Today is Easter Sunday in the English calendar, a time for renewal, new life and the challenges and rewards of spring and summer. And layered on top of that are ongoing long lasting changes, driven by humans and forces beyond our control. The era of overt colonialism changed last century, as former colonies became states under the illusion of having gained independence. Kwame Nkrumah, an African nationalist, was instrumental in creating the state of Ghana in Africa in 1957. He was overthrown in a coup in 1966, largely facilitated by the former colonizers, but with popular support. Nkrumah had grand visions of a United Africa, akin to the United States, where he spent quite a bit of time. But alas, he turned into another little dictator using the tribal governance model to suppress any opposition to himself. And Africa generally, has reverted back to the tribal governance model, within the confines of former colonial borders. Now, as for Klaus Schwab and his grand vision of a new world ...
Like Bison, humans form groups to maximize the chances of survival and propagation. As do bacteria and other life forms. In most species these bonds are largely instinctive, but in humans there is a conscious intellectual element as well, because of the nature of our brains. In a peaceful and ordered society this tendency is channelled into team sports, among other things and is generally considered to be positive. In a troubled society, the energy goes into supporting opposing political factions with potential for actual violence as we have witnessed in the US lately. When things turn really nasty, the opposing group is de-humanized and made ready for slaughter in a confrontational war, or by way of 'ethnic cleansing'. In the last few years we have been slowly slipping down this greasy totem pole, driven by an accelerating pace of wealth finding its way into fewer and fewer hands, at the expense of people at large, with very predictable results. Because it has happened so many...
What we now call World War One used to be called "The Great War" before world wide hostilities broke out again in 1939. It earned that name because it shook the foundations of western society and permanently altered the world of its day. Add to that the death toll of the 1918 flu pandemic which far oustripped war casualty numbers. We are now back in the conditions that have traditionally caused profound societal changes. Pressures for change have been building for years with wealth shifting into fewer hands based on an exploitative underlying philosophy dominating the prevailing mindset. The unleashing of COVID on the world, whether intentional or not, has become a trigger for change, unleashing forces akin to those of a gun being fired. All of a sudden, there is money everywhere, as states authorize their central banks to 'let 'er rip' right across the globe. This happened in the 1920ies as well fueling an economic boom that came to an end in 1929 with the stock ...
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