Babylon Redux

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So, the storm-troopers have been at it again in Minneapolis, killing yet another legitimate US citizen in the act of committing no crime whatsoever, save coming to the assistance of another US citizen being bullied into submission by those self-same 'officers of the law'. Two things that appal me, apart from the senseless, state-sanctioned killing itself: one is that I'm no longer surprised that this actually happening yet again within my lifetime and memory, and that such events are again becoming commonplace in a country where race-related lynchings used also to be frequent and tolerated by certain quarters of society as 'normal', also hidden beneath state and legal cloaks of denial and obfuscation.

The second, and perhaps the most telling about the world we currently inhabit, is that even faced with incontrovertible video evidence to the contrary, the state and a large swathe of the internet leap instantly to the defence of the indefensible, denying the truth despite the lie being painted in letters as tall as the Hollywood sign. How much longer can this situation persist before Trump stands naked before a then-enlightened populace? Half of Americans don't buy into this myth-based American status quo, but the reins of (non) truth are firmly in the hands of the myth-makers and the 50% and rest of the world are scrambling around trying to be reasonable and not to anger the man-child.

The problem is that Trump is insensible to reason, having lost what little of his own that he ever possessed anyway. The rest of us, as most sensible commentators are starting to voice, simply need to get on with life and politics without or despite the USA: a painful truth and one which will require time, money, effort and a great deal of diplomacy to achieve. From what I can gather, this is not only do-able, but necessary. Mark Carney, Canadian PM, speaking at Davos, almost alone among world leaders, spoke truth to power and the fragmented, isolationist nationalism that the likes of Trump tout to the masses:

'... A world of fortresses will be poorer, more fragile and less sustainable. And there is another truth. If great powers abandon even the pretense of rules and values for the unhindered pursuit of their power and interests, the gains from transactionalism will become harder to replicate.

Hegemons cannot continually monetize their relationships... '


A voice in the wilderness or a clarion call to collective action? Time will tell, but my money's now on the latter. The Emperor is simply butt naked and caught in the spotlights. Reality really is staring to catch up with the Yellow One and his band of bonkers acolytes...

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