The world is going through some batshit crazy stuff lately. Russia is fighting wars it’s not fighting, the US is involved in a proxy war with itself both in the Middle East and on home soil, and France has become the number one hawk in Europe while having lost in the Euro final against Portugal in Paris last night. After having managed to make the world sympathetic toward Ronaldo! I mean really!
Speaking of batshit crazy, the recently elected nationalist government in Poland has decided to employ Soviet-style propaganda concerning president Obama because Poland has clearly had enough of freedom of the press and all that nonsense. It wants to return to the glory days of being manhandled by lunatics.
Meanwhile, next door, in Germany, oh, dear old lovely Deutschland, liebling Deutschland with its Nazi ghosts and taboos and complexes, its war specters and nasty past behavior of slapping people around till they all fell in line and did as they were told, poor lovely Germany is now trying to purge itself of those terrible misdeeds, which is why it is trying so hard to make everyone understand that they MUST balance their books schnell and MUST take in as many refugees as they can, if not more. In addition, the EU’s peripheral states MUST guard the union’s borders without any aid from the union’s non-peripheral states, and MUST sign up for punishing memorandums when things go wrong, and MUST exercise reforms that shrink their economies because reforms of that kind resonate among the German electorate, and MUST not expect any debt to be forgiven, even if part of that debt is totally unserviceable, if not toxic, who cares, everyone MUST do as he or she is told, it’s for the good of Europe, ja!
And so it goes. The German administration and the damaged psyche that comes with it are once again dictating Europe’s course in the name of tolerance, of all things. Ha! Who said the Germans don’t have a sense of humor?
The German task list also includes the less fun issues of fiscal responsibility and disciplinarianism, which is proving very unpopular among those who ideally need to deleverage their currencies and borrow money in order to stimulate their economies before they can balance the sheets. This resistance is incredibly annoying for Germany whose goal is to apply its European economic and political vision without hitches. The guilt-ridden multiculturalism, the obsession with not borrowing, they seem very normal and natural practises, but the rest of Europe doesn’t necessarily share those principles word for word and beat for beat, a fact that frustrates Germany greatly, forcing it to force the hands of those who don’t meet its expectations, which serves as a great reminder that good intentions don’t necessarily result in positive outcomes or smooth rides. You may end up in deep shit even with a New Age guru who floats on clouds and shits lollipops. In fact you’ll find yourself in worse trouble because that situation is more difficult to read than, say, a maniac shooting holes in people’s heads. Saviors and deliverers and nurturing figureheads of all kinds are sneaky like that, hard to spot and evade.
Or, as a wise woman once put it, authoritarianism tends to rise on the platform of good causes and pissed off people whose ass is rooted firmly on the chair, and whose brain has developed a direct link to their backside.
Conservative Party member Theresa May enters the fray of our time’s ridiculous current affairs and its hybrid asymmetrical warfare and misinformation panel by becoming Britain’s first unelected female Prime Minister. A supporter of the Remain campaign, Theresa May, our dear beloved Home Secretary, will now lead the country’s Leave course (did you expect any different?) and, to top it all off, she will probably not call for a snap election. On the contrary, she will maintain the position that Britain’s democratic interests are best kept and safeguarded by her unelected administration, making everyone wonder, Is she really going to activate Brexit Article 50, affecting the future of generations without putting the matter to a proper vote?
A truly ludicrous state of affairs, indeed, but very typical of today’s political and economic realities.
It is also very typical of men and women of authority, especially the kind that feel entitled to it. Once power is in their grip, such people are reluctant to let it go. Small men and women acting big by casting long shadows, they enforce their policies at whatever cost, usually a high one. Smoke and mirrors, plenty of damages, losses, bleeding, a game of dunces trying not to get caught out and shown the door, if not the jail cell, if not the hospital bed and morgue, if not the trash heap of history.
It almost makes one root for more sociopolitical breakdown, more uprising and reform, more outrage and sweeping change so that the field will be cleared. Today’s feeble aristocracy together with the latest breed of populists — the career-benefiters, the exploitation-artists, the narrow-minded bigots and all kinds of ill-educated agitators, politicians and citizens alike — are as entitled and toxic as they come. They’re a bane to the world’s functions, and the more of them get washed away by the tide, the better.
And this includes the obnoxious Labour leadership and its rash ideology.
In the meantime, enjoy the party.
From your parody-loving Spin Doctor,
Eyes open, mind sharp.