perceived threat increase’ as a justification to bolster military expenditures.  Who are we defending against?  Are we under attack?  Or is it a case of—who are we following?  Where are the real threats coming from?  What we’re really facing is an existential threat brought on by our numbers, needs and demands.  Not a single bomb dropped will rectify that reality unless you’re willing to kill off the bulk of the human population.  Oh, we can breathe easy now, most of them are gone!

We are the true culprits and not the artic tern or the Beluga whale.

Humanity is facing some horrendous problems brought on by the world of artifice we have created and the cost associated with keeping the good ship humanity afloat meeting current demands and expectations.  Armed conflict will not resolve a single issue and it will only make it worse.  Nothing is to be gained from occupation or isolation.  Punitive actions will be met with resentment and rebellion.  There are no winners.  Nobody is willing to provide an honest rationale for increased military spending other than the usual speculative, potential threats by the usual demons (Russia, China, North Korea and that stubborn nation Iran that refuses to buckle and submit).  It is all about retaining our superior position and defending our so-called spheres of influence.  Keep insinuating, keep up the accusations and of course they (the demons) will respond in a predictable manner.  The cooler heads are remaining remarkably silent, content to watch from the sidelines how the real aggressive culprits are digging holes that are getting deeper and deeper with each passing day.

You can’t play in my sandbox.  Forget ideologies it is all about desperation this time around.

No amount of political posturing can justify this horrendous amount of waste.  Not a single war or conflict, past or present, has ever resolved anything.  World War II comes to mind as the only war justified to defeat an evil ideology that threatened to destroy our humanity.  And once more the world is flirting with mutually assured destruction, not brought on by ideologies, but by desperation.  Our numbers, needs and demands, are stressing us to the max.  Nations of haves and have-nots.  The desperate pursuit of energy supremacy to keep everything running.  Shoring up struggling economies and dealing with crippling debts.  Keeping migrants and illegals out.  Patchwork diplomacy.  Problems galore wherever you look.  We’re struggling in almost every human arena.  If in your eye very little makes sense anymore, don’t despair, your assessment is absolutely correct.

Playing with fire.

Russia, Israel and the USA have put themselves onto a path of no return.  A mindset of self-inflicted hubris brought on by a total lack of vision and an understanding of geo-political priorities and needs.  A bad case of political bungling instigated by a cast of politically narcissistic, vainglorious megalomaniacs.  Holding on to perceived power and strength.  Emboldened by the perception that nobody will stop them.

Dialing it down is viewed as a loss of face, that’s how grownup we are!   

And politicians around the globe are pretending to stand tall and resolute.  A bulwark against whatever.  Puffed up chests.  We will stay the course at all costs.  The rhetoric is not only predictable, increasingly it is starting to sound awfully hollow.  I didn’t use the word stupid; that is reserved for really dumb people.  Historically when things go out of hand we will reach for the sword and all that pent-up testosterone and anger needs an outlet.  When we go bad, boy oh boy, we’re all in.

The images inserted are all about escalation.  On one hand we go out of our way to save lives at all costs, and at a great expense, and on the other we continue to develop superior weapons intended to destroy with ever greater lethality.  When we spend more on the military than on health and education combined, something is deadly wrong!

Feel free to comment and share.  Better yet, prove me wrong. 

WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?

 

WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?

 

When we turn our backs we only see what is in front of us.

 

Bear with me and hold on to your instinctive reaction, grudges and biases until you finish reading the entire article because it deals with a subject that is not without sensitivity and controversy.  Transgender athletes will be banned from the 2028 Olympics.  Some of you may rightfully feel that we seem to spend an inordinate amount of time and media publicity on a relatively small percentage of the population.  In part it has to do with an unhealthy fascination with anything out of the ordinary in our dreary lives and especially when it involves individuals with a high public profile.  Tabloid fodder.

