There is a wave of hatred and divisiveness spreading around the world. If I were a religious person I would solemnly proclaim that this is the work of Satan and his minions here on earth.
I am not religious, but I do believe that evil exists and in times of crisis, it rears its ugly head in ways large and small. Much of this evil, believe it or not, is being condoned, by the governments of various countries who fear that they will be overrun by people fleeing unliveable conditions in their own country.
What’s not being condoned is the pure racial and sectarian hatred of those who fear that too much mingling of the races and too much influence from religions that are not their own will eventually destroy their cultures.
This is not a political problem in the purest sense. Nor is it a societal problem in the purest sense. What it is, it seems to me, is a strange hybrid of both.
But the overriding problem is that people on both sides of the myriad of issues seem to be completely unwilling to even try to understand the reasons why all this is happening. They all appear to be so deeply mired in their own belief that their cause is just and the only activity at all seems to be the sounds of shovels as both sides dig deeper.
Where Is The Saviour When You Need One?
This is a situation that has been going on for literally thousands of years as nations and nation-states sought to conquer what they could of the world and spread their ideologies are far as possible. And for quite some time it worked and vast empires were created and eventually crumbled into the mish-mosh of countries we know today.
But the urge and the outright necessity for conquest never faded. What was once called Imperialism got a new adjective added to it and became Economic Imperialism. Here the goal was not to rage across the landscape, raping and pillaging and plundering resources. No, that was dirty business.
Today’s imperialists sit in big offices, sometimes, many times the highest offices in the land, and pick targets and send their spooks in to start a revolution and shift power to the most corruptible leaders, and then proceed to buy them in exchange for carte blanche access to whatever they are in need of to fuel their own economies.
Instead of sending in their armies, they send in weapons and let the people kill each other. It’s much neater that way and all the instigators get the added advantage of plausible (?) deniability for all these atrocities and massive displacement of people.
And For What?
For what it’s always been. For profit. For power. Vanity. Ego. For the perks. For the big boats and lavish lifestyle. For the ability to afford any indulgence you can imagine, and even some you can’t. For the reputation of being a titan of business. Or a mover and shaker on the world political scene.
All at the expense of countless dead bodies that they will never have to bury. All at the expense of extreme human misery that they will never have to experience.
This is what the world has come to. And the people who sanction this are the ones who really have sold their souls for a few pieces of silver.
It’s not personal they proclaim. It’s just business. Why should we really care about what happens in those shithole countries, they confidently tweet.
I have been watching and commenting on this for pretty much all of my adult life, which is a long time. And nothing has really changed except the numbers. They grow larger with each passing incursion. And the plundered resources go to power machinery that poisons the air and ruins the land.
But it’s just business after all. The wheels of industry need to keep on turning. And money makes the world go round. Yadda. Yadda.
The Most Precious Thing You Own
There is no ending to this post, because there is no end in sight to this terrible situation. Not yet.
But here is some advice. Hold onto your soul.
Ask yourself if what you are involved in is part of the problem or part of the solution. If it’s part of the problem and if you don’t care either way, then you are giving up the most precious thing you own.
Opportunity in the brave new world exists in abundance in repairing all the damage of the past. Go there are do that. Keep your soul right where it belongs.
We only have this one world. And we only have this one life. Do you really want to spend it in the soul-killing service of economic imperialism?
I do not disagree with that in any way, Aaron. But if you take one step back and look at the reason for a good deal of the dislocation, it has been the result of economic imperialism by the US, Great Britain, Spain, Russia, China and Japan etc, over the years. In the middle east, it was all about oil, not, as we found out, weapons of mass destruction. In Afghanistan, I believe it was about rare earth metals, which that country has in great supply. China won that one. Creating civil war and its displacement of people is one of the fundamental tools of economic imperialism. Now, the action has moved to South and Central America, and oops, the dislocated are right on the doorstep. I believe it’s called either irony or poetic justice.
I was always under the impression that legal immigrants (as opposed to asylum seekers), had to jump through a few economic hoops and show the government that they either had, a job, capital to invest or a good business idea. The asylum seekers are a whole other problem. But so are the reasons that they exist.
I have no idea how the world solves this problem. But certainly taking kids away from their parents and putting everyone in cages is pretty inhuman. But this dislocation is everywhere, not just in the US. Canada is taking in a lot of refugees, but that will soon be capped off. Probably the worst situation in the world for any individual is to be a peasant in one of those war torn places.
You are 100% on point Jim. Separating families and keeping them in cages or squalid conditions is abhorrent and unconscionable. We can and should do better. And to be fair, nothing I said was meant to suggest we toss our compassion out the window. We simply need to find better more efficient ways in which to help our fellow man. In many ways, the governments of the world need to swallow some of the blame for perpetuating this madness. To put myself in the shoes of an immigrant who has absolutely nothing to lose, only to be rejected or sent back to a hostile environment… that alone is heartbreaking. I totally get it. There simply are no easy answers no matter which way you slice it. Until next time… 🙏
All valid points Jim. Before I bend my words in any manner that may be misconstrued as hate-speech, let me clarify that I truly feel empathy for any person fleeing from oppression, tyranny, violence or poverty. In the U.S., our policies flip-flop every four to eight years as administrations and objectives change hands. Yes, we do have a contingency of people who are overtly racist right down to their genetic core, but they do not represent all people… and they are not all conservatives. In fact, this is not merely a liberal vs. conservative issue. It is a historical, regional issue depending upon where you live, stand or breathe. Part of the problem, as usual, is that we have mixed messages coming from our media and government. I’m speaking strictly from an American perspective. I’ve never lived anywhere else, unless you count military service. Let’s say we raise a white flag and accept every single immigrant who desires freedom. Let’s say we provide them housing, education, jobs and healthcare. How do we pay for this? Where are all of these jobs coming from? What are these jobs specifically? For starters, we already have an epidemic of homelessness. Second, not all of them are seeking peace and prosperity… some are coming here with nefarious intent. That’s not an illusion of racism, it is reality. 911 can and will happen again if we allow full compassion and mercy without rules, laws or a system of merit. The final peg is that the countries in which they are fleeing are not giving these immigrants any reason or hope to remain. The corruption is not resolved at its source, yet we continue to blindly fund these third-world governments and regimes who waste and abuse our generosity. That is also no illusion. I would welcome anyone who desires freedom and is willing to work hard and give back to the system. It can’t always be a take-take situation from taxpayers who are then shamed by their own government for protecting their best interests. Yes, there is some ignorance involved, but on the whole most voters are educated above and beyond their level of profession. We simply cannot afford to allow every single person in before the entire bloated system collapses inward. That’s not selfishness. That’s not cruelty. It’s common sense… and voters know that… red and blue alike. Anyway, that’s my two-cents worth. Thought-provoking article good sir, hope I didn’t spoil your breakfast… 😝