)h, look! Mr. Blogger is angry again!
The world is now as full of annoying things as the oceans are full of salt water. Most people are annoyed, even though they try to hide it. Most people are afraid, although they don't admit it. Many people are participating in one or more of the annoying things, while carefully hiding that fact from their coworkers and families. I find that annoying too.
The most annoying thing from my point of view is that so many people are maintaining their composure and publicly acting as though nothing unusual or annoying were happening. Nope! We're fine here! Jobs are secure. Banking apps are working. Investments are generating earnings. Wi-fi is strong. Starbucks is still delicious. Weather has been beautiful. I love my new hybrid Camry. Nothing to see here! Keep it moving.
I can't help but wonder: are these folks all okay with our new world of drought, fire, floods, atmospheric rivers, wars, refugees, corruption, political terror, internecine warfare between generations, between races, between world-views, between political tribes, and between demographics?
Are they okay with the very popular abandonment of reality-based thinking, Enlightenment values, and, apparently, the whole concept of reading and knowing things?
It's almost like we were forbidden to discuss the terrible trouble that we are in. That would be strange.
I shouldn't get into specifics, because I am sure that I have annoyed enough people already. Is it even legal to express possibly aberrant opinions anymore? But since when can I help myself?
I don't want to harsh anyone's mellow, but it might be more appropriate if you got mad about...
The melting sea-ice and permafrost
The war in Ukraine in general
In particular, the first steps of the war in Ukraine into outer space (today we were informed that the Soviets, I mean the Russians, have cut off Sweden and Finland from the GPS satellites that they rely on, which are not, by the way, Russian satellites)
The upcoming election in France (if you liked Brexit, you'll love Marine le Pen; so will Putin)
Saudi billionaires handing over two billion US dollars to a certain Trump White House flunky as an “investment,” after the flunky facilitated a hundred-billion-plus arms sale to the Saudis for use in their genocidal war against Yemen, I mean Iran, I mean Yemen
The total mess that is being made of our Constitution and our democratic institutions by a bunch of idiots that is getting stupider year by year
Sri Lanka slipping into darkness, along with the usual suspects around the world, without anyone seeming to give a good God damn.
There are many things that are going horribly wrong. Most of which we are no longer allowed to discuss. I've been reading that maybe this Ukraine debacle will be the slap across the face that wakes us the fuck up, but I'm not so sure. Maybe people are waiting for Putin to actually blow off a smallish tactical nuke in Ukraine. We may get a chance to see what will happen in that case.
Any of those things would be worth an ounce of rage. Myself, it enrages me that simply saying that Hon. Ketanji Brown Jackson is extremely qualified to serve on the Supreme Court causes certain people to label me “pro-pedophile,” or even “a pedophile,” or at least part of the “radical left.”
It enrages me that expressing anything less than total endorsement of the limitless availability of sex-change operations to people of any age group makes one automatically a homophobe.
It enrages me that any objection to people “choosing their own pronouns” makes one a homophobe.
It enrages me that simply saying the name of a certain nation of people who live in the Levant, have pretty much always lived in the Levant, and until recently lived in a country named after them, well, now just saying their name makes one an anti-Semite. This happens regardless of how well documented your love for the Jews may be, and overlooks for the moment the fact that both nations are Semitic.
I am quite angry about the entire concept of “cancellation,” and the possibly related concept of “woke.” I swear, if anyone so much as tells me that they are “non-binary,” and instructs me in which pronouns that I am required to use, I'm moving to a smallish, more-or-less developing country. Oh, I forgot. I already have moved away.
Honestly, does anyone else agree with me that more thought and care should go into our consideration of the entire world south of the equator? Admit it, no one seems to think about them, with the possible exception of Australia and New Zealand. We think about those two because they are white and they speak some weird simulacrum of the English language. The white ones and the brown ones are equally our brothers and sisters, and most of them are in terrible shape.
Corruption? I could harp on the corruption problem all day. I'm afraid, however, that corruption has won its battle for our souls, and that it will destroy us sooner or later. Corruption has co-opted our opposition by extending its benefits through a sufficient portion of the population. A preponderance of the key people around the world receive benefits in sufficient measure to bind them to the engines of corruption. These can come in the form of cash, artificially inflated salaries, long term benefits, big retirements some day, book deals, jobs for dependents, otherwise unobtainable fantastic health care, titles and honors, access to devices and properties, scholarships for children, or other things of value. It's all chump-change to the real money, but it's enough to bind the necessary collaborators to the corruption teats.
There is a great deal of corruption in the southern hemisphere as well, but down there it's all on a more affordable scale. Freedom from hunger is a miraculous benefit for a hungry family. A mobile phone will buy a vote in a surprising number of countries. Terror, of course, remains a cost-effective way to facilitate corruption.
Our prosperity, for those of us who are lucky enough to qualify for the term, is on a year-by-year basis now. First, therefore, let's all hope that we get through this year okay. The next few years will be real Wild Cards. Maybe we'll get lucky. That would be nice. Or maybe not so lucky. Maybe it'll be a bust-out. Time will tell.
What will you do on the morning that we all wake up to find that the entire Internet is gone? Gone for years, all of it, four-corners gone. It might be a good idea to start keeping more flashlights, batteries, real books, and cash around the house. Small bills, please. I wonder about small gold coins sometimes. Anything could happen, and probably will.
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