Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.
Matthew 15:14
My favorite atheist internet commenter Pat Condell explains what caused Brexit and Trump: the manifest incompetence of leadership throughout the West. Political revolutions rarely occur because they are planned through conspiracies, but rather as a result of the blindingly obvious inability of the Old Regime to successfully grapple with the problems that confront it. The incompetence of the Old Regime shatters confidence in it, and allows new sources of leadership to come to the fore, sometimes for the good and sometimes for the bad. The news media in the West tend to be ardent defenders of the current Old Regime and therefore are missing the biggest story since the fall of European Communism in 1989, which, come to think of it, took most of the news media then by complete surprise, most members of the press assuming that the Communist states were a permanent feature and not a momentary blip of History. That same May Fly view still remains at work in our time and helps explain why Brexit and the victory of Trump came as such shocking surprises to the people who dedicate themselves to knowing what is going on in their societies. Blind guides indeed.
The last time I consumed mainstream media was back in the early 80’s while in high school. Partly for that reason, I too saw the Soviet Union as a “permanent feature” and not the historical blip it turned out to be. A family friend who had escaped communist Yugoslavia told me that the Soviet Union was rotten to the core and would implode from within in our lifetime. I thought he was crazy. Well, he could see reality, something the mainstream media can’t or won’t.
I don’t bother wirh “the news” much, because I don’t know what is accurate and what is bunk. I figure most of what passes for “news” is bunk-including the tidbit about New Zealand’s postal workers delivering KFC. Awaiting verification from Don.
Pat Condell told the truth, period.
Pat Condell is perfectly correct. All most folks have to do is ask themselves how the American dream is working for them and answer becomes clear. There is no longer any correspondence between the idealism of the mainstream media and real life.
“The incompetence of the Old Regime shatters confidence in it, and allows new sources of leadership to come to the fore”
It also explains the collapse of Labour in Scotland and also why 62% of Scots voted against Brexit, including a majority in every local authority area in the country.
Scottish insanity explains the second MPS, as they complain about London ruling them and want to throw off English shackles and embrace EU ones. As was said about South Carolina in 1861: Scotland is too small to be a nation and too large to be an insane asylum. However, I do hope they try.
As was said about South Carolina in 1861: Scotland is too small to be a nation and too large to be an insane asylum. However, I do hope they try.
It’s not too small to be a country with a full panoply of sophisticated services available therein. It’s more populous than Norway or New Zealand and greater Glasgow is as large as Auckland and larger than Oslo. It’s trouble is that it’s political culture stinks. The Scottish nationalist who tells me that he and his are ‘tired of being ruled by southern English public schoolboys’ neglected to recall that the only person who fits that description to have led either the Labour or the Conservative Party at any time since 1965 is walking around with the name “David Cameron“.
I can see where we Americans get our strong sense of independence from, the British. I felt quite proud of my redcoat heritage!
About Scotland. The Scots do not want to be ruled by London? Then why did they vote in lockstep with London which was solidly in favor of Remain? London was cheerful passing on the dictates of Brussels. Well, I guess the SNP forgets the fifty years of poverty endured by Ireland after it broke away from the UK.
Well, I guess the SNP forgets the fifty years of poverty endured by Ireland after it broke away from the UK.
Per Angus Maddison, per capita output in Ireland grew more slowly than it did in Britain during the period running from 1913 to 1946 and was stagnant during the war. It wasn’t a contextually poor country (perhaps 35% below west European means). During the period running from 1921 to 1970, there weren’t any periods of economic contraction longer than about two years.
God created Man with free will. It is part of our human nature. The Left, in rejecting God misunderstands human nature which to their great surprise reasserts itself when coercion becomes intolerable.