WOKE AS RECIPE ON RAINY AND OTHER DAYS

History is made of many layers. There have been repeats, recalls, surprises, traps. Nowadays every situation seems to receive the déjà vu treatment, but if the precedent were that clear, it remains a mystery why the cure, which should be equally evident, remains elusive. The observer of the international turmoil is no longer confronted by the former self-evident binary spread. The world has turned rogue.

Strange bedfellows appear, unintended similarities occur. The EU for instance suddenly appears sharing an unfortunate pole position with... Taiwan. Both feel under the spell of larger powers, Russia for Western Europe and China for Taiwan. Both count on the American shield to keep the menace at bay. Their faith in the USA is a relic from the past, which is losing its relevance by the day.

America is no longer the unipolar guarantor of a global unifying codex. Other powers rise or are making their entrance. Both the EU and Taiwan confuse posture with reality. They often underestimate the viciousness of the threat and the consequential changes that occur everywhere.

Observers  cannot stop talking about the US presidential elections between two "left overs" from the past. America is changing, not for the better, while earlier commitments only relate to the older generations. Youth start to look at Europe as an occasional arrogant, not very entertaining relic from the past. Neither do they see what the fuss about a far away Chinese family feud is all about. They just care about China's aggressive trade war, while still buying its products.

The everywhere present, invasive phone rules the waves and the psyche worldwide, while the rise of A.I. is opening the gates for the many who don't fall for "Proustian remembrance". Taylor Swift has more legions than anyone worldwide.  What would Stalin say?

Some leaders appear to be conscious of the changing socio- strategic "time zone", but their hazardous clairvoyance doesn't find many takers. People live unwillingly with Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and more of the same and do not want to deal with an even heavier carload. They want to go for a holiday in hell with traffic, bad service, overbooked misery, rather than to be reminded of the expanding parameters of trouble at home.

There is not much one can do. Better think twice before bringing children into this mess and enjoy what is left of the climate before the arrival of unfriendly skies. If one is out of sync with what is happening there is a distraction in engaging the neighbor on the topic of woke...it always works, since so few, if any, have a clue regarding what it all is about...plus ca change ?!