Gender reassignment is a transformative choice that comes with consequences.  Those involved can’t expect or demand that changing gender is like flicking a light switch and that a magical physical and psychological readjustment takes place that brings about true and transformative change.  Man to woman, woman to man.  Not a big issue if it doesn’t involve competition or a traditional role unique to a particular sex.  It would be absolutely wonderful if people struggling with a sexual identity could be like butterflies and emerge almost cocoon-like into what they desire to be.

Out in the open.

It is a blessing that an individual’s sexuality is no longer restricted to a closet existence or punishable by law, but we also need to take in account that an extreme amount of attention—pro and con—can have a confusing impact on an individual struggling to find their place in the world.  Can a struggle with a sexual preference or identity be influenced by society and how it deals with the issue on a huge variety of media platforms?  I would like to draw a parallel to the obsession with tattoos and people slavishly imitating and responding to treating their skin as if it is a coloring book with the most outlandish reasons and excuses.  From drawing attention to themselves (hey, look at me!) to searching for an identity, an identity expressed by selecting symbols, texts and images from a tattoo inventory!  I don’t know who I really am, but perhaps the tattoos will act like a map to point me in the direction of personal happiness and purpose.

Look before you leap.

Transgender surgeries are not totally irreversible, but not unlike tattoos, removal or reversal, doesn’t come without scars, blemishes or psychological damage.  And for those individuals contemplating surgery to find the happiness they are after, transgender transformation is not only radical, but it doesn’t diminish the emotional and physical baggage they are leaving behind.  We all are impressionable creatures and media platforms capitalize on all our foibles, transgressions and desires.  Gullible and easily taken in, especially when we’re constantly ambushed by clever algorithms that zoom in on all our predilections.  We’re all encouraged to live life to the fullest and to seize the moment, the pursuit of happiness and all that jazz.  When you’re unhappy with who and what you are, transforming that unhappiness with transgender transformation is rather radical.  Society in general has a lot to answer for when it comes to expectations with stereotypical male-female obligations and to live up to hype of matrimony and having children; home, white picket fence, a pet or two, both working and the list of expectations is never ending.  We’ve become experts at putting intense pressure on ourselves and there is so much emphasis put, not only on individuality, but uniquely expressing ourselves in a world where governments and institutions demand conformity to run efficiently.  A dichotomy so profound that it comes to no surprise that so many people are struggling.

So much confusion.

All is not well.  We’re living in a topsy-turvy world and it so easy to be made to feel like an insignificant piece of flotsam drifting aimlessly on the river of life.  Take a look at the mindboggling use and abuse of illegal drugs, some of them so lethal that it leaves behind a staggering loss of life and most of them are ingested, inhaled and injected by bright, intelligent people, who somehow don’t seem to care that they’re playing Russian roulette with their lives.

It makes you wonder if a lot of it is a cry for help.  People who are demoralized and defeated by life and society’s expectations.  An escape from standards and the moralizing nature of tribes and nations.  So many people feel stuck in a rut, facing daily and lengthy commutes in snarled traffic jams, dead-end jobs and repetitive boredom.  Addicted to handheld devices that dish up a steady stream of images and so-called influencers catering to all our whims and fantasies. An illusory world that only a few of us inhabit, yet hyped by unscrupulous media platforms to make us feel connected and that we somehow belong.  Increasingly we’re creating a world where real person-to-person relationships are not only missing, but lacking in depth and sincerity.

We have deliberately turned daily routines into a dreaded drudgery rather than a necessity.  Daily survival is a matter of basic routine, a reality, and the emphasis should be on being content with who and what you are.  Life is not an unending journey of jumping from one exciting event into another.  A near orgasmic-like expectation.  Whether we like it or not, all jobs come with a kind of boring routine and a sense of sameness.  It’s our mindset that matters and how we cope with life’s often unexpected and painful detours and hiccups.  Too often we’re looking for things that don’t exist or are hopelessly out of reach, even inconsequential, because upon closer examination, they don’t really matter.

