On a Dangerous Road.

I was on edge all day yesterday because of things I read in the news. Today has been the same for the same reason, so here are a few pointers:

Both the US and UK seem to be quietly abandoning democracy in favour of a move towards more autocratic control which might well grow naturally into fascism. Trump seems to think that the US military is his personal box of toy soldiers, there to keep him amused while he’s feeling tired between tantrums.

Over on this side of the pond, Starmer and the media are jumping about like a box of firecrackers over the fact that two Jewish men were attacked in London recently. Starmer’s response is to threaten the banning of protests against hard line Israeli brutality. He seems to be ignorant of the fact that the horse is supposed to be in front of the cart, not behind it.

Britain's Chief Rabbi is complaining that ‘anti-Semitism is growing and becoming normalised.’ Well, of course it is. It was obvious that such would happen when the carnage in Gaza began to unfold. But let’s not forget that there are two forms of anti-Semitism. The first is the bigoted kind and is simply a form of racism. Few people in the modern world fall into that category. The second arises from an instinctive sense of outrage when decent people read of IDF soldiers killing the innocent just because they can. (Or perhaps it’s all justified by that convenient American phrase, ‘collateral damage.’ Students of European history might consider what happened to the Cathars during the Albigensian Crusade, and consider why it happened, and see that there is a striking parallel at work.) In any event, maybe the Chief Rabbi has difficulty with the operation of cause and effect, and I still maintain that most of what is deemed ‘anti-Semitism’ is, in fact, anti-Zionism. I can explain the difference if you like, but should I need to?

(And yes, I do realise that there are good people in Israel. If only they could remove the brutes running their country, the rest of the world could know it too, and Israel could cast off the shadow of being probably the world’s foremost pariah state.)

I think we’re at a crossroads again and still haven’t learned the lessons of history. It seems to me that the time is right for the military and the populace to come together and say ‘Oh no you don’t,’ but it’s unlikely to happen because a system created and run by powerful interests is very good at keeping somnambulists asleep.

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Meanwhile, back at the Shire, the May blossom is now coming on strong but the weather is set to turn colder. Shame. And today is the 20^th anniversary of my moving to this house. My, how times have changed. And that reminds me of the post I have running through my head about Maidens and Middle Aged Men. I might even write it one day if my old man’s mind can settle sufficiently. It will be quite short.