Tweedle Dum.
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Monthly Archives: October 2015
The New High Priests of Disconnect
These Guys Will Own Us
We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.
—Carl Sagan
The above citation speaks eloquently to the closing of libraries and the restriction of scientists’ contributions to ensuring that we have a livable planet and some creature comforts (like food, a sufficiently oxygenated atmosphere, quality drinking water, shelter, clothing, communications and all the other stuff on which society is based). It speaks to the claptrap that issues forth from legions of self-serving and greedy community “leaders” who want to continue blithely on with business as (what they deem to be) usual because it protects their position of privilege. It speaks to a wilful ignorance that allows for misdirection and malfeasance in governance at the corporate, local, municipal, state/province, national and international levels and to the trashing of the notion of an informed citizenry, a population not transfixed by the shenanigans of the beautiful people and the stunt men, by cat videos or by the next fix.
Those few who can and do invent, produce, deploy and maintain the systems on which we depend might end up forming a sort of high priesthood of Wizard-Of-Oz-like directors on whom we will all be blindly dependent. This reign might also be short-lived as the ignorant masses simply overwhelm the literate and send civilization to a tawdry end. The prospect is frustrating because of the unnecessary nature of the process and the loss of what could be a decent life for all.
Don’t argue with idiots: they’ll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
—Sarah Cook
Our own Lukashenko?
Fifth mandate here, I wonder about Canada
Elections where held yesterday in Belarus. in which the incumbent, Lukashenko, managed, to no one’s surprise. to win a fifth term in office, per Libération, who bring the whole thing up because, in what they term a political decision, the EU has decided to lift any sanctions against Belarus because the elections seemed to go off without a hitch. This begs a couple of questions, the first of which is the concern that caused the EU to impose the sanctions in the first place, and the second of which is the haste with which the sanctions were lifted.
There has been much concern that Lukashenko’s elections have been somewhat tainted. There has been major upset in the past, I believe, and there was concern that a pattern of disruptive behaviour might repeat itself. For now, those fears are quelled, but did Lukashenko win the election fairly? This seems to have suddenly become less of a concern, and causes one to contemplate the second question, that of the quick change of heart.
Look at the map and ponder who is Belarus’s eastern neighbour. Then do the same for the southern neighbour. Do the names Putin and Potroshenko come to mind?
The EU may have started off as a project to end conflict in the area and to build an integrated and fair economy for all EU participants, but they certainly seem to have strayed from what was once their central vision.
And, yes, I have concerns about a certain more local Prime Minister who is in search of a fifth mandate and who has already, under the Orwellian Fair Elections Act, done at least part of his level best to tilt the playing field.