In a perfect world all of us would enjoy who and what we are without facing or sitting in constant judgement.  But we’re living in an imperfect world and imperfection is the norm and not the exception.

What are you looking for?

I eagerly await your comments and feel free to share.

Purchase my novel, Energy & Origin from KDP Amazon.ca

For something lighter: Mathew, Broderick, Fred, Roger and be entertained by my rather irreverent sense of humor.

 

THE EPSTEIN DISTRACTION

 

THE EPSTEIN DISTRACTION

We have bigger fish to fry.

 

Since time immemorial the wealthy have always indulged in fantasies that the average person (That will be most of us) can’t afford.  There are few innocents in this game, except for the underage victims of sex crimes.  Rich people hide their sins and shady shindigs behind convenient walls of silence and complicity.  Money doesn’t just talk, it also buys silence.  Not that the wheels of justice don’t apply to them, but within that sheltered club of privilege justice is either delayed or woefully lacking in a meaningful pursuit.  Power, intimidation, corruption, the Ultra-Rich can purchase immunity and escape prosecution.  Amongst our species a mob mentality is ever present and you don’t have to look like a gangster to be one.  All around the world unscrupulous characters cater to the whims and wishes of those who can afford to indulge or who can’t resist the lure of the illegality on offer.  Our fragile minds and bodies are an easy prey and does it really matter what the addiction or attraction is?  What we fall for?  Opportunity?  Temptation?  Forbidden fruits?  Indulgence?  Sex, food, gambling, illegal drugs, alcohol?

Media fodder.

But every now and then we get all fired up by a case, especially when it concerns the rich and powerful.  You and I wouldn’t be news, but they are!  All of a sudden we’re obsessed by human vices as if righteous virtue is the only thing that matters.  And we pursue it with a passion until it peters out as a newsworthy item.  Will this obsession with outstanding morality and ethics make a difference in regards to what we are doing, and have done, to each other and a planet we share with millions of other lifeforms?  Will it put a dent in the myriad of environmental, social and financial dilemmas our species faces?

Epstein is nothing more than a salacious distraction as leaders around the world are grappling with issues far greater than the sexual perversions of a bunch of out-of-control rich sex addicts.  How about keeping a leaking global ship afloat on a sea of challenges?  Throwing a few of these shady characters under the wheels of the bus, is that really what we’re after, or is it all designed as an old fashioned Roman spectacle to massage the minds of the masses and lull them back into a state of complacency?

No bigger fish to fry?

Just to name a few issues deserving of our attention that are currently flying under the radar of global attention.  How about Trump denying the people of Cuba the basic essentials and necessities to survive by instituting a punishing embargo on oil reaching the shores of the island nation?  Under president Obama relations between the two nations were being normalized to put an end to a childish preoccupation with past grievances.  Cuba is a small, island nation and it is not a threat to world security or to the United States.  Trump has turned this into a political pissing contest, all part of Trump’s ongoing vendetta with everything Obama has been involved in and with everything Obama accomplished.  Trump, true to form, is moved by pettiness and an intense hatred for a man who dared crack a joke at Trump’s expense during a public gathering of the press and the White House.  A vindictive personality that likes to dish out, but with a rather thin skin when it concerns his own persona.

Tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children are suffering because of the childish, churlish, narcissistic personality of a pathetic leader.  Tourism has become Cuba’s main source of income and it has been devastated by Trump’s irresponsible actions.  Resorts are closed due to a lack of food and power.  People are starving and plagued by ongoing power blackouts.  How pathetic can you get in your quest for revenge?

The victims deserve justice.

The only persons deserving attention and justice in the Epstein saga are the underage young girls who were subjected to submit to sex acts with spoiled, rich men who get their rocks off by diddling young underage victims.

