If ever there was an understatement, well, there ya' go! Add to that, is the fact that the queasy feeling is replicated in growing quantity round the globe, from nations large and small and concerned groups with international concerns and memberships, NGO and governmental. These concerns need to be addressed, with growing peril if ignored, but, sadly so, is that the quality of leadership necessary is missing. Worse, if one does appear on the horizon, he/she is hammered down to ineffective and useless. Our world today.
Frankly, not surprisingly, I believe the situation more dire and critical, perhaps not even remedial short of some superhuman effort. The words of John Donne from " A Nocturnal Upon S. Lucies Day" perhaps makes the situation clearer, more apt for the feelings of many today round the world.
"For I am every dead thing ... I am re-begot
Of absence, darkness, death, things which are not."
Depressing, dark, just about hopeless, drained of any optimism and positive outlook, yes, but think. How many nations are at present undergoing massive existential change within their borders. How deep into disunity have nations fallen, allies included, within and without the borders of nations. How deep and immeasurable are the chasms in societies of one nation, with each group unwilling and/or unable to hear and understand the words and concerns of differing groups with differing outlooks and priorities. In what shape, manner or form, in any possibility, can any kind of successful compromise be worked out, and be of meaningful duration? Generally, at least these days, the violations and negation of terms are in play before the ink is dry on the signatures.
"I think it would be a mistake to think next week all of a sudden we’re going to get a bunch of clarity,”
"I don’t think the president is going to have a personality transplant.”
"One insider put it bluntly, telling Politico, "No one knows what the f--k is going on."
"Donald Trump's inner circle is approaching next Tuesday with a great deal of trepidation as the president prepares to launch what he has been promoting at "Liberation Day" with his closest advisers having little idea about what exactly will come out of his mouth this time."
How can one possibly mesh those statements with a reality of a person now claiming to be a leader of what once was the strongest, most influential and admired nation in the ranks of nation states round the globe. Be it the fear of crazed tariffs or the next twisted Executive Order, this nation - the world - is in a position and reality of great and grave danger. Essentially, the man is demented, a leader of the caliber of Caligula or the controversial Nero, or Hitler, or Putin, or Stalin, all of whom destroyed or led or lead to the imminent destruction of the entities they served as "leaders". The United States of America is at that same point. Woe unto us.
"A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other."
A wise man serving this nation as President, a true leader, spoke of the then, but is critically apropos of the now. While slavery is not the issue, thankfully, America is now a divided nation, rendered asunder by those among us who wish to return this country to a time when misthought thinking raised itself high in the ethos of this nation, assumed seats of power and influence and nearly damned us to perdition.
We are doing the same thing now only this time it is more than one against another, for the dichotomies are many and show no sign of realignment in any positive manner. Even were we to cut to the chase, mesh it all together, the dichotomy remains frightening as it is a clash between dictatorship and democracy. Again, woe upon us. It is a reality where one cannot maintain balance, for so freaky and so many are the maniacal twists and turns of this most misplaced President.
Too many of the national entities round the earth are in this same endangered reality. The residents are fighting wars amongst themselves, shattering long accepted beliefs and rules of conduct, even to the point of rending apart friends and families. Each subsequent division creates smaller and weaker nation states, and on grows the onslaught of stronger, larger, hungry invading nations, seeking more land, more wealth, and a return to a storied past, even if not true.
Heartbreakingly, for me and thousands of others, is seeing other nations succumb to this self -destructive behavior. Be it France or England, America or Israel, Hungary or anywhere else, the reality is tragic for us and for those who come after us. It is a ramped-up return to a history best not repeated, though we seem to have a rather cultivated or inborn need to do precisely so. It is a deplorable affinity to do so, to condemn ourselves to repetitive rounds of blood and destruction, againandagainandagain, and when does it end, if ever?
How many more generations of idealistic young will sing in plaintive wistful tones of a time when no more young girls will have to leave all the flowers at the grave sites of all the boys, "gone to graveyards every one- (for) when will we ever learn, when will we ever learn?"
Apparently, not
yesterday,
nor
today,
nor foreseeably for all
the morrows
to come.
MAYBE.
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