National Karma and Impunity

There are some people, some nations, who believe they can do whatever they like, be barbaric for example and feel thoroughly justified in their right to slaughter. They imagine quasi-divine impunity and do not subscribe to the notion of cause and effect or karma.

The karma of empire is decay and loss of significance. History shows time and again that no empire lasts forever and towards the end corruption and decadence arrive for the wind-up party.

This afternoon I watched a news programme in which it was mooted that the economies of China and India would in time be larger than the USA. Things change, nothing lasts forever. The technological revolution in China has soared after the so-called cultural revolution of Mao Zedong.  The USA has behaved like a bullying teenager for a long time now. It has funded the destruction of Gaza and now Lebanon too. The United Nations has never looked so toothless as it does today.

The word is a scary place right now. I used to have a lot of respect for USA, but now with things like Iraq and an attempted coup d’état by mob a few years back, respect wanes. My foray into Twitter has done little to improve my opinion. There are some nut-jobs out there. In a few short weeks there will be an election. Some Americans are suggesting “Kamunism” that Harris is left wing! Really?  She is a tory to my eyes.

Americans it seems know very little about socialism or communism.

There is a real prospect of the nasty orange sociopath man getting back into power and sending cultural evolution backwards in time. Trump is a part of national karma. You get the leaders you need/deserve.

The rise of nationalism and me-first isolationism is swift. Brexit being an example of a withdrawal from internationalism of the saddest and most unnecessary kind. Everything has some kind of consequence. No divorce is 100% amicable, to expect a miracle is misguided. Yet some still yearn for the fairy godmother.

France very nearly had a right-wing nationalist government.

Wasn’t the 20s and 30s last century when the nationalists grew in popularity? Are we doing Groundhog Day? Zieg Heil!

I saw a post suggesting that the Confederate States could leave the union, USA, and still compete effectively globally as a new country on the world stage.

That which takes ages to put together can be rent asunder in a fit of pique.

The level of division in the USA is very high it was preceded by the remainer-brexiteer name calling which divided families in the UK.

It does not look to me that people are learning to grow up and live together.  Sandpit politics dominates.

There is a significant chance that the USA could implode and who is going to repay the ginormous national debt of the biggest economy if it does? How will Moody’s, Standard and Poor, and Fitch rate them.

Overriding, rewriting International Law to suit in order to bomb the fuck out of another country is an example set by the land of the free and home of the brave. You don’t have to be very brave in a F35 equipped with the latest electronic countermeasures. They set the precedent. Don’t worry they are only Muslims, kill them. Get Saddam. Take your shots and lie down dead.

In the fullness of time apparent impunity fades. Unexpected consequences start to arrive. USA has been caught sleeping twice.

I wonder what drama remains in geo-politics this year.

We have had five years of stuff happening which we did not expect. Covid, Ukraine, Gaza. What else is coming in?

Where we live is a pretty safe if there is a major escalation. We are not close to a likely target in a nuclear war. That I am evening thinking that is telling.

I have yet to hear of any situation in which mass death and destruction is the best answer. It seems an all too human default…

Humanity fails to learn by mistake…

Homo Sapiens is an arrogant misnomer…

Bern – 90GHz­—UBS Dream 02-07-2021

I woke up this morning at 6AM and was pretty sure that I would not go back to sleep. I did and had this dream. When I tried to wake up my right eye was difficult to open it been sealed with sleep. As an aside since I stopped smoking, I have had much more gummy eyes with loads of sleep. Here is the dream.

I am in a vast laboratory. It is filled with optical benches upon which are optical components and lasers. I know this laboratory to be in Bern Switzerland. Unusually for this kind of laboratory one can see out of the windows and to the town below. W is excited he has received a parcel and is busy unwrapping it. It is a new slim, top of the range, Tektronix digital storage oscilloscope. It has all of the functions of the bulkier models but is slimmed down. I say to W that I can help him understand how to use it because all of the experiments at the lab of S used one of these. All we need first is a square wave waveform generator so that we can have a play. Ben C says that he thinks there is one in the store. I go with him to the store and there is a pile of instrumentation. I see one with the name GR on it and note that it is odd that it should be here in Bern. BC finds a square wave generator and hands it to me. He says that it starts at 90GHz. I comment that it might be a bit too high frequency for the oscilloscope. He says that probably not, the scope may not capture all of the waveform but should be Ok for us to play with. I go over to W.

Next, we are back in the flat. It is full of youngish men who all work at the laboratory. We are all sleeping in one bed. It is somehow on a veranda outside the house. I wake up and decide to go shopping. I look across the valley where this is a night club called Bodhisattva. We all sometimes go there. I think that it will be nice to look at Migros again. As I go into the shop there is a queue for baskets, and I am behind an old Swiss man. He unpacks the baskets and hands me one. I go into the store and am at the fruit counter. It is immaculately laid out with very high-quality produce from around the world. It is even better than I remembered it. I get some groceries and take them back to the flat. Where I put them in a bag in the pantry. I explain to W that it is very nice to see high quality Swiss produce as things here are not so consistent.

In the dream I have paid with a UK credit card but to my surprise my UBS bank card is also in my wallet.

We are back in the laboratory, and I know that I have a job there. It has been easy to set up because my Swiss Bank account at UBS is still active {in reality this is not the case}. We play with the oscilloscope for a while.

Next, I am back in the flat asleep in the big bed with a whole bunch of other people. The wife is there next to me. I am on the extreme edge of the bed, and she is nestled in my left arm. I kiss her on the brow, and everybody wakes up. I ask what time it is. Close to midday. I comment that is late. Not if you were up drinking and smoking {implied cannabis}.

I had better rush to get to the bank before it closes. I rush of down hill concerned that I will fall because of my left hip. I am a bit awkward running down the hill. I need to get to the bank to ask them for a new PIN number for my bank card. I know that all I have to do is ask because they will recognise me. I could ask in English or German or even French. As I am running down the hill, I rehearse what words I would need first in Hoch Deutsch and second in French. In my mind I know that the language I will choose depends upon who I meet at the bank counter.

Dream ends.