The world has bigger fish to fry.  Ukraine, Iran and Gaza come to mind, and all the other hot spots in the world where misery is king and people suffer.  How about the ongoing degradation of the ecosystems we all depend upon for survival and the squandering of resources and the horrific pollution of our lakes, rivers and oceans?

Billions of people are living in poverty and are lacking essential services.  Lives lacking hope and opportunity.  Quit obsessing about rich people sticking their willies where they shouldn’t and get on with all the things that really matter.

Feel free to comment or share.   

WONDERLAND REVISITED

 

WONDERLAND REVISITED

 

It is almost painfully obvious from the increasingly desperate sounding declamations coming from the current occupant of the White House that all is not well with Trump’s latest peace effort that includes starting a war and now desperately looking for an exit that doesn’t include shouldering the blame.  One of the venues he is considering—if a friend or foe cannot be blamed—is a new shell company that is aptly called: USA Hole Digging Incorporated.  It gives Trump and company a legitimate outlet (a fictional one, no one knows and no one dares to question, he has opened as many bizarre offices as he has closed others) to lay blame if their efforts to entice allies to help out in the cleanup called the ‘Strait of Hormuz and those damn Iranians won’t budge’, don’t pan out.  Perhaps Donald has been right all along in his assertions that the U.S. is once more burdened with ‘going it alone’, cleaning up the global messes (mostly imagined), while all those so-called friends and allies watch from the sidelines.  Hence the bitter language and recriminations, the accusations, the tariffs, threats and belligerence.

A psychologist may rightfully point out that Trump, besides being a psychopathic narcissist suffering from a raft of delusional disorders stemming from his upbringing and childhood and carried through in adulthood, definitely suffers from a reverse blame condition as well.  He loves to portray himself as the victim, of being misunderstood, rather than being the instigator or perpetrator.  Megalomaniacs are incapable of accepting blame and guilt.  While Trump and company are working out the details of USA Hole Digging Incorporated, around the world the remaining sane leaders are watching with bated breath and keeping their fingers crossed that the great hole digger will eventually dig a hole so deep that he will bury himself and that the temporary insanity that has taken hold in the USA will pass.

The world itself is adjusting to the irate, weathervane-like utterances hailing from the man in the White House that are increasingly as predictable as the changing winds and tides that affect our daily lives.  Weather, we just put up with it.  The great wizard of Washington is even bemoaned by Dorothy who doesn’t want to go back to Kansas, but wants to renounce her citizenship and move to Canada instead.  “They’re nice people, even if they say, eh, a lot.”

The Mad Hatter on the other hand, of Wonderland revisited, can’t believe his luck and he loves the fact that the USA has gone down the rabbit hole and has joined him and Alice in Wonderland.  In Wonderland everything strange, bizarre, outlandish and outrageous is embraced with fervor.

Lewis Carroll, a British author (we’re now using the other hand) is turning around in his grave in horror, can’t believe how his fictional fantasy has come to life in the great USA and he is insisting that his coffin be raised in a vertical position so that he may watch from his final resting place.  He is pinching his bones in disbelief, “Hey, guys, I just made it up.  Us Brits know it is fiction.”

Perhaps Marvel, Disney and Hollywood are in part to blame as they have been dishing up so many fanciful stories of fantastic, made-up characters capable of incredible feats, possessing inhuman-like powers and in typical American fashion, who are, to go with today’s American Zeitgeist (mindset), invincible.  Once you start to believe your own shit, oh man, we’re all in deep trouble.

Feel free to comment of share.

 

THE UGLY FACE OF MODERN WARFARE

We are now deliberately targeting civilians.

War is ugly, period.  There is no such thing as a great battle, as in, oh boy, we haven’t had this much fun since a pig raced across our Christmas table.  The face of war, past or present, has never been fought exclusively between armies.  Caught in the crossfire there have always been civilian casualties and structural damage.  Historically plunder and pillaging appears to have been part and parcel of armed conflict.  Difficult for innocent civilians to escape the mayhem when frequently they were caught up in the fray because they happened to find themselves trapped in between armies.  That is not the case today.  Most of the killing is now done remotely by armed drones and missiles, not aimed at an opponent’s army, but purposely at civilians: cities, hospitals, apartments, schools and critical infrastructures such as railroads, bridges and power generating stations.

