Editors foreword; When Bill Gates tells the BBC that ending the pandemic is "very, very easy", and that for the next thing "we are talking about" there is "no previous precedent", you have to take notice. See - COVID is nothing compared to the challenge of climate change. Dr L Stirling has taken notice and shares the benefits of his thinking on where we are now.
Just to be clear
There is no justification for the social and economic terrorism that has been committed by governments across the world, most egregiously in the West, for the past two years and more.
The psychological tactics, brainwashing, censorship of unpopular opinions, meddling in science to subvert its process and purpose; the pushing of the experimental Pfizer coronavirus RNA vaccine on low-risk individuals; the inaccurate suggestion that immunisation can prevent transmission; the use, if not of coercion, then of extreme psychological bullying using all tools available to the modern state; the unholy interweaving of pharma, government, and tech oligarchs; the irreparable damage done to young lives and their hopes for the future; antihumanism, anti-individualism; quasi fascism; a continuous and unending refusal to brook debate or deeper philosophical consideration of what is happening and what its results will be; the subversion of institutions like the NHS and the Church of England to support the unmandated government program of control and psychological warfare against the people.
unscrutinised body that decides what truth is before a debate can take place
The cowed acceptance or tacit encouragement of radical groups of all stripes by the mainstream elites: the consequent division and degradation of the political process; the refusal of any government in the western world to seek a popular mandate for a level of increased state control not seen since WW2; Western co-operation with the Chinese Communist Party, against the better interests of Western people and Western values; the editorial control of all news outlets by an unelected, unscrutinised body that decides what truth is before a debate can take place; the censorship of individuals, groups, and movements by unrigorous or ideologically motivated ‘fact-checkers’; the demonisation of politicians, doctors, journalists, and citizens who merely try to exercise their inalienable right to free speech; the devastation of economically disadvantaged communities, particularly black and other minorities; the dumbing down of education from primary school to postgraduate studies; the fostering of a ‘safe-space’ culture that is beholden to a specific strain of academic and social thought that has not been tested by application to real life and is rarely discussed for what it is by its own exponents, ie postmodern critical theory; the unprecedented transfer of wealth from the many to the few.
The undermining of Western values, culture and pride by practically every wing of the mainstream political spectrum; the replacement of liberalism with cynical authoritarianism; the growth in opposition to the very tenets of Western thought itself, ie logic and the scientific method; the replacement of outdated paternalistic monotheisms with numerous political cults that are hazy in definition but united in their opposition to civilisation itself; the manipulation of real issues like racism and climate change to promote an almost unbearable level of public pessimism and negativity; the politicisation of sport; the sick corruption of the Democratic Party in the USA that led to the fielding of an unpopular elite candidate, Clinton, in the place of a reformer, Sanders, which led to the election of insider, and troublemaker, Trump. The betrayal by the Conservative Party in the UK, and by its leadership of its own members, voters, and supporters; the absolute lack of a viable alternative in either nation to the rigged, self-serving mainstream consensus; the fostering of an unhealthy popular mindset that could be described as a pandemonium of neurosis, anxiety, depression, and paranoid schizophrenia.
nonstop attacks on small- mid-size business in favour of monopolies
The impossibility of a progressive, socially liberal, centre-left alliance forming as a result of radical groups that are illiberal in nature hijacking the left, possibly under the direction of agents-provocateur. The sabotage of progress and the natural process of wealth distribution and equity by nonstop attacks on small- mid-size business in favour of monopolies; the grinding, dehumanising poverty alleviated only by a broken social welfare system; the encouragement of ‘put up and shut up’ stoicism in the ordinary population whilst the elites continue to live as irresponsibly as they please; the championing everywhere of a demotivating inescapable moral relativism that cannot admit that some cultural system are more fit for the times than others; the fostering of obedience to authority in place of self-reliance; the decontextualisation of past events and a general untethering from the positive history of constant development and improvement.
Finally, the sidelining of a space exploration agenda that could at the very least represent the hope for human future, is unfortunate.
