Plague Journal, Roosevelt Redux?
Yesterday evening, Thursday prior to the G-7 meeting a media event was held showcasing a meeting between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain. The meeting was competently choreographed, and both spoke in generalities: a typical show and tell projecting images of the leaders of the “free world.”
I have doubts. Seeing is believing can be a hazardous principle to follow, especially when what you see has been shaped for your consumption. The idea stated by the two participants was to reference the “special relationship” between the United States and Britain, to harken back to the 1941 meeting between FDR and Winston Churchill.
Some of the elements that give me pause: the United States of today is not the 1941 society of our fathers. Today we are a deeply divided society, with the division growing by the day: the states that support democratic governance, verses the people living in the states of the old Confederacy, and the West, who prefer authoritarian rule. The division is between those who trust science, those preferring risk of minor side effects of vaccination to contracting Covid19, serious illness, even death. The rift in viewpoint makes the head spin. And there are more.
Biden is not FDR. And Boris Johnson is certainly no Churchill. Johnson displayed an affinity for Trump, when the authoritarian was in office. Britain is not at war with the Nazis, with America supplying a lifeline of material support. The Russians are another matter. Also we have been busy making enemies of the Chinese lately. They have a not so secret weapon of devastating effectiveness: the internet.
To read the entire Associated Press story of the Biden – Johnson summit CLICK HERE.
One thought on “Plague Journal, Roosevelt Redux?”
Yes, my friend, it is extremely difficult to dissect the offerings from any politician these days and find any evidence of truth mixed in with the intended manipulations. Personally I know what I want to believe when I hear the speeches about reciprocity and cooperation between nations, but that is a very dangerous attitude to take when listening to any news source. Many people want to believe that “Q” knows all and sees all, so they believe the lunacy that emanates from that sector of society. Many others want to believe that becoming vaccinated against Covid will either leave them sterile or will turn them into a giant magnet, so they whole heartedly embrace that nonsense. Our species is extraordinarily good at buying into magical thinking and justifying voodoo belief systems, regardless of merit. We’ve been doing it for thousands of years, so why stop now?
What is crystal clear is that we are one extremely peculiar animal and the edge of our extinction on this planet is just a few inches from our feet.