The face of war has changed.

It is now all about demoralizing the civilian population through inflicting extreme suffering and deprivation, through a massive loss of lives and property and denying people access to food, safety and shelter.  Forcing an enemy to surrender by targeting civilians primarily and weaponizing essentials.  Bomb the enemy into submission by killing the innocent and forcing its leadership into a moral dilemma; how many of our people, men, women and children have to die before the madness stops?

Civilian carnage.

Hungry and destitute civilians living in makeshift shelters and constantly forced to move are not the kind of people that can fight back effectively and none of those engaged in the killing are physically affected by the carnage they unleash because it is all done remotely.  Do they even suffer psychologically when all they observe is images of the aftermath of bombs dropped?  Images of destruction.  Only those involved in up close physical combat experience the full psychological impact of killing.  Not that it changes the result.  Modern armies resort to remote killing because it spares those pushing the buttons from the emotional impact of live combat.  But aerial bombardments can only achieve so much.  The psychological damage inflicted on the survivors on the ground can leave harmful impressions for decades.  Trust shattered.  Animosity lingering for generations.  A hatred for the enemy always close to the surface.  Today’s aggressors, the U.S. Israel and Russia don’t even realize what they have unleashed by raining down baseless destruction from the skies.

Turning people into killing machines.

We’re not programmed to kill and when the beast within is unleashed it leaves behind permanent scars long after the actual fight is over.  Increasingly those nations involved in armed conflicts are resorting to these inhumane strategies of deliberately killing civilians remotely, using bombs and drones, unless they are forced through poverty and a lack of funding to fight and kill the old fashioned way; armed combat and up close.  The Rwandan genocide, July 1994.(just one example, nearly a million people ‘hacked’ to death)

Losing our humanity.

One thing that comes shining through in the current conflicts is our lack of concern, of empathy, and serious attempts to put an end to the carnage and suffering.  Lip service.  Pictures.  Casualty counts.  Estimates of damage.  War reduced to statistics.  And it is not just wars vying for our attention.  Our human numbers are under siege on a number of different fronts and battlefields.  We have a lot on our plate: Rampant drug use, a housing shortage and lack of affordability, cyber hacking and fraud, scams, blackmail and extortion, all of them following the strategies of modern warfare, increasingly more sophisticated and most of it done remotely.  Culprits hiding behind screens and using the latest in technologies to inflict as much damage as they can.  None of them care about the cruelty they inflict and as a society we appear at a loss to put a stop to it.  Those in charge and inflicting most of the damage (Russia, Israel and the U.S.) appear rather blasé, arrogant and indifferent about their actions or lack of, even bragging on national television about the lethality of their weapons and how effective they are.  Killing innocent people remotely is something to brag about to mom and dad?  No remorse.  No apologies.  “Maybe our rockets hit the hospital, maybe not.  We’re looking into it.”

Have they lost our minds?  The aggressors involved in current conflicts are purposely creating an existentialist crisis.  As if their very existence is threatened by the nations they are attacking and they are using an almost apocalyptic mindset to validate their actions.

An apocalyptic mindset has been created by the participants, justifying their actions and the rhetoric used by the belligerents sounds awfully familiar and hollow.  “We have no choice.  They are terrorists.  Bad people.  We’re forced to take a stand.  Only we are prepared to take the fight to them while the rest of the world watches.”  The flimsy excuses are like water flowing through a sieve.

Cuba, Gaza, Ukraine, Venezuela, threats against sovereign nations to annex territories and entire nations (Canada and Greenland!)

