The mighty might fall

Any sane person stands with the oppressed and attacked, never with the bullies and fascists. And there's no guarantee Count Vlad will stop his quest for more Lebensraum to create his Thousand Year Empire, filled with only Übermenschen and imposes a policy of Blut und Boden (just like Mr. Mileikowsky in the Middle East), once Ukraine has fallen. 

So in a way I'm grateful to Krasnov (Trump) and Bowman (Who later started to call himself Vance. But interestingly enough demands other people to always use their birthname) for getting the leaders of Europe forget about their quarrels and unite against the agressor.

Sometimes it's as if different forces band to keep people divided and angry at each other.

Mankind has proven again and again that we people can absolutely live and work together in peace. As long as we pray in our own temples, apparently. What also helps to not fight is helping each other make money.

The tactic of 'divide and conquer' prevents mankind from making progress and gives conservatives their way: everything stays as it is and those in power stay in power.

Only working together let's us move forward.

One of the first ever tourists remarked about Amsterdam, several centuries ago: "People of all religions, persuasions and skin colours are welcome in Amsterdam. As long as they make the city money."

Even today Amsterdam is still very international and people of all creeds do business and laugh together.

Just like at Istanbul's Grand Bazaar: Armenians, Greeks, Jews, Syriacs and other groups of people have been conducting business and drank tea together at possibly the oldest mall in the world since the mid 1500s. 

Unfortunately those in power again and again succeed in letting people fight each other, despite the occasional protest. Apparently most people are comfortable with the current situation and don't want progress at all.

Only if a majority finally stands up, the mighty might fall.

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It's real. Very real.

Now the consequences of climate change are felt all over the world, perhaps those who believe agitators paid by companies like Shell, will finally realise they've been lied to and the fossiel fuels industry is (co-)responsible for the worst French wine harvest in 70 years.

By now we've all heard about the absurd amounts of water and energy datacenters use at the cost of people and the environment but other industries are bad for the planet too.

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While countless of people are literally dying of thirst, the clothing industry keeps producing more and more textiles. I quote: A single cotton T-shirt requires approximately 2,700 litres of water to produce, the equivalent of one person's drinking water for two and a half years. At the same time tons of clothes are becoming literal mountains in Chile. The product of so called 'fast fashion'. 

Because people are getting alarmed by the bad news about the near future of our planet, most governments decided to simply ignore the problem. One goverment even decided to dismantle an ocean observation initiative. Luckily the US senate blocked Trump's plan. For now. 

Ignoring a problem does not make it go away. Only children (and a certain US president and his followers) believe that if you put your hands in front of your eyes so you can't see a problem, it simply disappears.

Houses in California don't magically reappear after rising sealevels made them crumble into the ocean and whishful thinking is not enough to ward off a future in which skiing in the Alps is only remembered through old pictures.

In the end only the planet will benefit from climate change. Because there will be no more people and nature will have a chance to rebounce without those pesky humans. 

The power of lies

Unfortunately a lot of people would rather believe a lie than hearing someone tell the truth. Usually because the truth conflicts with their beliefs and that 'collision' hurts. Because living a lie is more comfortable, people like the jewish actor Mandy Patinkin don't reach a large enough audience. Which is a shame because life would be better for everyone, except for a handful of powerful rich people. If the people only listened...

Unfortunately those in power often want to stay in power. So they manipulate the people into believing their current leaders are the best they will ever have. Leading to minorities being oppressed and the people afraid while most people will stay in the dark their whole lives.

Science fiction series The Orville had an episode about it:

Authoritarian figures tend to lie more often than leaders who know the meaning of empathy. In short: the right lies more than the left. 

Why does the right lie so much about really important stuff?

Sure, the left lies too. But those are lies like: "Nah, you don't look fat in that dress at all, my darling", "Hard work pays off" and "No, my busted knee doesn't hurt at all so let's play catch, son!" 

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Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon

A donation (click) is much appreciated: