Dear Friends, do: 

1. You think the Palestinians are getting a rough trot?

2. You think that Iran will be nuked?

3. You wonder whether global warming and materialism will soon destroy our planet?

4. You feel that more and more governments are becoming right-wing?

5. You consider that your democratic rights are quickly eroding away?

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This morning I watched an Australian current affairs program (Insiders) that came from the U.S. The topic, you guessed it, was the interminable American Election.

During the course of the program leading strategists from the Democrat and the Republican camps were interviewed and then followed a panel discussion with three people who came from the media and one from one of the American institutes, etc.

I felt a sense of increasing frustration as the program continued because, though it was agreed that America needed to change its direction and modify its arrogance, the participants carefully avoided the main issue: that of fixing the deeply flawed, easily manipulated American political system, the one that Bush clearly exposed for the whole world to see.

Into my mind flashed the moving story "Of Mice And Men." It was as if Steinbeck, in 1937, had, without knowing it, written a cautionary tale, one that would symbolize America in the twenty-first century. To me, America seems to be an amalgam of both George and Lennie, a fraught combination of cynical cunning and retarded power.

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The American Supreme Court has just ruled on the right to bear arms in America as outlined in its Constitution. The result? Handguns can again be owned. And what are the implications of this decision? The most violence-prone country in the world will now be even more awash with guns.

Of course the gun manufacturers are in seventh heaven. For them, the future has limitless possibilities. There will be ‘his and hers’ handguns, done in black and pink. Derringers for children with motifs of whales and butterflies surely will be popular.

But I would ask: why stop there? If citizens have the right to bear arms, why stop at mere assault rifles and handguns? I mean, they’re only for amateurs. Why not a line of state-of-the-art RPGs?

I mean, if you want to stop a burglar or rapist in his tracks surely an RPG in the midriff would daunt even the most determined criminal. Sure, it might destroy half your home but imagine the buzz you’ll get watching someone of another race disappear in a pink fog! And if you don’t like noise, then you could probably get a cheap flame-thrower like the ones they used in WW2.

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Friends, according to Reuters, with the Olympics close at hand, there is a great kerfuffle going on about a swim suit made by Speedo. It seems it gives the wearer a distinct speed advantage.

Other swimmers who wear suits made by other manufacturers are up in arms and are threatening to break contracts so they too can wear the new super-suits. Rival manufacturers are breaking production records to try to emulate or out do Speedo.

It is, to me, an instructive parable of what is wrong with our world. The original Olympics involved naked athletes simply competing against each other. They used no drugs or steroids or fancy technology. The best man won. The prize wasn’t millions of dollars but a crown of olive leaves. My, how the world has changed. Now it’s win by any means and at any cost even that of damaging an athlete’s health.

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A few days ago, I entered into a conversation with my boy about his future, about which careers might be appropriate for the world he might find work in once he eventually gets through the HSC and University.

I tried hard to project my mind forward seven plus years, tried to imagine how the world might be. I couldn’t! There are so many possible scenarios, most of them fraught, that I couldn’t answer his question. Once I could’ve! Once the world had an element of predictability about it. Two plus two usually equaled four. No longer.

Yet, upon reflection, perhaps there is more predictability about the world than I first thought. What things are predictable? One thing that can be relied upon is that capitalism will continue to flourish. Never has an economic system so suited basic human nature. Most humans are greedy, infinitely selfish and want to be superior to all others. The capitalist system caters for these ‘qualities’, encourages them. An example?

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When you were a kid, did you ever play dress-ups? I did. Often my sisters and I would put on some old clothes belonging to our parents and, giggling unashamedly, pretend that we were adults. Little did we realize that we were readying ourselves for some of what was to follow in our lives. If we’d known all that lay ahead, the games would’ve been spoiled and we might’ve cried.

As a child, I once fashioned a rifle out of some bits of wood. I would spend hours play-acting that I was a soldier and, with incredible courage and bravado I destroyed the enemy which in those distant days were Huns and Jerries. I had a sword too so the role of a pirate also beckoned, and, in a wooden box, I became an ace fighter pilot. In my imagination I became all things but always in a noble, honourable way, man against man.

The above photograph shows a person dressed up to kill. Right across the world, give any man (and now women it seems) lots of indoctrination, some training, a uniform, some heavy boots, a helmet, some body armour, night glasses, and a machine gun and, voila, you have a willing, capable killer.

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Friends, you may have missed the news about an exercise recently carried out by Israel in the east Mediterranean. It involved fighters and bombers and helicopters traversing a distance roughly equal to a flight to Iran and back. What a coincidence, eh?

The exercise, according to Al Jazeera, involved 100+ Israeli F-16s and F-15s and an unknown number of American aircraft. It involved refueling exercises which may have been to get ready for rescue missions to be launched to look for downed aircraft and pilots (that suggests they think the Iranians might fight back if they are attacked. Fancy that!). Can you imagine the greenhouse gases which the ‘training mission’ must’ve generated!

Now if you’re as suspicious as I am about the Machiavellian, imperialist ambitions of America and its proxy Israel, you could think that an attack on Iran is on the table, may in fact be ready to take off, nukes at the ready. In fact you could even think that Israel’s sudden ‘truce’ with Hamas has been hastily cobbled together so that Israel won’t have a war on two fronts.

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It’s funny, isn’t it, the way that fate plays a hand in the affairs of mice and men. Who would have thought that Henry Ford and his motor car would have contributed to the demise of the world?

Yes, once the first T-models rolled off the assembly line, humans forgot about real horses which had carried them and their goods faithfully for centuries. Capriciously, and overnight, they began an enduring love affair with the car. Indeed, the whole development of society changed to suit the new, noisy, polluting beasts.

Highways were built, towns were structured around a fabric of smooth roads, people ogled the new vehicles which, as time went by, began to acquire bigger and bigger motors which used more and more oil and went faster and faster. Trucks soon appeared (see above) then tractors, ships and trains changed from steam to diesel, aeroplanes soon appeared. The whole progress of society and the lifestyle of its inhabitants was hugely affected by the new power source provided by the petrol engine and oil became an increasingly important commodity. Of course the plastics industry also began to use oil to make all manner of new products and oil soon became black gold (though its initial price was fairly cheap because its supply was thought to be infinite).

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