America, under Obama’s watch, started to normalize its relationship towards Cuba.  You can only hold grudges for so long and this island nation has never posed a real threat since the Cuban missile crisis.  They’re poor and without tourism they’re dead in the water.  Trump, bearing a grudge against all things Obama has ever accomplished, had been hell bent ever since he became president, to undo everything Obama has done.  A vengeful psychopath obsessed with anyone he has ever crossed paths with and who didn’t kiss his ass.  The last bit is not some spurious venting on my part.  Ever since taking office his policies have resulted in unmitigated disasters.  Tariffs, sanctions, threats, bullying and blockades, the quagmire created by Trump and company cannot be obfuscated by blowing smoke up everybody’s ass (hence the original ass reference!).  This is not part of a new global order, but total chaos created by moving forward with non-stop political and military blundering.

Available on KDP Amazon.ca

Picking conflicts with those who cannot defend themselves.

Around the world, safely away from the real conflict, pro and con Iranian factions are demonstrating and waving flags and putting their spin on Trump and Netanyahu’s unilateral decision to declare war on Iran, to gain control of the region and institute regime change (The favorite pastime of Trump and company).

Iranians know that no matter who runs the country, they are faced with a huge uphill battle.  Will it be an Iranian state free from foreign interference?  Without economic strings attached from the U.S. and Israel?  Will it put an end to economic sanctions, to industrial acts of sabotage and the bombing of their nuclear programs?  Do outsiders decide who gets to do what and how?  The nation has already been set back for decades because of western interference, actions and activities.  If past western actions taken against Iran are any indication, it won’t really matter who gets to lead.  Are puppet regimes the answer to make sure that the superpowers remain firmly in charge?  And . . . will the Iranians go back home once a regime of their liking is put in place?  Want to make a bet that most of them will prefer to stay here, warm and cozy and well away from the Middle East?

Take an honest look at the toll modern conflicts have taken on civilian populations and it must be obvious that the powerbrokers responsible for the casualties and destruction don’t give a damn.  Human lives mean nothing to them.

Feel free to comment or share.

As a writer I am an observer and interpreter and I don’t take sides.  Start weighing the sins of all sides on the scales of justice and you’ll be in a courtroom arguing the case for decades and you still end up with a hung jury.  We’re a flawed and fragile species moved by the flow of energy and momentum.  Our habit of bundling negative energy until it explodes is only intensifying and that concerns me as a writer.

NO INCOME EQUALS A POOR OUTCOME

 

NO INCOME EQUALS A POOR OUTCOME

An ominous K-shaped economy has emerged.

In the mid-60s a seismic shift occurred in the way governments went about setting budgets goals and how programs were developed and administered.  Balanced budgets became a thing of the past and my father’s sage advice was ignored by all, “If you make a nickel you can’t spend a dime.”  Borrowing.  Credit.  Buy now and pay later.  The government’s parlay to justify this largess in spending; we’re aggressively investing in the future and the expected return on investment will pay off the debt.  And one of the pat phrases used to convey to the public that those elected knew what they were doing: Build it and they will come.  Ask for specifics (what are you building and why and how much will it generate in income?) and the answers turn rather vague and thin.  It is biting us in the ass because all that growth and progress has come at a huge cost.

Borrow and borrow some more.

Horrendous deficits and debt accumulation is now an annual reality for nearly all levels of governments.  And the attitude; if you can’t cover the cost of goods and services, just borrow more.  We’ve even invented some nifty lines to justify the total absence of balanced budgets; deficit financing.  Spread it out across the board—meaning every citizen and that includes all men, women and children—and it doesn’t seem all that bad when you put it that way! Not at first glance anyway.  As the years go by that mole hill of debt has steadily grown into a mountain.  The staggering amount we now owe as citizens is indeed mountainous!  You see, the debt accumulated doesn’t belong to some undefined and mysterious entity.  No.  It’s you and me who are on the hook and all our fellow countrymen.  As long as we’re able to pay the interest to the financial entities holding all that spurious debt, they’re okay with that.  Kind of like paying the minimum on a credit card, which basically means that your debts balloon and balloon.  Interest payments in the billions of dollars are flowing steadily into the pockets of financial institutions, investment groups and wealthy individuals, while simultaneously the average person is turning into the working poor, struggling and seeing progress and lifestyle improvements melting away like the proverbial snow under a hot sun.

