Lalith Gunaratne, Canadian Club of Rome member states:
As the US election results unfold we know in the larger scheme of things whether its Trump or Biden – nothing much will change in the global economic disparity and the environment.
Without Trump, the airwaves will become quiet and boring. Trump’s bluster and impetuousness keeps people excited and engaged and the media just loves it.
His extraordinary approach has broken the decorum of the institution of the US President.
We all know that Trump has all the support because of the economic disparities. He has found scapegoats for his people to focus on, away from the fundamental issues of neo-liberal economics.
Trump has also shown the emperor without clothes as he has lifted the veil to bare the machinery that runs the show – the CIA, FBI and even the global alliances like NATO where a light is been cast to places we are not supposed to see.
Here, I share the Mullah Nasruddin story (humorous Sufi fables that reflect on us fallible bumbling humans with great egos) –
A friend of the Mullah finds him searching for something under the street-light at night and asked what he was looking for. Mullah said – “my keys”.
The friend also bends down to search and asks; “Where exactly did you lose them?” and the Mullah pointed to his garden and said “over there”. “So why are you looking out here?” asked his friend miffed. “It’s dark there so I am looking under the light”.
That is what the corporate media is having us do – divert our attention to waste time on a frivolous game of politics while they go about their business.
Trump as I see it, is the ‘effect’ and not the ‘cause’ of what is happening.
The real threat to global world order is neo-liberalism led by US exceptionalism since WW II.
Self-righteous demagogic politicians and greedy corporate heads (I am careful not to use the word “leaders” as they are certainly not) have always been the threat to world order attacking countries over the years, killing millions of people looking for bogeymen (it was communist then and now its Islamic terrorists) with the sword of Damocles hanging over the world in the nuclear bomb.
Then we realize that the military industrial complex feeding the fiscal-war economy of the liberal western democracies – has to fuel wars to feed itself, but we are running out of places to wage wars on this small fragile earth.
Today as I write this – the childish posturing of the US led allied forces in the Indian ocean against China – as if we do not have other evolved more intelligent ways to communicate with each to find common ground for peace, is having unintended consequences.
Hundreds of Whales have beached on the west coast of Sri Lanka and they say they do not know the cause…
Could it just be these underwater sonars of the Malabar military exercises are disorienting the poor Whales…?
https://thediplomat.com/2020/10/expanded-malabar-exercise-to-start-on-november-3/
…and here it is – it just maybe….
Specialized expertise and a lack of systems thinking – to understand the cause and effect of their decisions is appalling in the grander scheme of things.
As they disorient and kill Whales in the hundreds in a matter of hours, let alone effect all other marine life in the area, do they know that Whale poop contributes to our Oxygen supply?.
Microorganisms use the Whale poop, which is rich in iron and nitrogen, to photosynthesize and produce oxygen. The ocean, in turn, produces at least 50 percent of the oxygen we breathe around the world.
More Whales mean more phytoplankton to feed on their poop, which means better air for us to breathe.
Dogmatism, self-serving ideology, lack of holistic thinking and spirituality is what makes these self-obsessed hawks with a single minded focus not aware of the consequences continue to destroy the world – it is akin to cutting the branch while sitting on it. Where is the intelligence in that?
Eventually, it dawns on them. How many politicians, policy makers, technocrats, business people and scientists go to the grave thinking “what have I done?” – like Oppenheimer came to his senses a little too late and died a man with a heavy heart at a young 62.
Whoever is up there watching us from the stars must be shaking their heads curiously watching this tragi-comedy unravel for life on earth for humans.
We do deserve what we get when we are not mindful and aware of the true nature of the web of life. We humans thrive on compassion, empathy, fairness and communion. After all the human being procreated for 200,000 years through a loving union of two people becoming vulnerable to each other where trust is the foundation. Why have we lost that trust?
There is a karma to all this when natural laws are broken. Buddhist teachings calls that reality co-dependent origination – everything is interconnected in the karma of things.
May God help us.
Lalith Gunaratne
5th November 2020
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