QUATERNARY

  Yet another new word for my vocabulary growth project. It reassures me that there are indeed some intelligent people out there; not everyone has succumbed to the trend of "dumbing down", of appealing to the least common denominator. Why can we not attempt to pull people up rather than allow them to sink to simplistic, generally too simplified, ideas and reasoning? Why? Because for the most part it does not fulfill our needs to do otherwise. Mostly, dumbing down results in numbing down, a result heartedly desired by some.

So, back to quaternary. I knew it had to do with four, based on the 'quat' lead in but the rest? Apparently, most definitions connected it to business and economic factors which crossed my eyes. A referral to the Cenozoic era also left me cold. Aha, but this one - "of, relating to, or consisting of four units or members" - this was a good one and fit the article wherein I met the term.  

 The article concerned two identical twins marrying two identical twins, having a dual ceremony, and having babies, both boys, within the same half year. These boys are more aptly genetic brothers rather than cousins, for their birth had a quaternary component - based on the four identical units of it. The families even live together, under the same roof, running the same business. A bit too close for me, but apparently it works for them.

And then I wondered. Perhaps there is another quaternary issue in the world. Rather than being physically alike, these leaders of backwards, aggressive countries have been cloned mentally, morally - or in the lack of morals, in their harsh attitude towards death and total contempt for all others and for international laws and peace. 

Xi Jinping. Vladimir Putin. Donald Trump. Orban. Bolsonaro. And we can go on and on. Their quaternary roots are distinct. Autocracy. Police state. Threats and imprisonments. Disappearances of opposition. Challenges to free nations and massive calling of bluffs. Which unfortunately work too well. Afraid of resultant death tolls in an outright war, the other nations concede, appease, and the evil quaternaries forge on. The war they think they are avoiding? It happens anyway, over a longer period of time and in the worst case - which now actually has a high degree of probability - a total involvement of the nations of the world. WWIII. Plain and simple.

See, understand that this is not 'merely' a matter of two small areas within Ukraine. Nope. Far more than that. It is the replication of the Hitlerian policy of at first 'nibble, nibble', progress to bites and then swallow whole hog. It will take nations a long time to realize the truth. They would rather avoid the truth and its meaning in the practical world. By then, they are hampered by size, by facts on the ground, by limitations of resources, and the overwhelmingly better prepped armies of the aggressors. Then the multiple years of war.  

We cannot think that all the blame for war fits directly onto the shoulders of these supposed leaders. The people support their mixed policies, the wishy-washy tactics, the impotent responses, allowing for the aggressor to move forward without real risk and challenge. Ukraine is the perfect example. In 2014 Crimea 'broke away'. Nothing happened. Now two more provinces are 'breaking away', recognized as independent states. Next up, if unchallenged, the nibble, nibbling of Ukraine, piece by piece, until the whole of Ukraine is subsumed within the ever-growing New Russian Empire under the all but in name Tsar of this Empire.

Guess who!

But never you mind, for this overgrown quaternary plotting of the evil wizards of bloodshed and war, well, it always has new leadership applying for entry into this exclusive club. Rick Scott, not content in ruining Florida, before handing it over to the next troglodyte, DeSantis, active in the mismanagement of the country via his Senate seat, now boasts a plan, his plan, to "Rescue America" through yet another benighted 11-point plan. Via the same GOP that still supports? Fears? the deranged Trump who has openly admired, praised Putin's moves here as genius! Oh yes, such help awaiting us. May the Lord Above help us!

 "I will lift mine eyes up to the hills, 

   (Seeking) From whence my help comes?"

My help comes from Hashem (G-d)

The Creator of the skies and the earth."

Perhaps He will hear the pleas, the anguish, and respond accordingly. But what is that 'accordingly"? What have we done to deserve rescue from our own stupidity and cupidity? Beats me.