Don’t get your undies in a twist, I’m not saying it was Utopia, not by a long shot. Since then human civilization has lived under the cloud of nuclear annihilation, ecosystems strained to the breaking point, rampant industrial and consumer pollution, and a multitude of other possible world-ending disasters. Throw in the insidious rising power of corporations along with the growing economic chasm between the rich elites and the rest of humanity and its clear the post-WW2 world order desperately needs reforming.
But for all its faults, the post-WW2 geopolitical structure developed and maintained by the United States, Canada, and the nations of Western Europe is responsible for the longest era of peace and economic growth our sorry species has seen in several centuries at least.
The elements of this uneven peace revolve around freedom of the seas, respect for the sovereignty of nations, and growing global free trade. Once again, before any one cries out in existential pain and despair there are glaring holes in this assessment but we’re dealing with humans here and nothing we do is ever perfect. Although our species’ one universal talent is to fuck things up in the worst possible way.
But the fact that even with the high tech death machine toys and poisons developed in the last eighty-years we have refrained from using them says something positive about how the world was being ran.
Well, that has all gone to shit now.
It was bad enough when both Russia and China decided they going to start claiming territory without asking the local residents or staking claims to large areas of open ocean. But now the United States under the Trump regime has taken to the world stage like a caricature of a 19th century colonial power righteously declaring that it will annex Canada, Greenland, and retake the Panama Canal.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Ever since the Tangerine Hitler emerged on the American political scene it’s as if reality has taken a turn into the surreal. I would usually describe it along Twilight Zone terms with the wise Rod Sterling standing over in a corner getting ready to explain how main character in that night’s episode fell from grace.
But we’ve exceeded even that, our reality has mutated beyond pure speculative fiction and is now living in an episode of The Simpsons. The problem though with that comparison is there is nothing to laugh about with the circumstances we find ourselves.
Things further went to shit recently when Putin gave a speech in the Russian city of Murmansk. He essentially gave a nod of approval to the Trump Regime to forcibly take Canada, Greenland, and Panama. That is as long as he gets Ukraine, Poland, and the Baltic states. Not to leave China out of this 21st century imperialistic revival, there is ample evidence that if Mainland China invades Taiwan, Trump will not lift a finger to help them.
No I’m wrong, this isn’t a caricature of 19th colonial realpolitik, this shit looks a lot like petty bronze age kings trying to build their personal empires and deify themselves.
On a personal note that dovetails with this post. I work in a hospital on the mechanical engineering staff fixing things. My duties take me all over the hospital including places like surgery and Labor and Delivery. For several years now when I walk through Labor and Delivery and hear the cry of a newborn baby, I wish the little one luck because it’s going to be a shitty century.
