Are the 2020s spinning out of control?
Future historians will be challenged to explain to their audience what was happening in the 2020s. Living these years feels like an ant, joyriding on a wheel of fortune that spins ever faster while nobody seems in control.
How will those historians tell their audience some 50 years from now that the president of the most powerful nation on the planet, Donald Trump, planned to leave the hospital where he was treated for Covid-19 the way Maggie Haberman describes it in her new book:
"He would be wheeled out of Walter Reed in a chair and, once outdoors, he would dramatically stand up, then open his button-down dress shirt to reveal the Superman logo beneath it."
Even without this stunt, a stunning 44 percent of voters view Mr. Trump in a recent poll favorably. Yet, today he was back in the news speaking of McConnell's "death wish" to his followers, that have shown too often to favor a literal interpretation of his words.
Trump is only one element of this unfortunate wheel of events that endangers our future stability. I could have started this post with any of today's dozens of news items like the war in Ukraine, ballistic missiles, floods, or even the British tax plans.
There is a lack of political stability, a lack of trust, and multilateral cooperation. The world faces new security challenges, while many old ones, like the nuclear threat, are still unsolved. We must deal with increasing challenges to provide food, water, and energy to a world where billions live in poverty. Add to this mix the ever-worsening climate, biodiversity loss, and pollution challenges, and you are right to fear for the future.
I intensely follow most of these issues and speak and write about many of them. I focus on making people aware of these complex challenges and combine them with providing hope for solutions. That is not just to ensure that you will sleep well tonight; there are indeed reasons for hope. For example, scientists agree that the worst of the climate crisis can still be avoided if the world's governments don't wait any longer to make the right decisions. In record time, scientists created a revolutionary new vaccine against Covid-19. Or think of the hundreds of millions of people that have been lifted out of poverty.
But the stakes are high, the problems are complex, and the narrow path to a peaceful and happy future can only be walked once; there is no room for dramatic failures.
I wouldn't be surprised if historians will in the future describe some of the people who lived in this decennium who decided to cut themselves off from all the news and these developments in our world. A "Generation Weltschmerz" or "Generation World-Weariness" formed by new Lord Byrons, loathing the world that will let you down no matter how hard you try.
But most of us continue to live in hope because there is still realistic room for hope. It keeps me positive, and it keeps me going. But like many of us, I sometimes need an escape, and I usually search for and find that in long walks in nature. Walking in nature gives me a balance in life that I can't see while working behind my desk, no matter how many positive examples of hope I can describe.
This is one of my favorite times to enjoy the forests; the trees show their spectacular fall colors, and the temperatures are still mild. So yesterday, I went back to the magnificent Gatineau Park.
It was the favorite retreat of William Lyon Mackenzie King. He was the dominant political figure in Canada in one of those other moments in history when people feared for the future. He led the Liberal Party from 1919 to 1948 and was Prime Minister of Canada for almost 22 of those years. He steered Canada through industrialization, much of the Great Depression, and the Second World War.
King must have struggled with the complexity of these issues and felt that the natural surroundings in the heart of Gatineau Park provided the best working environment. So, in 1903, he built a four-room cabin he called Kingswood. It grew over the years into a large estate, where King conducted much of the nation's business from May to October.
His estate became his sanctuary, where he could retreat to the peace of the forest and countryside. He would walk his guests, including the Duke of Windsor and Winston Churchill, over miles of nature trails. King died at his beloved estate on July 22, 1950.
It's a pity we can't ask him about today's politics, like Trump's superman shirt and that favorable view of 44 percent of the U.S. voters. But he has often been quoted saying: "Where there is little or no public opinion, there is likely to be bad government, which sooner or later becomes autocratic government."
I made this 'Alexnote' of his original cottage, Kingswood. I found it has been restored and maintained in much the same state as when King spent his summers there. It is a simple building with a rustic charm from another age. I enjoyed walking in the surrounding natural area, which is now at its best; I will add some photos to this article to share nature's beauty. And I hope they will briefly take your mind off those complex problems on the planet.
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A year ago today, I wrote:
Notes:
https://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=11371
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/william-lyon-mackenzie-king
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/kingsmere
https://extension.tennessee.edu/publications/Documents/SP529.pdf
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/22/upshot/donald-trump-approval-poll.html
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/untranslatable-german-words
Yes, what unpredictable turbulent times we are living in. Actually who could have fathomed the past approximately 2-1/2 years with Covid, the past 6 years of political lies & unrest?
Yes, nature gives peace and perspective. Have you been thinking how your pilgrimage on the Camino has changed, transformed you?
Past is definitely prologue! I too am astonished at how easily people get swept up by the empty slogans of strongmen. Sadly, I think it speaks to a general lack of critical thinking skills and ability for individuals to think for themselves. Or maybe it's groupthink, confirmation bias, or any of those other psychological compulsions whereby if a person doesn't have the will or skills to pause and question, they go with what emotionally feels "normal," even if it's abnormal.