When we have a problem that is continuously recurring or
just will not go away it is nearly always one that we have failed (or refused)
to deal with previously. There is a saying that if you do not remember the past
then you are condemned to repeat it, but it is very easy to ignore that truth
if you are in a position to push the problem onto others or buy your way out of
it. Most of us are not fortunate enough to be able to do that so we tend to
find ourselves as the recipients of the baggage that others force upon us
because they can.
The above video is from 1984. A post could be written here
about the synchronicity of that, but I will save it for another time. The music
in the video is great and it is fun to watch. It is stand out comedic and puts
a unique face on a dreadful thing, but the message is very real. Forty years ago,
we were very afraid of possible nuclear war. Forty years before that, World War
Two was raging across the globe. We
already had nuclear weapons even then and the United States wasn’t afraid to,
and actually did, use them. I think that most people learned a devastating
lesson from that and thought better of going that route again, but I am not
sure that the current generation received and took that lesson to heart.
Every day now I hear the word “genocide” spoken on someone’s
news program or podcast, and I keep asking myself why is humanity allowing such
a thing to happen? How is it that the people who are making and allowing a
genocide to take place can be so disconnected from the horror of what previous
generations have been through when elitism and hatred are allowed to take root
in a society? Were they not listening when their parents and grandparents
recounted what life was like in the times when death and devastation was being
visited upon them? Why would we risk provoking something so terrible as the
annihilation of our species just to get our own way in some selfish pursuit of
grandiosity? It did not work for the
perpetrators then, and it isn’t going to work now without deep destruction of
the planet. People who learn from their mistakes don’t make those same mistakes
again. Games are being played with our very lives by people who couldn’t care
less about it as long as they keep their wealth and advantage. Our attempts to
rebalance the systems that govern us are failing as new elections in nearly
every country are turning very hard right. Life will not be sustainable for the
masses for much longer as we lose the ability to have shelter, heating and
cooling, get and keep a job, and be able to buy food, and yet, few in power are
inclined to give these problems a second thought.
There is no universal law that forces us to understand that we are here to experience the life lessons that we did not previously deal with and evolve away from. You can choose (and most people do) to ignore whatever you would like to in this life, but it is a surety that all unresolved past problems will be visited upon us again, and each time that they make a return cycle through our lives they will become worse and much harder to address.
We are flirting with nuclear war again in 2024, and this
time humanity is reeking of narcissism and a cavalier attitude about
everything. Championship boxer Mike
Tyson once said “Social media made y’all way too comfortable with disrespecting
people and not getting punched in the face for it.” Someone is going to be
provoked and pushed too far very soon by a way too sure of themselves bully.
The power to blow ourselves to hell exists in many hot-headed and had-enough
nations to see to it that a promoter of a “you can’t stop me” attitude has to
shut up. The issues that were current and being talked about and reported on in
the 1940s and in the 1980s have come back to haunt us. This time they are
coupled with the fallout from our ignorance and refusal to address the social
and economic problems that are a result of not giving a damn about and not
taking responsibility for the actions of those who caused them. Our players
have been set to “repeat” and we are damn sick of hearing the same pathetic
songs that were never a hit with anyone other than those who wrote them and
authored for us the fate that is closing in on us. We need to take the desire
for peace torch from Joe “King” Carrasco and put a different song out there
that admits that we cannot take any more of these “Current Events” and see to
it that it plays all over the airwaves and the internet. Without that, expect
to see more of the annihilation that we are witnessing.
