Looking Forward To 2019
Caveat Emptor - Let the buyer or reader beware.
Thoughts
are the building blocks of ideas, and I am getting old. I am ageing,
and although still energetic with a relatively fulsome life, I am
getting filled with uncertainties. It never used to be like this, I was
always sure about everything, even when I should not have been.
It’s
funny, back then, spouting my latest theory seemed the natural thing to
do. Convincing all those around me I was right, and that my way was the
only logical, researched, sensible pathway forward became an obsession
with me. In retrospect, I think most people just went along with my
methods, because they could not be bothered to argue, or what I was
ranting on about was pretty insignificant in the overall scheme of
things. However, I digress.
Like
I say, I am getting old. My certainties have abandoned me like groupies
without a celebrity, fireflies without a flame. Now, I am filled with
hesitation about most things and great thoughts, big ideas cannot
flourish in the garden of uncertainty. So now, I meander from one
indecisive thought to another, chasing the unreachable clarity.
So, caveat emptor. It is from that position that the following comes to me.
After
the rage of 2018, the year when hate ruled across the world and bile
streaked across Gaia, like an avalanche, a great flood, a gigantic
tsunami, I am hoping that 2019 will be a year of reflection. A year of
peace.
I
think after such a tragic year, rage has nothing left to give, the fury
must subside, it just cannot sustain the energy, so it must die. And
when it dies, what are we left with?
We
are left with tidying up, putting out the embers of the flame, trying
to find the lost ships, the souls that are unhealed, the unsatiated
greedy moguls whose wants can never be satisfied. And the ideas that
were fermenting about how we could make things better before the rage
presented itself.
Yet
the fundamental problems that created the rage are still festering
behind the scenes., waiting for another moment when hope gives up and
leaves the building, maybe this time never to return.
There
are some things that I think are fundamental to how we move on, how we
ensure that hopelessness stays hidden and lost, controlled within the
cages, where it belongs.
We
have to deal with the little things, like BREXIT, knife crimes, the
shortages in the NHS, the overall state of the people in the United
Kingdom. I live in London and have done for some 59 years, apart from
the time when I was in the Royal Navy, but that is another story.
I
watched “I, Daniel Blake” a few days ago and the movie made me finally
realise that my life is on a different trajectory to those depicted in
the film. I am beginning to understand why some people would vote for
BREXIT. Yes, they have been hoodwinked, but the way the United Kingdom
is mismanaged by the money grabbing super-rich and their manipulative
minions, who have no understanding or feeling for people less fortunate
than them is the real reason why BREXIT has become possible.
False
problems such as the NHS shortages are part of the “Austerity” strategy
devised to steal back vast resources from the less fortunate. The
bankers made the mess, the poor and the unfortunate pays for it. But
these are small things when compared to the massive shifts that the
world has to make to fulfil its destiny, whatever that is.
So, what are these major changes that humanity has to make to fall in line with the will of Gaia or Mother Nature?
I
find in our arrogance, us humans forget that we are part of nature, and
as a consequence, everything we do is natural. We cannot step out of
the control of Mother Nature, even if we wanted to. Because everything
has been ordained by Gaia and this universe and its laws.
And while we agonise over the small stuff, the major ones are stacking up around the corner.
The major things that are going to cause chaos in our long term lives are:
The planet is heating up
The Africans diaspora will return to Africa
The demographic shift taking place will take place –
Capitalism
and its primary tool democracy have had its day, Western dominance with
all its good things and mistakes has to end, like all things. Who or
what will replace these two ancient, pre-computer edifices?
The
little things like NHS and BREXIT are so short term in the span of
human existence, that they are hardly worth the agony we are enduring
over them. We are forced to be patriotic about nationwide rather than
worldwide borders. How do we evolve to see ourselves as Earthlings as
opposed to being British, American, Jamaican or Australian?
The planet is heating up.
As
we become better at harnessing the power of technology to govern our
lives, us humans seem to be drifting off into believing that we are no
longer at the mercy or control of nature, almost as if we are the
dominant force on the planet.
We seem surprised that we cannot always predict what the weather is going to be like. We think that the weather is our servant.
