To the lions

Our current geopolitical battles involve pushing back against an encroaching global appetite for totalitarianism. The idea that one leader and one set of ideas can be counted on to lead a populace has been attempted before to disastrous effect. When people see their governments failing them they are tempted to storm the Bastille and remove the perpetrators who let led them to suffer.

Neoliberalism failed us and the idea that we could count on fairness to adjust our markets and our societies was an error. People who lost livelihoods were never retrained but simply left to the mercy of economic structures which had no room for charity.

The US became the most extreme laboratory which proved the failure of the unfettered free market. As the middle class shrunk under the weight of stagnant wages and increasing automation, there was no safety net there to rescue them. Capitalists took their winnings and pocketed them thus proving that nothing ever really trickles down. Hence the new fascination among some for a new twisted brand of theocratic fascism.

This failure increases the appetite among the masses for false populism and people who do not understand what is happening to them fall prey to despots. It's a story as old as humanity itself. But societies will readjust as they did in the early stages of the 20th century, however not before the many innocent are fed to the lions. Just as they always are.

If I am concerned it's not for me but for my children but then I tell myself that every generation comes with its challenges.