Why did we go this route?

Most of my life I have lived in Oxford County, Ontario.  When this area was first settled by pioneers more than century ago there was no such things as an income tax.  People were just starting out, clearing the land and setting the stage for future development, trade and industries.  Schools for instance were paid for by the local population.  There was very little government or oversight because basically livelihoods were carved out of the soil.  Mostly farmers.  Livestock and growing their own crops to sustain themselves and the excess, if any, was sold to slowly grow their farms and the communities they belonged to.  It was also rare for anyone to reach the ripe old age of 60 and child mortality rates were high.  But something happens when prosperity comes knocking on doors.  All of a sudden societies expand rapidly as all that sudden wealth comes with additional needs and demands.  Growth and progress are killers if not restrained and that is something humans suck at.  All those extra people meant that we needed to grow economies rapidly because basically all economies are based on incomes.

Income stupid.  Everything is based on income!

No income, no taxation.  And as governments expand their services to accommodate the increase in human numbers and demands, it can only come from more income.  All income hails from the private sector, from private sector jobs and from the profits their industries (everything that earns capital) generate.  Governments are a cost factor.  All jobs supported by government funding are a cost factor.  And everybody who depends on government support to stay alive and housed, is a cost factor.

Our numbers are killing us.  Progress is killing us.

We went from 2.5 billion people in 1905, when a global population census was taken, to a record 8.3 today.  In 125 years we have added a whopping 6 billion more people and despite all the growth and progress that made those numbers possible, it hasn’t been able to keep up with needs and demands.  Demands vary from nation to nation, from the poorest to the richest, from the least populated to the most densely populated.  Nations are jumping through hoops to keep up and it is only getting worse.  Robots, automation, AI, working faster and harder, it only makes those with the most wealth richer and most of us poorer.  All that borrowing, all that debt, hasn’t led to greater prosperity for all and the financial potholes are draining the energy from governments and communities because this endless round of borrowing is not sustainable.  Increasingly we are borrowing to provide income, creating a vicious cycle of dependency.  And we haven’t given up on the growth syndrome and we stubbornly cling to this silly economic mantra that growth will eventually pay off.  We’re even importing people and subsidizing childbirths.     

And to top it all off, we’re sucking the life out of the planet to keep up this charade of growth and progress.  Hence the heading of this article and I would love to hear your take on the subject.

A K-shaped economy.

Within financial circles the latest buzz word to describe the economy and where we are headed is a K-shaped economy.  In the letter K one leg goes sharply up and the other one goes down.  The one going up representing the rich getting richer and the other one, going down, the poor, indicating they are getting poorer and poorer.  They are diverging lines going in opposite directions.  A troubling scenario.  The one envisioned and preferred is a circular economy (O).  Within the circle everything is constantly reconstituted and redistributed (let’s stick with labor, income and contributing).  We’re talking an economic model that is relevant, healthy and enduring.

Give me an earful.

Feel free to comment or share.  I purposely kept it short and to the point.  The big picture if you like.  It is the impetus of the subject that matters and not details.  When we delve into specifics, anecdotal evidence, motivation, etcetera, we only stray from the origin.  The essence of life is providing for the essentials generated through our labor.  Even a hunter-gatherer had to get up in the morning to make an effort to stay alive and it doesn’t matter how income is earned, obtained or achieved.  That idle hands things comes to mind and that wonderful phrase associated with it; idle hands are the devil’s workshop.  All of us do so much better when meaningfully employed!  When we actually earn an income!  When we contribute!