What’s going on?

The Republicans in the US are turfing Liz Cheney, one of their leaders for daring to question the emperor with no clothes. In Canada we are in lockdown, then not; then getting a particular vaccine, then not; opening the economy, then not; opening sectors of the economy, then not; rules differ by province with no apparent federal leadership. The winner of the sacrosanct Kentucky derby tests positive for drugs; no one seems surprised because the trainer has a history of drugging horses. India is in crisis, the US is opening full up, Australia is closing it’s borders until mid 2022, Canada vacillates. Biden and Trudeau are backing spending programs that some are afraid will cause very serious inflationary problems in the future; they swear they won’t and are necessary to deal with current conditions. Bitcoin advocates seem intent on joining gold and major currencies as major harbingers of value. NHL playoffs will start while regular season games are still being played. WE get the sense that no one has a master plan, and events will evolve randomly.

It’s too much to take in; we are overwhelmed; so we become less critical in our assessments as citizens and join the crowd of people who just follow events day to day without taking an active role in learning the art of trying to shape events. We can’t even be certain that our traditional way of participating in events through elections will be meaningful in the future as increasingly menacing forces unknown appear to be attempting to control election processes and install their own puppet leaders.

The answer is that there is a lot going on, and if many of us with the resources to become meaningfully involved and make a difference don’t make the effort and participate in public debate we will drift into an unknown future controlled by people who may or may not have our best interests in mind. Think Europe in the 1930’s.