The Witness Chronicles, March 17, 2024
Do we really want to sit by and watch the rise of dictatorship?
Netanyahu is Out of His Mind, Putin is Out of His Mind,
Trump is out of his mind. What is going on?
There is a sane world leader or two out there, including Biden, but these three seem to get away with anything. Media, are you listening?
This week the Biden administration officially broke up with Bibi Netanyahu, but not Israel. Attack dog, and and prominent American Jewish leader Chuck Schumer, said what a lot of us wanted to hear, a message to Israel to stop the massacre in Gaza and dump Netanyahu. And he said exactly what Bibi’s real motivation is, the pursuit of personal power and protecting his own butt from prosecution for corruption.
Refreshing, and Biden called it a good speech, which I hope presages a clean break with a man who can legitimately be called a mass murderer.
Putin got elected again, though why he even pretends there was any other option is beyond this writer. He has killed, imprisoned, or disappeared any opposition, and his construction of a police state now rivals Stalin, who killed millions of his own people.
And here in the US, we have our own homegrown madman, who states whatever rabble rousing garbage that enters his mind. We are facing a ‘bloodbath’, immigrants are not people, Trump will do this and that (note the third person reference), and save everything while destroying everything. Or something like that.
I guess I’m leaving out Xi Jinping of China, who has single-handedly killed or imprisoned millions of Uyghurs or consigned them to lives of slave labor, eliminated anyone else showing a shred of power, and destroyed the Chinese economy after years of growth.
All of these men, and they are all men, seem to be working out of Hitler’s Mein Kampf playbook and we know how that turned out. That the leader of a Jewish state could be accused of imitating the man whose defeat enabled that state to exist, is appalling and, frankly, very difficult to imply. But look at Gaza. It is not working, Netanyahu is stretching it out despite that, and thousands are dying or in a living hell of death and starvation.
And yet, these men get respect from many, far too many. But remember this, in 1939, 90% of German children were members of Hitler Youth, the future Gestapo and military leadership.
We cannot underestimate the power of mass psychosis, and we are seeing the seeds of it here in America in MAGA, no joke. Be scared, be very scared. But also consider the fact that we still have the ability to stop this lunatic. So does Israel.
Russians and Chinese: too late. It’s not too late here.
But complacency is the most powerful weapon people like Trump and Bibi have, and they know it. And none of us have any excuse. Consider this: our entire planet faces a cataclysmic event that, because it is unfolding relatively slowly, encourages a lot of us to pretend it won’t affect us in our lifetimes.
But climate change is not coming, it has been here for years. More complacency. After all we have endless distractions that, when they are alarming, can be turned off or written off as exaggeration.
So, a world run by deadly dictators, all because we are either lazy, egotistical, or entranced by screens and distractions. It’s one option, but far from the only option.
After Schumer spoke, and Biden supported him, the Republican Party rose up in outrage that the democrats said what a lot of people think, including most Israelis. But there is complacency there too, and it is fed by Natanyahu’s myth that it would be extremely dangerous to switch leadership in the middle of a war.
The reality for both Israelis and Americans is that getting rid of warmongers is the only way to end wars because it requires compromise, something incomprehensible to dictators because they perceive it as weakness. And they spread that belief by stoking the fires of fear, bigotry, and fear, vis a vis Trump right now.
Yes, I know my history. Britain needed Winston Churchill when faced with existential evil and he led them to victory. But they also ended his Prime Ministership as soon as the war was over. But Churchill was an outlier, a man who saw the evil of the world and fought it, for freedom, not for his own agenda.
I’d argue these autocratic men are clinically insane. Psychotic, sociopathic, narcissistic. That’s mental illness. We can pity it, and they fear that the most, but we cannot allow it to take power here or in Israel.
But they have a powerful weapon and it is working. Complaisance . Simply not caring. Start caring or you may suddenly realize it is too late.
And by the way, tell the media you’ve had it with ‘fair and balanced’ coverage, which is fair and balanced in name only. The desire for absolute power and vengeance is not comparable to leadership, freedom, or tolerance and can’t be treated that way.
It is their own form of complacency and it is not informing the public, it is lulling them. And Bibi, Trump, Putin, and Xi know it.
Wake up. Do it for your grandchildren or someone else’s grandchildren. Or for all of us.
~ I write The Grasshopper, a letter for creatives, The Witness Chronicles, a place for my articles on politics and climate, and The Remarkable, a recovery letter, about my addiction and reentry experience. All are weekly and free, however this is how I live and I strongly believe all writers and creatives should get paid, if we provide value. Your upgrade to a paid subscription helps make that happen.
