Just occasionally, we find ourselves at an historical crossroads of such moment that we may feel overwhelmed by it. Even our familial and day-to-day relationships can become paralysed; there is no escape unless one is very adept indeed at burying one's head in the sand! So let me attempt to summarise some of these polarized perspectives:-
Scenario a):- President Putin is an evil dictator, and if he is not emphatically defeated he will go on to threaten at least the Baltic States, Moldova, probably Poland and the whole of the old Soviet Empire. Tyrants everywhere will be emboldened, especially Chi in China who will take Taiwan. Even President Trump himself will achieve his dream of becoming a dictator. The rule of law and all moral principles in international relations will be irreparably damaged. The West must stand up to tyranny just as it did in WW2. We must get behind President Zelensky and enable him to win.
Scenario b):- Putin may be a dictator and Russia corrupt, but there is some doubt as to whether things are so very much better in Ukraine. Instead of embarking on a quixotic campaign, we need to be realistic and pragmatic about the facts of power politics. It is the height of folly to risk the mother of all forever wars, possibly ending in nuclear armageddon. We also need to take the beam out of our own eyes before trying to get the splinter out of our neighbour's. There will be time enough to build the great new world order if people can only be stopped from blowing each other to bits. Trump may be a bit rough, but at least he is focussed on stopping the killing and not toboganning into unsustainable debt....
Instead of indulging the widespread russophobia, we need to renew our efforts to understand and appreciate Russia. There are the great works of literature to revisit. There is the obvious and simple truth that European prosperity and security requires us to live in peace together with our big neighbour to the East.
Let us also accept that it is long passed time to recognise that Western, aka American, policy needs a radical overhaul, to say the least. Must we everlastingly remind ourselves of the litany of disaster,- Vietnam, Iraq, Afganistan, Libya, Syria, Gaza etc? We may take comfort in the heroic stand against Hitler; we remember with gratitude the role of America then, but let us remind ourselves also of the massive part played by Russia. When we are told that Putin is not to be trusted and it is a waste of time talking to him, let us remind ourselves of the role played by one Joseph Stalin. I daresay the British were not too nice to address him with diplomatic courtesies when it suited them, but I fear that people whose whole worldview is shaped by nostalgia for those heroic times, when 'Britain stood alone against tyranny', are apt to forget this.
Whether one may be peering through murk to take the bearings of some established marks, or using a machine that takes the bearings of satellites, the more cross-bearings, the better. One may wonder why it is that a person's orientation with regard to the above bears a strong relationship to their attitude to a few other big issues, unrelated as they may appear to be, such as covid and climate change. In the case of covid, the situation is still evolving fast; much that used to be 'disinformation' has been quietly shelved, but let us consider the official narrative from start to finish:-
Scenario a) - The virus was a spill-over from nature. The vaccines were a triumph of technology that saved countless lives, and not alone protected the recipient, but prevented the disease from being passed on. The lockdowns were nonetheless essential for nearly two years, and together with the vaccines eventually defeated the virus. The chatter about vaccine harm is largely disinformation.
Scenario b) -'The Covid-19 pandemic is one of the most manipulated infectious disease events in history, characterized by official lies in an unending stream lead by government bureaucracies, medical associations, medical boards, the media and international agencies.' - Russell L. Blaylock in February, 2022. Anyone who still believes those lies no longer has much excuse for doing so, thanks to the 'disinformation' provided by a courageous minority of scientists and doctors on the internet - for which let us thank God. Here is just one recent example.
What a long way we have come since I wrote 'Sorry Doc, I won't be taking the Vaccination' on this blog back in January '21! How innocent I was! I had no idea how horrific the extent of the deception was, and how I would be gradually forced to recognize that there is a World Economic Forum and World Health Organisation cabal out there, including people like Gates and Fauci, who managed to subborn all the so-called democratic governments. Furthermore, they mean what they say about reducing the world's population, in the grand Rockerfella tradition of eugenics.
Actually they have made no secret of their intentions. Pandemics and wars mean nothing to such people,- ordinary humanity can suffer and die, while they adeptly make money every way. If there is war, they make money out of arms while getting rid of plenty of people; if there is peace, they are capable of orchestrating a fake pandemic with a remedy that kills far more people than the disease. The same crowd are making vast fortunes while driving the masses into poverty, and meanwhile are busy buying up farmland and making people eat their extremely dodgy food.
A particularly disturbing aspect of it all is the way it is bound up with the narrative of climate change, as in Gates' Ted Talk in which he made the curious boast about 'using vaccines to reduce the world population'. That we have a severe problem of pollution and bio-diversity loss is undeniable, but the proposition that addressing it is mainly a matter of radically reducing the world's population, or even of attempting to reduce emissions to net zero, is highly questionable to say the least. Unless one considers that one's own folks are exempt from the cull, or one is just deep into nihilism, such a proposition will only alienate one from the tasks in hand.
In short, scenario a) tends, whatever the grand intentions, to actually mean death, ill health, dreadful food, ugliness, environmental degradation, extreme individualisation coupled with totalitarian control, polarisation, the collapse of families and general misery.
Scenario b) offers life, health and well-being, real organic food, beauty, sustainability, harmony with thriving nature, reconciliation, community life, freedom, family and fun all round.
'I set before you life and death, saith the Lord. Choose life!' (Deuteronomy 30:19)
It comes down to a choice between the idolatrous worship of technology and power, or the love of one's neighbour and of God,- an exercise that, indeed and alas, is by no means free of cost!
