Today we sit on the cusp of a change so instrumental to our lives, that one could say without equivocation, our survival hangs in the balance. When one looks at history, the similarities between what happened in 1938 and what is happening today, should send a chill through the spine of every man and woman in Canada that believes in democracy.
We in the west are about to suffer a similar fate to what transpired in Europe, 75 years ago. A man, driven by narcissism, a need for power, hate-filled, devoid of reason, logic or rationality is about to take office in the most powerful nation on earth. Meanwhile, nations equivocate about how difficult or troublesome this man might be, as though it were a minor inconvenience that will be rectified upon the next election, four years hence.
It won’t be.
In reality, this populist and unpredictable man has depended on creating an image of invulnerability, one of charisma for those too simple to understand that as beguiling as he appears, underneath is an insecure angry boy seeking power and greed through opportunity. ’Believers’, no different than those in 1930, somehow see this narcissistic, untalented and fecklessly arrogant opportunist as their powerful messiah. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, this insecure, arrogant and incompetent blowhard is both manipulative and at the same time, manipulating those from within the ranks of the extreme right wing in American politics to do his bidding.
Unfortunately, more than half of Americans are so willfully ignorant that they are about to risk autocracy rather than seek to see the boy beneath the orange mane. What America needs at this moment are men and women of logic, reason, intelligence, and scientific understanding, men of honour and with knowledge of the past, willing to seek collaboration and employ that information as knowledge in an effort to secure a strong and safe world.
Instead, we have a strange combination of irrational and incompetent men and women feeling they are entitled, and omnipotent. The misinformed and willfully ignorant public has been misled into a ‘belief’ that has led the less educated, uninformed and desperate to uphold and enable a man devoid of character, honesty, truth, capability or honour to become their messianic leader.
This man seeks to be considered as the ‘leader’ of the free world, which is an oxymoron as he will undoubtedly act to destroy it. His inability to truly ‘be intelligent’ has allowed him to become enamoured with his own ‘luck’ at being in the right place at the right time. A time when America, not unlike the 1930’s, wishes to retrench and enter into a time and place of isolationism and protectionist policies. A place where the world can ill afford to ignore America’s unwillingness and inability to act.
America by reneging on its responsibilities as the de facto leader of the free world will accede to two, (for the moment), dictators and autocrats, – who by their own admission wish to create dynastic empires. Both of these men are ruthless in their need for power and both will do whatever they deem necessary to secure those ends.
The question then becomes, what are ‘we’, those outside the intended reign of terror to do?
While there are a few strategies to manage what may well be a dangerous and unpredictable future, there is only one for those of us outside of the Discordant States of America. An immediate act to prepare defensively for an assault on freedom, liberty, honour and truth. This will not be accomplished by acquiescence, nor by accommodation. Nor will it be accomplished by weakness. It is only through a determined defence and ability to resist, and by creating the necessary means to effectively resist that our democratic institutions and democracy itself, will survive.
It is unfortunate that some leaders in the west have neither the ability nor the fortitude to do whatever is necessary to ensure our survival, apparently including our own Prime Minister. However, for those that do, the time is already late and action must be taken to ensure that our democratic institutions, economy and sovereignty are not bartered off to a megalomaniac intent on creating his own version of the author Margaret Atwood’s ‘Gilead’.
We are at a crossroads. One that will either see us stand up to tyranny or fall to it. There is no alternative form of existence that will not see democracy dismantled, given time. And if nations should fail to find the courage to resist what will become kleptocracy, then I believe that there will be a significant groundswell to fight in order to withstand a dictator and fascist in power in what was the greatest nation on earth economically and militarily.
We are our fathers and grandfathers sons and daughters, many of which stood up and fought against tyranny and the oppression they would otherwise face. The torch of their sacrifice has been passed and I believe almost all of us here now, will pick it up.
Americans have proven, now on multiple occasions, that they are unwilling to live through the loss of American lives in war, I should think particularly so when it is done to fill the coffers of a kleptocratic thief. I have no doubts that their considerations have not changed.
However, if I should be wrong, time is short, and resistance is definitely not futile.
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