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I enjoy reading your material, Mr. Edic, because it gives me a glimpse into the delusional frantasies of the "progressive" Left. Biden is one of the few "sane" political leaders in the world (even if much of his "wonderful" SOTU address was incomprehensible mumbo-jumbo). Trump (of course) is Hitler reborn (yes, he is an obnoxious egotist, but so are some self-righteous commentators I can name) . The sky is falling and it's all the fault of heavy industry and the use of machinery that operates on petroleum fuels (like the machinery they use to manufacture and charge the ridiculously expensive and unreliable batteries that drive those Wondedrful ElEcTrIc Motor Vehicles).
It's all very well written and apparently sincere. I just happen to think it's mostly baloney.
But please carry on, with my blessing.
Most people are risk averse. If things for them, personally, seem relatively o.k. or even good, then they resist change. Political involvement, even attention to it, is similar to gambling - back the right Party / Person and things may be roses, back the wrong one and it may be disastrous - it all depends on the resources one puts into it. However, backing a politician or political party is much more risky that backing a horse. It is more risky for a horse's form is a good guide to how it will perform in the future and when a horse wins, it's done, all over - one way or the other. When a person or party wins, (is elected), it's not all over - it's just the beginning and there is no guarantee that any form, (policy), either showed before the election will be honoured afterwards.
So, people are not so much complaisant as 'switched off'. Most don't have any real understanding of political systems, history, processes or strategy and tactics used by politicians. Many don't even know the name of the politicians who purport to represent them. Few have ever read the Constitution and even fewer have the capacity to understand it in more than a superficial way. Nor do most understand the protocols and devices and powers of government, let alone how they are manipulated by influencers, wealth, media and legacy.
Conditioning is a significant causative factor in human behaviour. Sadly, the flawed and largely fictitious promises of the 'American Dream', conditioned into the population through schooling, peers, media and unprincipled actions of so-called 'leaders', do not eventuate for the vast majority. Instead of the American Dream they find themselves in an 'American Nightmare'. As humans do, they tend to blame rather than reason, to react to the surface superficiality or direct effects on themselves, rather than to investigate, seek to understand causes and realities that are often hidden behind media and political rhetoric, as well as the slogans and 'patriotic' nationalist anthems, sayings and learned falsities that serve the powerful by manipulating the majority.
Churchill, as you imply, was someone who could manipulate a population as well as the best of them but, fortunately, beyond his selfish preoccupation with ensuring the maintenance of his alcohol, cigars, warm clothes, comfortable life-style, he had no desire to enslave or dictate to the people. In fact, his main motivation was to ensure the continued existence of the 'upper class' of British society, with all its privileges. I very much doubt that he had more than a passing thought for the majority of the population or even the soldiers, sailors and air-force personnel who actually did the fighting - and dying.
So, no, we do not want to "sit by and watch the rise of dictatorship" for just as wrinkles, changed body shape, loss of hearing and failing eyesight occur relatively indiscernibly, so does substantial political change. It festers and grows over time, with little acknowledgment or awareness of and by most, until it suddenly bursts forth, already with a level of power and resources that allow it to gain further traction very quickly and which defy efforts to prevent it or even to dissuade people from accepting it as desirable because it has already insinuated itself into their minds and it gives them a focus for their dissatisfaction and blame..
There is only one way to prevent such eventualities - at least in my opinion - and that is to provide an equitable, honest, transparent and accountable societal organisation, (government, if you will), and to foster, (an alter-conditioning), a mindful, thinking, accepting and caring people who are taught to ask questions, rather than seek answers, and to subscribe to sound principles of equity and equality, rather than the fake, distorted, selective and self-serving notions of 'life success', 'respectability', 'trustworthiness', and 'achievement' that allow a small cohort of privileged beings to promote and maintain control of all, for their own benefit.
Unfortunately, overcoming years of conditioning to the artificial codes of religious institutions and their self appointed association with a 'divinity', accompanied by models of 'success' that paint a false image of what constitutes a truly worthwhile life, are mighty obstacles to overcome. It will require a dozen, a hundred, perhaps even a thousand Martin Luther Kings and similar to overcome such obstacles and considerable time.
I doubt that either of those necessities will ever be available to us and even if they were to be, I can't see how it can be soon enough for the avoidance of the major disaster that the USA faces right now - regardless of who is the next President. If it is Trump, then all manner of chaos will ensue and life, for most, will be even less worth living than they see it as right now. If Biden is to retain the presidency, then what you see as complacency, will almost certainly continue, for human beings seem rarely to learn from mistakes and tend to concern themselves with symptoms rather than causes. So, yes, if Biden wins, things may be better. - on the surface - but that festering will continue for nothing will actually have changed sufficiently, (if at all), to eliminate the false codes - the kindling from which the eventual fire bursts into fierce flame. It will simply be put off until another Trump arises.
Take care. Stay safe. ☮️