”It is said that everything is just a little bit more of everything in America and I understand the sentiment,” was an earlier comment of mine. View my remark as facetious or factual, the United States has had more clout on the planet than any other country since the heyday of the British Empire.
The British Empire was just one example of european imperialism and, for better or worse, the values of the time. Exporting civilization and culture steeped in thousands of years of history can however never condone the exploitation and misery Britain and other european countries brought to the far corners of the globe, yet is a fact nevertheless. Somewhere along the line imperialism went out of fashion whether due to a change of mind or a change of opportunity, with the latter affecting the former being the most likely scenario.
Catherine the Great wannabe: Putin has proved himself to be less than fashion conscious by instigating an invasion of Ukraine in a futile attempt to resurrect the contours of the Russian/Soviet empire. Russia is paying a heavy price for one man’s megalomanic degeneracy and only time will tell how far Russia’s journey towards insignificance goes.
The Orange Superlative: One year into the Trump administration and we are presented with the makings of a new emperor. Elevating America’s big to bigly and better to best, ”probably the biggest and best you have ever seen,” as he claims responsibilty for just about everything excepting the disaster both in real time and impending that he has brought to the once United States. Cold and calculating are the least usable adjectives when describing Trump’s erratic politics of repetitive u-turns. If he were my uncle I would have had him commited long ago unless of course he was making me rich.
Winnie the Pooh: Don’t let looks fool you, it’s Xi the cold and calculating dragon under the outfit. Cold and calculating being at present stabilizing qualities to be appreciated in the nutty world of Maga and Mir, protecting the planet not from evil but from any eventually devastating irrationalities (read nuclear) the other two clowns might come up with.
And so to Little Bear: the EU that strikes fear into them all. A fear that autocrats have shared for centuries, a fear of the people, a people with a voice who will not suffer the strong feathering their nests at the expense of the weak, who will not suffer the subjugation of other countries, who insist on the rule of law and equity before it. Once just a bundle of war torn countries now an organisation based on diversity, strong enough to have been recognized as a threat by the enemies of democracy. The step from common economic to include common military strength has been recognised as unavoidable as has the necessity of adjusting the boundaries of national interest vis a vis the interests of the union. The path to federalism has yet to be staked out although considering that the world order we have lived with since 1945 has ended up in the trash can, it would seem only to be a matter of time.
