Still standing as of this morning among the five most read articles at John Menadue’s blog is this of mine published a week ago.
And in the maelstrom of news and opinion, it’s good to go back a whole week and see that I wrote something that makes sense
This paper by Richard Tanter is the most important paper in a generation on Australia’s strategic dilemma, in its presentation of facts about Australia’s embedment in US defence systems for war. Recommend it to your offsprung. But keep in mind the deeply flawed American inspired blindness, in castigating Putin going to war, to the illegal, horrendous and wicked war conduct of Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden in the Middle East … and Australian participation in all that. Also, he’s over the top on Russia and Ukraine, fed on a Washington diet
https://johnmenadue.com/aukus-and-the-threat-of-war-with-china/
Second, the word woke crept up on me like a cliché from the deepest crevices down the page in the Guardian app. Caitlin sorts it out.
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/12/21/identity-politics-anti-wokeism-serve-the-same-interests/
And one more important link, from sensible Laura Tingle: The future is now, and dire predictions are coming true
Nice to share the top of the page at John Menadue's blog this morning with an excellent editorial from Global Times. My essay is here.
Having been preoccupied by international politics this year, I have always in the back of my mind: "what was it, how was it easy, where did it go" — the broad, possible communications between people who are different.
Terrorism and the politics and wars of antiterrorism have shriveled our hearts. pandemic closed our doors, minds, horizons. Edginess now rules in the hunt for beauty.
From a time in the night, recent hours, I have been diverted into music. Not sure how. Much of this is new to me. It's a mind-wander into the question of connections between people in a time of havoc. There is no other way forward.
I found something special in Yoyo Ma's Silk Road projects. In this introduction to the documentary The Music of Strangers Yoyo Ma says in his modest way "I'm always wondering how I fit in the world... which is something I share with several billion people."
It is a reflection on his experience teaching students in the New Jersey prison system, and their reactions to The Gulag Archipelago. But there's nothing remote in his reflection, it relates to this last week, please read right to the end.
Please use the internet to search for human decency. It's out there.
Caitlin Johnstone has recently written (yet another) essay of great importance, ending with this profound observation:
The humanity of the not-too-distant future operates very differently from the humanity of today, either because it learned to work in cooperation with itself and with its ecosystem or because it’s an extinct species, yet most visions for our future imagine we’ll remain the same. We need to abandon the notion that the humanity of the future will move and operate in more or less the same way as the humanity of today, just with better technology. That is the very least likely of all possible outcomes.
It is so normal for the world just to ignore major realities because they are too big to comprehend. I commend to you the rest of her essay.
Photo is a still I've taken from a youtube interview.
There is so much happening in the world and so much of it is being discussed in mental silos. It really hurts the brain to deal with many variables at once. I am indebted to John Menadue for publishing several essays of mine recently. Adding to the collection here.
I will try to write more in the blog as ideas develop.
