Big Brother/Yeats’ rough beast in “The Second Coming” is entrenched for good in Washington. (He’s even threatening again to stay in the White House if he is voted out in November!)
America has completely failed and succumbed. Canada killed itself by not having anyone better than Justin. Alberta shot itself with UCP which is now preparing to dismantle education and health.
The plague is coming. The world’s ecosystem long unaddressed after Rachel Carson stopped the chemical industry briefly. Nothing significant happened after the initial ’60s-’70s legislation. (And Trump has started to undo all of it.)
When systems fail and masses of people do it to themselves via government, there’s only the long fall and another Dark Ages left to come. I have never trusted systems and The Machine. (More on this in an upcoming entry.) It is /they are not conducive to sanity, common sense, and smart moves, only corruption, abuses, mindless exploitation, manipulating individuals, and hanging on to power. Nothing else.
With the demise of America, decency, democracy, law and order, justice, and common sense, I think 1984 is fully here. There are no beacons and any of those good folks in Yeats’ poem lack all conviction. You can see this trend reflected everywhere including Brexit, elsewhere in the world, the foods we eat, ubiquitous advertising, mainstream movies, online, and the mass dumbing down.
I return, yet again, to that which I have some/most control over: my life and supporting those around me. Bunker time. Pull-up-the-drawbridge time. Head-for-cover time. Where sanity, common sense, decency, fairness, safety, and immediate control still reside. Where focus and being true to one’s own self first and foremost are the main priorities. Where madness, frenzy, and absurdity are outside the personal gates and gatekeeper.