We are in a delicate situation, where the state of the world can change monumentally from one day to the next, due to a number of factors that have been building up for a long time and accelerating.
The first thing is the health of President Joe Biden. We have been following his struggles for a long time now, as he rambles or falls asleep during meetings. There may come a day when he is no longer with us. And then we have Kamala Harris as his successor, a moderately popular person, who is also known to ramble, though not due to old age. Biden’s departure would also possibly open up some dark doors. There are still many questions about the last election results and allegations of fraud, as well as the Biden family’s corrupt dealings in Ukraine. If Biden disappears, the debate could take a different turn.
The second point is the Covid vaccine; millions of people were forced to take it in order to be socially accepted. We now know that the vaccine was not very effective, and that it has some side effects. At best it is a poorly performing vaccine, at worst it is something extraordinarily dangerous. Only time will tell where we are on the scale. However, citizens want answers as to why we were forced into isolation, confinement, surveillance and untested medicine. The pandemic resembles a global crisis scenario or role-playing game that went completely out of control.
Then we have the so-called climate change. Again, there are a lot of loose ends, and a climate that hardly matches the increasingly crazy media image. We don’t know whether human emissions of carbon dioxide really affect the climate, or to what extent. The science is not nearly as unanimous as many would like to claim. Many commentators and activists have gone too far. Here, too, the mask can fall.
During the summer, the Ukrainians attempted a counter-offensive, the idea being to reach the Crimean peninsula and throw the Russians out. They got a few kilometres into no-man’s land. And outside Kiev, a giant cemetery is being planned to house 400,000 graves. We Westerners are world champions at belittling the Russians, who are described as uncivilised Orcs, drunks with rusty old guns whose entire economy is based on gas and oil. Now the trolls have expanded their special operation by hundreds of thousands of men, into a huge army, and may be planning an offensive. How will NATO deal with a loss? Can the defence cooperation even survive this?
Then there is the EU, this over-bureaucratised monster that has neither a functioning currency nor proper democracy. With countries pulling in different directions, and different ideas about most things, trapped in a false unity. Where most of it is about draining Brussels’ funds and subsidies, in fact the hard-earned money of European taxpayers. With economic crises, corruption, refugee problems, it doesn’t take much for the dinosaur to fall to the ground.
And finally, we are experiencing a sad, humourless culture whose main purpose now seems to be to highlight minorities and deviants in films and media. The aim is to compensate for perceived oppression, even though we live in times when the law gives equal rights to all. We also see Dionysian festivals and parades celebrating alternative sexualities, and they are increasingly taking up public space, demanding universal acceptance. Furthermore, predictable and uninspiring works dominate art and architecture. Concrete and glass boxes are produced on an assembly line. And art is dominated by meaninglessness, ugliness and disgust. Few dare point out that the emperor is both hungover and naked.
And, it seems that all these houses of cards can fall around the same time.
