It seems the ‘Western’ Democracies are stumbling into a new dark age, the historical perspective would suggest the Roman Empire has the template for ultimate failure. An inability to protect its borders, the degradation of money & a mutated welfare concept of bread & circuses. The downfall of a society usually begins with a loss of confidence in itself. Clearly the situation Europe & North America find themselves in today. Is the new dark age restricted to just the western democracies? Or is the phenomenon global? One might argue Africa dwells in a permanent twilight world as do parts of the Indian sub continent & South America. The future of the Far East hangs in the balance as China borders on turning into a rogue state.
But let us stick to North America & Europe pro tem. Riots are now a permanent feature in France, unreported by MSM in Great Britain which remains obsessed with America. Anti Macron riots bad, anti Trump riots good. The new conservative government although one of the most popular post war with the electorate is the most unpopular with MSM for generations. All the MSM TV presenters positively hate Johnson, they become incoherent with rage at the mention of his name. No attempt is made at political neutrality, nor do viewers expect it. They just turn off. Newspaper editorials still can’t accept the electorate want a no frills Brexit. For the first time post war in Britain, Europe & North America the domestic battle is between the establishment & the people. The Americans call it Deep State but we all understand the term. Yet it has been challenged by so called populist parties. Ordinary people are frustrated that a representative form of government is anything but. Big government represents itself, propped up by big business & corrupt bankers. The man on the Main St. High St. & Boulevard don’t feel part of the system at all. Admittedly the EU has never pretended to be democratic, but Brits & Americans cling to the illusion they live in a free democracy.
In Britain tax is at its highest in fifty years as a % of the working man’s total spending power, yet public services such as roads, education & health are abysmal. Tax in the western democracies spiral as does money printing & debt, yet we see no improvement in our lives.
Thugs roam the streets with complete impunity. School teachers & university academics hate their own country, teach faux history & science, journalists with a few exceptions have not had the benefit of a traditional education & go with the flow. The recent riots particularly highlight the failure of State education, young people, some it seems students desecrate statues although they know not why. Placards calling for the removal of a statue of Rhodes were misspelt ‘Rodes’, a man born decades after Britain had abolished slavery & whose legacy was Oxford scholarships for those of limited means of any colour. The desecration of Churchill’s statue, Churchill ironically the greatest fighter of fascism in world history, one demonstrator told an interviewer she did not know if he was an hero or a racist ‘because she had never met him’! War memorials depicting ordinary civilian soldiers of the Great War are daubed, indication of an all time nadir in a country which led the fight against totalitarianism in all its forms. Although knee jerk reactions to such crimes are questionable, it seems only draconian sentences for such outrages will fill the gap left by failed education systems.
In America no less a person than the Governor of Virginia wants the removal of the statue of greatest Virginian in history General Robert E Lee, a man admired even by the Northern States. Violent ignorance it appears knows no rank or age. Not only are the mob in control in Britain & America, police stand on the side lines & watch, usually under orders not to enforce the law unless it is on libertarians, who are swiftly arrested.
All main stream economists & politicians are Keynesian, now referred to as Modern Monetary Theorists, taken expertly to pieces in these columns recently by my old chum Emile Woolf.
The recent absurdities of the great Coronavirus panic taken the public eye off the imminent collapse in banking & fiat currencies. (Yes absurdities, the UK closed down its economy at the cost of £billions yet deaths to date of previously healthy citizens under sixty five number 320) Ironically the media panicked western democracies into mass house arrest so are equally culpable. It has muzzled their criticism for the time being.
Can the tide be turned? Can the new dark age be avoided?
Until the problem is understood I suspect no. Big Corporations have deliberately gone Woke. Only recently BP CEO claimed BP was not an oil company, the energy company Drax masquerades as a green pressure group, Disney is run by left wing political activists, see their websites, they are in denial of what they do! They employ youngsters to broadcast how ethnically friendly they are, how diverse, how non gender specific their lavatories are, of commitment to shareholders & customers there is no mention. CEOs follow this course to smooth their path to greater things on retirement, the British obsession with the honours system is the most disgusting example. The public sector continue to be protected from inflation or unemployment, they resemble the clergy of the days of Henry II ever demanding special status. They all remained at home on full pay in the lockdown whilst the wealth creating sector was hung out to dry, most are still not back at work. Nice work if you can avoid it.
The academic world is 100% left wing, as is public service broadcasting. Recent hysteria directed at Dominic Cummings is not about his visit to his mother but fear he is a radical that could sink their gravy-boat. Of course Boris will do nothing, he is the archetypical journeyman politician, like Cameron he wants to be prime minister, but does not want office in order to achieve anything but maintain the status quo, like his predecessor. Brexit was simply his stairway to office. Like Cameron he believes left wing green votes will outweigh lost traditional conservatives voters. That massive government spending will placate the electorate. The general election taught him nothing, he believes he can hold new Tory seats with neo socialist green policies. One visit to a working class pub in the north would put him right. But the reason for representative democratic failure is politicians are professional, they no longer socially interact with those they are supposed to represent.
So it seems we must endure a new dark age. But we only have ourselves to blame.
They are there because we endorse the system, we vote red or blue in the full knowledge there is no difference between the two.
© Godfrey Bloom 2020 – http://godfreybloom.uk/blogs/
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