No one ever expects the party to end when its still in full swing. The passengers on the Titanic didn’t until they heard that awful crunch of the iceberg on the starboard bow and it’s scrape all along the hull. Even then the ship’s management reassured them: “Oh it’s nothing. More champagne and keep the music playing”.
But the good times don’t last forever. Events, parties and empires finally reach their ends. When you least expect it, the barbarians are at the gates. The slaves are escaping and Rome is starting to burn. The party’s over!
Trees don’t grow all the way to the sky. There’s always a limit to growth and expansion. There is a scientific theory liking the structure of growth to that of building a sand castle. After it reaches a certain height it becomes unstable and it’s corners begin to collapse.
Pax-Americana has expanded at a tremendous rate ever since World War 2. The US has troops and military bases in some 150 countries around the globe. The American dollar has been the world’s reserve currency ever since. The most accepted money throughout the world; it has been backed by Saudi Arabian oil and trade, (the petro-dollar agreement brokered by Henry Kissinger in the mid 70’s), since it lost it’s gold backing in 1971. Soon it will be backed only by the might of the US military and by ever expanding debt that can never be repaid.
The US stock market has been reaching for the sky and beyond. The party is in full swing. What could possibly go wrong?
Then there were the floods in Huston, the hurricane in Florida, followed by the California fires. Could it be that the corners of our castle are actually starting to crumble? For the people in Puerto Rico without electricity, food, running water, ATMs and wifi, things have certainly gone wrong.
Times surly seem to be changing. After decades of abuse of power and influence, the long silence has ended for Harvey Weinstein. He is falling like Humpty Dumpty and being followed like dominos by many others. The false facade of Hollywood is crumbling.
Donald Trump’s promise to drain the swamp in DC is progressing to a degree, but those pulled out are too often being replaced by more swamp creatures. To really clean house and get rid of corruption would entail leaving the entire DC city virtually empty!
It was said in the Watergate days that congressional hearings can only go so long and so far before involving and exposing almost everyone. They finally let up when they got their target, which was Nixon.
Afterwards, the country was stunned to realize the system was rotten all the way to the top.
Corruption is very much like a cancer. It grows and spreads absorbing all available energy until its finally stopped or kills it’s host.
There are many cancers globally, nationally and locally. The House of Saud is currently pretending to battle corruption, even though their entire system appears to be built on it. So their kingdom and dynasties are crumbling back into the Middle East desert sands as we speak.
Many similar examples exist. There are the world banks, US banks, sovereign funds, Wall Street, the deep state, etc; all cancers waiting for their surgery or radiation!
As I look at this issue and it’s scope, I realize that I’m barely scratching the surface. Books could be written on this. So I will have to revisit it in the future. But for now I would welcome change.
Lets clean house, open up the windows and let the sunshine in. Hearings, investigations and exposes; let them rip! Lets see if there is any real truth and justice buried beneath these piles of entrenched, institutionalized mountains of graft and corruption.
Dan O’Connor can be reached at danhughoconnor@gmail.com
