The world seems bleak right now because it is.

But a tipping point has come that will usher out the worst of times and bring the best of times, for ordinary folk.

I never liked November, even before it became the month when my dad died, 5 years ago. It is a month when the light fades into the grey of winter. It's a pitiless, hard-hearted, 30 days. Perhaps, it feels more harsh this year than others because the world has reached a tipping point. It can't catch its breath from a dying environment and genocides in Sudan, the Congo as well as one pondering to become one in Gaza.

The West could stop the blood shed but chooses not to and tell us it's complicated the way parents explain to children infidelities that led to divorce.

Every major humanitarian organisation from Amnesty International to the World Health Organisation has called for a cease-fire in Gaza. However according to Biden, Trudeau, Sunak, Scholz and the head of the EU Von Der Leyen now is not the time for peace. If they were wise leaders, who had been more proactive and not let millions die during Covid rather than reduce the profits of the entitled. If they had been against austerity rather than imposing it on those who had nothing to begin with. If they had prevented a housing crisis from even starting by not creating a housing bubble to enrich the top-income earners. If they had protected public healthcare rather than weakened it through underfunding of infrastructure and inadequate wages for healthcare employees. If they had made refugees welcome rather than allowing dog whistle politics to rule the roost, I'd trust their judgment.

Photo by Mohammed Ibrahim on Unsplash

Not calling for a cease-fire after more than 11,000k Palestinians in Gaza have died from Israeli bombing including over 4000 kids (FFS!) isn't political wisdom; it is co-conspiracy in crimes against humanity. Our Western nations have made Israel's war our war in Gaza and the West Bank by providing billions in military and financial aid. Netanyahu's ethnic cleansing of Gaza through the forced displacement of 1.7 million Palestinians to the south and the destruction of over 40% of residential buildings is also our ethnic cleansing of Gaza. Our leaders refuse to call for a ceasefire despite the casualties, despite the pointlessness of all of this destruction and despite the fact that they are taking the word of a fascist over the desires of their own people.  Our leaders have made us responsible for what is occurred in Gaza despite the majority of citizens in the US, Canada and the UK wanting a ceasefire.  

The ancient curse shouldn't be to live in interesting times but- to live in an era when governments neither know nor desire to locate where north, south, east or west is on a moral compass.

Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash

We can't escape history's condemnation that the West in the 21st century was hollow. Our professed ideals about justice, rules of law, democracy, freedom and equality are slogans with no weight or merit because they have as much sincerity & depth as; "Coke, it's the real thing."

Decency or having long-term objectives are now AWOL from politics.

2023 is a dystopia of tent cities across Britain, Europe, America, Canada, Australia and everywhere else. Our public healthcare systems are up for sale to hedge funds generally American because the USA knows best how to have their citizens pay through the nose for their enslavement to capitalism.

Destitution is back with a 1930s vengeance. The environment is dying, and the only cure for it is to curb the influence and wealth of the 1%- which 99% of us aren't. But we fear them so much that we'd rather die in our millions from environmental, economic and militaristic folly or by plague.

The world seems bleak right now because it is. You almost want to turn your face to the wall and wait for the end. But we must not because the best of times is being born in this miasma- of war and injustice.

Gaza was our tipping point. It is radicalising ordinary citizens. Millions across the world are protesting this conflict against Palestinians like they did to end the Vietnam War. Millions are dissenting like they did against Bush and Blair's illegal Iraq War. The young are mobilising because they know, like the Greatest Generation did from 1939-1945, that the world's future is up to them.

I hope they win.

My boomer generation has shamed past generations who sacrificed their lives to build a society for and by the people. Collectively, boomers renounced socialism for a narcissistic existence erected on a scaffold of consumerism fuelled by an exploitive policy of globalism. Boomers forgot all their economic and social advances were predicated on a social Welfare State that provided them public healthcare, affordable housing, education and sufficient wages from employment to afford them the right to have leisure. Boomers stole these rights from future generations and in return bequeathed them apps, streaming services and on-demand shipping of goods manufactured by slave labour. The sooner we yield the field to the younger generations the better for the world.

Photo by Museums Victoria on Unsplash

As always, thank you for reading my sub stack posts because your help is really NEEDED. Your subscriptions to Harry’s Last Stand keep the legacy of Harry Leslie Smith alive and me housed. Times are hard for all of us. So, I am always grateful for your support. This month marks the 5th anniversary of my dad’s death at 95 on Nov 28, 2018. I am proud that with your assistance I’ve been able to ensure the the six books that comprise Harry’s Last Stand have not been forgotten. Our times are dire and the work my father and I did during his last years is relevant. So if you can please upgrade your subscription to paid b/c 3.50 a month or 30 a year makes a difference in keeping the legacy alive. And if you can’t it’s all good because you are a comrade in solidarity with me and Harry’s legacy too. Take care, John