HERE WE ARE, AND THEN ...

 "Midway in our life/s journey, I went astray

       from the straight path and woke

         to find myself in a dark wood."

          Dante, Inferno

It is a fact. Any historian, professional or armchair, will discover, unearth, commonalities though they often do go unrecognized, unnoticed and disguised until too late to remedy. That commonality becomes apparent generally only when one looked backwards trying to uncover and understand how the society undergoing analysis reached that critical mass necessary to ignite system failure. 

These backwards looks can take place in a clinical methodical sans emotion undertaking, particularly  when it is more of an ancient society being analyzed. However, when the society of the time is the one undergoing a perhaps jumping the gun prescient postmortem, it is another story. That analysis can be both enlightening and constructive or increasingly dark and destructive. 

When a society has developed deep, divisive, inherently destructive cracks in the gestalt of that culture there are common elements to the reaction of those who face loss of power, loss of wealth, loss of freedom, even loss of life. Most often, the first steps, introduced slowly, creep up, quietly, unrecognized or downplayed, unseen. Suddenly the curtains of disguise are shredded, many times violently, until they are glaringly obvious and can be ignored no longer. 

The first weapon waged by panicked “leaders” is suppression though deny it they will. Unfortunately, too often when recognized as such, the timing is off. Too late. The damage done. The critical mass attained and has been in operation for quite some time. The possibility of reversing the damage dims almost daily, at times it seems by the hour. The society undergoing meltdown, actually take down, then births a bunch of chicken littles whose voices drown out the wiser quiet ones who are the only hope, hold out the only possibilities for this nation to be healed and to go forth in positive manner. The inevitable result is another strong culture and ethos discarded, war between competing nations ensues. The cycle renewed.

Too sad, too bad for our world today as we are up to our necks in this timeline of the life and death of a society, of a culture. The warning voices are being heard more frequently; however, many are presented to society as Cassandras and nobody wants to hear when others shout out words prophesying destruction, annihilation, tragedy and horror. Inevitably, society is already rumbling and grumbling with much dissatisfaction. At this point in time, taking heed or not is possibly, useless, too little too late. Yet another power of its time succumbing to its own hubris.

Look around. See the truth. Know the truth of all time. Can it be so, that the time of the American Era has come and gone, unnoticed until now? Too late? Why were the first signs, the ever sharper, more acidic increased grumblings ignored or discounted? Why did we not detect the encouragement and the exacerbation of these voices by others with crazed souls, words of acid aimed at dissolving our foundations? How did we not see the use of our own system of government to destroy its own self? This is a historical, repetitive theme and we blocked it from our vision. Why did we discount their appeal and pin our hopes that 'this' will all go away of its own volition? The members of society will come to their senses. How foolish we were.  How foolish we are. How incredibly stupid!!

The next step. Deterioration. There takes place a growth of political power by people possessed by extreme thoughts and desires, people of extreme religious bent, who see everything through that particular sieve. People of extreme political views claiming to be different yet both inherently the same, employing suppression and repression of those who do not agree and go along with them. It is the darkening of the skies as the hordes of flying monkeys roam the skies ensuring that "The Great Leader's" ultimatums are carried out, even cheered.

Finally, years later after the current 'great leader' was diagnosed and defined as in the throes of dementia, he was followed by others. Those of his corrupt amoral greedy deal making family, and equally such acolytes, possessed of and by these demented overgrown ambitions, in their chase of their ambition to take the throne and wear the crown. Too late the acknowledgement that the man at the head of it all was the source of the rot. It was too late.

These crazy leaders employ every trick of the trade, every nasty thing they can think of. Suppression and repression, censorship. Cancel every artistic, creative mind, every brilliant scientist, for when the arts and the sciences thrive there is no room for such a one as he or what follows. The man is demented. The man is in the throes of a deep, dark dementia. No, he will not go gently into the night but will fight to ruin this nation, even as he loots it it and drags us all with him to a Hell of his making - and our enabling.

"Trump has a messiah complex, which has only grown since that missed assassin's bullet from July was hyped by his followers into 'proof' that he's the Chosen One,"

, "They are dying to make a deal. 'Please, please sir, make a deal. I’ll do anything sir,'” Marcotte called it "...a moment quite reminiscent of how late-stage cult leaders experience a total collapse between reality and their grandiose fantasies,"

final stage of a cult, when the leader's frantic efforts to retain control result in escalating dictates and prophecies that become increasingly hard for followers to make sense of,"

 is a textbook case of criminal extortion. While some law firms are fighting these orders, others have caved to Trump's demands.

That's when Trump realized how he could manipulate the market."

"Of course, just a casual lunch with a 'major stockbroker' before a market-moving federal announcement," one person said. "No suspicion there. No ethics red flags. No potential insider trading. Just vibes and billion-dollar timing. This isn’t just bad optics, it’s also a systemic rot."

"Sure sounds like insider trading to me," a second person said. The response was also echoed across the social media site. "Comical insider trading. Not even pretending to deny it," a third person stated.

We can only hope that it is not too late for this afflicted sick society to delve into the ashes and resurrect the Phoenix we so desperately need. The man reflected in the statements above is the mentally corrupt leader that we have allowed into the highest office in this land. Shame on us, "to infinity and beyond" if we continue to allow this man to remain in office. There are legal ways and pathways to oust him. But first and foremost, the members of the GOP, that shameful empty puppet of what was once a noble party, must man up. He is a big fat bully using his oversized self and nasty self to bully the nation. Bullies fall back when they face resistance. The time has come, long ago, for that resistance and for the last chance to save this nation. 

Return to the opening lines, from Dante's Inferno and see why literature is suppressed by all bullies. It speaks for the people. It is our decision to walk into that dark world or to walk out. But the time for that decision is fast evaporating if not already gone

Yesterday we refused to look around with open eyes.

Today we are beginning to understand our errors, but will our understanding be too late for all our

 On the Morrows. 

I wish all my Jewish readers a happy Passover. And for all my readers, I wish us all a year of peace and harmony and let that year begin with the return of the hostages still held in a war crime in the hell of their captivity. 

Please note that due to the holiday I will return on Monday with a new posting. Meanwhile, please take the opportunity to scroll back and read some    you might have missed.