It’s the last week before Christmas, the season of joy and goodwill. However, I detect an air of gloom and despondency both locally and in the new and old media.
Why?
I could fill this page with reasons why people are fearful of the future.
Just a few examples:
Isis and Islamic terrorism, Syrian migrants, either Donald Trump or Hilary Clinton becoming the next President, Putin’s next move, Canada’s liberal government, low oil prices, climate change.
The many adversities and different experiences that I have survived in my life have led me to a more stoic view of the world.
That means I do not see the alarming current events or situations as random acts of insanity, but the consequences of the former leaders of the free world abdicating their power.
The seeds of the current chaos were sown back in the 1960s and 70s when millions of unsophisticated people were condemned to lives of misery. The consequence of the major European powers’ abandonment of them in the indecent rush to grant “independence” to countries in Africa totally unprepared for it.
That was compounded by the West’s tolerance of atrocious behaviour by the newly installed, brutal dictators intent of squandering billions of dollars worth of resources and foreign aid.
Tolerance of behaviour in third world nations in other regions that was considered totally unacceptable in first world democracies was another nail in the coffin of an ordered and orderly world.
Granting seats and voting rights in the United Nations and other global, political, economic and sporting bodies, allowed many of these morally and financially bankrupt states to blackmail the wealthy, productive nations, the next.
The result, the balance of power tipped from the responsible, productive countries towards the irresponsible, unproductive and often dangerous ones.
All done while cleverly convincing liberals in the West that it was all their fault, creating a huge weight of guilt for the fictitious sins of colonialism, racism and other imaginary crimes.
A weight of guilt that permitted millions of immigrants from the 3rd world to flood into Western Europe. Many with the intention of establishing Islamic enclaves, not assimilating into the culture of the host nation.
A false guilt that was taken advantage of to accuse those standing up to the suffocating tide of political correctness of being racist, homophobic, Islamophobic, sexist or any other “ism” of the day.
Fast forward to the untidy conclusions to the various conflicts in the Middle East, the infatuation with the Arab spring, impotent meddling in Syria and an ineffectual response to Islamic terrorism and is it any wonder that the world seems insane?
My stoic outlook tells me that hope is not yet lost. The world has faced far more serious challenges before and survived. Conflicts, plagues, natural disasters.
However, using WWII as an example, the difference then was that the major players in the free world had decisive leaders.
The biggest problem now is that the only decisive leader in a major country is Vladimir Putin in Russia. Putin’s decisiveness is all about increasing Russia’s leverage in general and in the Middle East in particular. Saving the West from its leaders’ and electorates’ ineptitude is not on his agenda.
Prime Minister David Cameron of the UK is starting to develop the backbone to do something about ISIS. He is unlikely to be blackmailed into opening the gates to hundreds of thousands of Syrian migrants.
President Hollande of France made some serious sounding promises of action after the Paris attacks, but seems reluctant to take the necessary tough action internally. The remaining European leaders seem more interested in accepting Syrian migrants than solving the problems that are motivating those migrants to leave their homeland.
The most glaring question is why the USA with all its resources, has not after 2 years of bombing campaigns, wiped out ISIS. How has Russia with fewer resources achieved more in days than the USA in months?
Yet more evidence that the current administration has abdicated its role as world leader.
Or does it have a hidden agenda, various theories exist, some highly plausible.
The stoic philosophy states that things: events, situations, are neither good or bad, they just are. It’s our response to them that dictates how they make us feel.
Events and decisions that have resulted in ineffectual leaders and brainwashed populations paralysed by fears of the thought police and lynching by social media.
Understanding that the current apparent insanity is merely the result of a series of events and decisions by world leaders over the last 50 years makes it easier to accept that the future does not have to be bad.
If we find the resolve to elect decisive leaders and stand up for ourselves, there is hope.
The alternative is the continuing erosion of our security, culture and freedom itself.
What do you think?
Leave a comment.
I have another answer as to why people are fearful. I believe it is because all of us mortals think we have to control everything otherwise the world will end. We do not have any trust that things will work out without our selfish and self-centered solutions. We have forgot that we did not create ourselves. We have forgot that there is a Creator and this creator did not create the world and then leave. The challenges of today have been placed into our lives so that we can re-evaluate our actions and our thoughts and hopefully cooler heads will prevail. This should not be a problem if we live the Christmas message of joy and goodwill.
I disagree with your main point, Tim. John F. Kennedy said it best in his inaugural speech:
“…..With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds; let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth, God’s work must truly be our own…..”
Peter,
Your article is eye opening. I thank you for your perspective and insights in a complicated world. I thought we were screwed under the Cheney regime, it has only gotten more convoluted and distorted.
Big money is made with chaos not peace. Ironic that we ask for peace but the driving energy is chaos. I hope we are wearing our protective gear, this may get messy.
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You said it all in these two sentences:
“If we find the resolve to elect decisive leaders and stand up for ourselves, there is hope.
The alternative is the continuing erosion of our security, culture and freedom itself.”
Sadly history is not with us. World Wars I and II proved that.
It is not so much that we do not learn the lessons of the past. The problem is that those who learned those lessons die off and the remaining people on earth have to learn the lesson themselves. Learning history in books does not seem to help. It is not emotional and personal enough. So humans have to learn the lessons themselves….over and over again.