We
belong to nature, nature does not belong to us. A tiny sunspot or a
comet that does not pass over, but land, can end our existence. A
tsunami can wipe out millions, a volcano or earthquake can cause dust
and gas clouds that changes everything.
The
planet is heating up, some say it is manmade, others postulate that it
is in the Earth cycle and every 100,000 years or so it warms up, and the
current increase in the temperature is just a part of the journey. Me, I
have no idea, I do believe though that If we are part of nature, then
nature is in control and will ultimately resolve this to its
satisfaction, not ours. And even if we are involved in finding the
solution that keeps us existing, it is because nature wanted that to
happen. We have not yet evolved beyond nature.
The Africans diaspora will return to Africa
As
I look around me, it becomes increasingly apparent that us Africans or
descendants thereof are desperately trying to be what we were never
intended to be. We are not of European stock, our method of balance is
different to theirs. I acknowledge that the Europeans and their
descendants have taken things learnt from other parts of the world and
using large capital created through wars, slavery and theft have
advanced their world into almost what can be described as a
future-world. It is the lifestyle, technology and materials that others
crave. And so those others come to share the spoils.
These
so-called foreigners reason that if the Europeans came to their
homelands and shared their raw materials, their human resource and their
land, then the Europeans will be happy to share their resources too.
Hmmm, guess they got that wrong. “Takers can only take, and givers will
always give”.
Africa
was the most advanced continent for almost 6,000 years. It gave out its
people, its skills, its talent, its knowledge to the Greeks, who passed
it on to the Romans, who passed it on to the Catholic Kings and the
West after 1492. Africa led “The Islamic Golden Age” or the “European
Dark Ages” as the Europeans call it.
It
sometimes feels that Africa is in mourning for all its lost children,
its lost souls, stolen by the Maafa, the great Mahangamizi which took
place from 1441 to 1888 when it came to an end in Brazil. It grieves for
the millions killed in Belgian Congo under King Leopold of Belgium.
This theft and mass murder reduced its human energy, and it has taken a
long time to be replenished, but it is on the march. Its diaspora has
also woken up to the reality that Africa is its home and it is time to
return. Spiritual order will return when the dispossessed Africans
return home. Some will resist it, but the wise will welcome it.
The demographic shift taking place will take place
Europe
and North America have taken the abundant wealth from all over the
planet and are storing it in their vast warehouses. They become
surprised when the dispossessed from the rest of the world come knocking
for their stolen property. They hope that no one remembers how Rhodes
plundered Africa, how Clyde ravaged India, how Jardine and Mathieson
through the Opium Wars brought China to its knees and let's not talk
about the Aborigines in Australia.
All
across the world, the West and its cohorts, its sycophants plunder and
take, forgetting that we live in a “give to get” universe, and “what
goes around, comes around.”
Capitalism
and its primary tool democracy have had its day, Western dominance with
all its good things and mistakes has to end, like all things. Who or
what will replace these two ancient, pre-computer edifices?
We
need a better system of exchange to create a better balance on the
planet. Those who are undervalued need to get a better rate of exchange
for their efforts, and the overvalued ones need to recognise that their
position is false. That they are just lucky and it will all end in tears
for them, their children or their children's children, if we do not
redistribute the resources on the planet, soon.
It
is obscene that there is poverty on this planet at this stage of our
evolution. Greed is still acceptable, and the survival of the fittest is
still seen as being desirable, even though taken to its logical
scientific conclusion, it must end in our extinction.
Nature
has provided us with far-reaching technology, with the means to end
starvation, to eradicate most of the diseases and feed the entire human
population, if we chose to. But we do not choose to. Instead, the
super-rich takes about 25 trillion of our pounds and store them in
offshore accounts, where they will never be needed whilst millions
starve and risk wars and death to find solace.
And Gaia mourns.
Somehow
we have to get to a point where we humans learn to abide by principles
based on “need, not want”. By that I mean, we can have as much as we
need, but no more, and everything else must be released back into the
“Common Good Pool”, including the Trillions hidden away. This philosophy
will allow long term sustainability for us, our children and their
children ad infinitum.
But there are consequences in all we do, so “caveat emptor”, let the reader beware.
Oh, and a Happy New Year
Full copyright: Roy Merchant 28th January 2019
