War Escalates Around the Globe
As I write, wars and threats of wars are escalating significantly. In the Phillippines, credible stories of that country's Islamic insurgency now suggest that it has moved into a new phase, with up to 130,000 people displaced.
The Ukraine, in what must be a calculated gesture, has issued a threat to block Russian ships.
The Russian energy anschluss in Georgia has moved to 'secure' Georgia proper, rather than just Ossetia and Abkhazia.
A massive US, British and French naval force is heading towards Iran in preparation for a blockade. They have been practicing such a blockade for three weeks. Kuwait is preparing to put its 'emergency war plan' into operation.
Oh, and this is affecting the price of gold, which is mined by child slaves.
I feel like Reggie Maudling leaving Northern Ireland--'What an awful world, get me a drink'.
By coincidence, I spent tonight reading about Gregory the Great, and came across this quote, which is concerned with the world in the mid sixth century at the collapse of the west;
Towns are depopulated, fortified places destroyed, churches burnt, monasteries and nunneries destroyed ; fields are deserted by men, and the earth, forsaken by the ploughman, gapes desolate. No farmer dwells here now; wild beasts have taken the place of the throngs of men. What goes on in other parts of the world, I do not know; but here, in the land in which we live, the world no longer announces its coming end, but shows it forth...the senate is gone, the people perish, Rome is burning and ruins are multiplied'.
Gregory, who was great, proved it by defying doom and launching a major mission for the conversion of England. It's easy to give in. It sounds sophisticated. Oswald Spengler, who had more of the huckster about him than not, once said that 'optimism was cowardice'. It isn't. Given the way most of the world behaves most of the time, and especially at times like these, a fundamental faith in reason, love and hope itself is bravery and defiance. I can't help but think of Shelley, and I apologise if I misremember--
To suffer woes which hope thinks infinite
To forgive wrongs darker than death or night
To defy power, which seems omnipotent,
To love and bear, to hope till hope creates
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates
Neither to change, nor falter, nor retreat
This, like thy glory titan is to be
good, great and joyous, beautiful and free;
This alone is life, joy, Empire and victory.
Love and reason, which I think of as shadows of God but you might not, will save us if we let them. Give thanks tonight if you are not experiencing what it means to be a citizen of this world. Today, August 12th 2008, is the Feast Day of St Jane Frances de Chantal, the patron of forgotten people and parents separated from their children. It is also the 'Glorious Twelfth'--the start of the shooting season. The Universe is very deeply and randomly ironic sometimes.
As I write, wars and threats of wars are escalating significantly. In the Phillippines, credible stories of that country's Islamic insurgency now suggest that it has moved into a new phase, with up to 130,000 people displaced.
The Ukraine, in what must be a calculated gesture, has issued a threat to block Russian ships.
The Russian energy anschluss in Georgia has moved to 'secure' Georgia proper, rather than just Ossetia and Abkhazia.
A massive US, British and French naval force is heading towards Iran in preparation for a blockade. They have been practicing such a blockade for three weeks. Kuwait is preparing to put its 'emergency war plan' into operation.
Oh, and this is affecting the price of gold, which is mined by child slaves.
I feel like Reggie Maudling leaving Northern Ireland--'What an awful world, get me a drink'.
By coincidence, I spent tonight reading about Gregory the Great, and came across this quote, which is concerned with the world in the mid sixth century at the collapse of the west;
Towns are depopulated, fortified places destroyed, churches burnt, monasteries and nunneries destroyed ; fields are deserted by men, and the earth, forsaken by the ploughman, gapes desolate. No farmer dwells here now; wild beasts have taken the place of the throngs of men. What goes on in other parts of the world, I do not know; but here, in the land in which we live, the world no longer announces its coming end, but shows it forth...the senate is gone, the people perish, Rome is burning and ruins are multiplied'.
Gregory, who was great, proved it by defying doom and launching a major mission for the conversion of England. It's easy to give in. It sounds sophisticated. Oswald Spengler, who had more of the huckster about him than not, once said that 'optimism was cowardice'. It isn't. Given the way most of the world behaves most of the time, and especially at times like these, a fundamental faith in reason, love and hope itself is bravery and defiance. I can't help but think of Shelley, and I apologise if I misremember--
To suffer woes which hope thinks infinite
To forgive wrongs darker than death or night
To defy power, which seems omnipotent,
To love and bear, to hope till hope creates
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates
Neither to change, nor falter, nor retreat
This, like thy glory titan is to be
good, great and joyous, beautiful and free;
This alone is life, joy, Empire and victory.
Love and reason, which I think of as shadows of God but you might not, will save us if we let them. Give thanks tonight if you are not experiencing what it means to be a citizen of this world. Today, August 12th 2008, is the Feast Day of St Jane Frances de Chantal, the patron of forgotten people and parents separated from their children. It is also the 'Glorious Twelfth'--the start of the shooting season. The Universe is very deeply and randomly ironic sometimes.
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