Escape Again!

I wish I had better news to share, but there is no sense in burying our heads in the sand: It’s broken! Actually, it is so sadly and dangerously broken that I don’t know what it will take in order to fix it. However, humanity had arrived to such dismal precipices a few times before in our history, and, after we plummeted into the nadir we have managed to climb up again, though often quite slowly and painfully. Might this happen for our children and grandchildren’s sake? It’s possible.

There is an unsettling angst that is permeating our Planet. It is as if we are constantly sitting on the edge of our seats; as if we’re sloshing through quicksand never knowing when it will swallow us. Even those who do not listen to the News and Views anymore are affected by this feeling. It is all because this Virus that has engulfed the whole Planet has inadvertently caused not just disease and death, but has also bared so much inadequacy, hypocrisy, deceit and malfeasance that had been ongoing for decades and centuries while many of us were willfully blind, or woefully ignorant.

I feel that the most striking revelation coming out of the past several months is the fact that we humans are generally uninformed, malleable, tribal and selfish. Also, we have corrupt political leadership in so many places across this world! No one, though, expected that the United States of America would be classified amongst those places. No one! Least of all the American people who believe that they are exceptional! Really? Thinking of all this, I recalled a terrific book that a good friend once sent me as a gift. It was called: Sorrows of Empire by Johnson Chalmers and it was published in 2004 after our wars on Afghanistan and Iraq. Chalmers once stated that: “A nation can be one or the other, a democracy or an imperialist, but it can’t be both. If it sticks to imperialism, it will, like the old Roman Republic, on which so much of our system was modeled, lose its democracy to a domestic dictatorship.” I cannot think of any truer words, especially nowadays! In that same book, Chalmers said (my words) that if you can afford to buy a condo in Canada then you should go ahead and do that Pronto! In other words: Escape! Because, in his opinion, the United States was going downhill and pretty fast! There have been other writers and analysts who have written books and articles in this regard citing our undemocratic practices, bigotry, injustice, cruelty and our unwarranted hubris. Sadly, our arrogant, self-serving political officials disregarded those writings and, to the contrary, proceeded to encourage our Imperialism, our Meddling all over the world (and our vociferous denials of same), as well as our Military expenditures and amassing of lethal weapons that we are exporting to anyone who pays for them, thus ensuring that the world becomes even more dangerous, and, more ominously, that some of that weaponry would be utilized in order to subdue and quell protesting activist citizens. Look around you and tell me that this is not happening in quite a few places all over this world! Moreover, with the Trump Presidency we have seen how every law on the books can be manipulated, re-explained, re-defined and upturned on its head to suit the issue at hand, and that the Powerful have always, always and much before Trump, resorted to this tactic while both – yes, both! – political party hierarchies went along willingly in order to maintain their power despite some cosmetic slogans and acts with which they whipped us up and lulled us into thinking that they are looking out for us. Not so! Not at all! Therefore they should all GO! We need fresh, clean blood in our corridors of power if we are ever to have Equality and Justice.

This year the world is celebrating the 75th. Anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations, an event that happened after the devastation of WWII and that was meant to bring nations together in a forum that would promote peace, negotiation, cooperation and coexistence. Unfortunately, it has not succeeded in its mission as proven by the many horrible wars that have happened in the meantime and all that those engendered by way of the horrendous number of refugees and uprooted multitudes across the world, the human rights abuses that continue unfettered and unobstructed etc. etc. All these terrible events and the pain they caused have also led to the mushrooming of human trafficking whether for sex, or slave workers; the flowering and proliferation of drugs, drug overlords and gangs; money laundering; the increase in the numbers of oligarchs, strongmen and cyber-criminals amongst other wicked side-effects.

So, yes, it’s broken! It is very, very broken. And we have not reached the nadir yet! However, nothing has changed for the Ruling Classes and their Posses; the Media Characters and their Adjuncts, the Corporate Executives and their Minions. Nothing! They are still enjoying their same life-styles and    all else. But life has changed drastically for all of us as we fight each other over the wearing of a pathetic mask rather than focus on how to support each other in our quest to induce all of the afore mentioned to provide us with Equality, Justice and Peace! Quite pathetic!

All this made me think back: Lebanon and Ireland, where in both places there was a clear reason for the conflict. In Lebanon the Maronite Christians refused to share equality and power with Muslims whose numbers were about to surpass those of Christians. In Ireland it was the Protestant North that refused to share equality and power with the majority Catholics. EQUALITY and POWER that happened along a religious divide, though Not due to the religion itself! Hence, clinging onto Power by whatever means necessary. This same scenario has also played out in other places – such as South Africa – where one faction thought they deserved to reign supreme over others whom they thought were undeserving of Equality, or Justice. Unfortunately, there are many other examples.

So: Welcome to the United States in the 21st. Century where history is being repeated and where the dangers and calamities ahead of us are sounding more dire, ominous and dangerous by the minute, and where, it seems, that there are not enough proud Americans who love their country more than themselves or their ideology in order to stop us from tumbling into the precipitous abyss ahead. It is so embarrassing! Who would have ever believed this even remotely possible?

Recently, the Lebanese President was asked as to where shattered Lebanon was headed, and his succinct reply was: To Hell! (His words. Literally!) If there are not enough Americans to stop President Trump and his White, Republican Lieutenants we will be going there along with Lebanon!

How on earth do we Escape this frightening future? That condo in Canada is sounding pretty inviting at this juncture!!