We are in a revolutionary world not of our choosing but partially of our making.

There were moments when I didn't believe the news of my illness to be true after I was diagnosed with rectal cancer. I doubted the veracity of my possible demise, especially when it was morning and the sleep from the night before hadn't been shaken off.

Five years ago, a malignant tumour was altering the status quo of my existence. My symptoms, however, outside of fatigue and some bleeding, were not noticeable, which made me want to carry on as if everything was normal.

I quickly came around to my predicament because death was in the rearview mirror- tailgating me and honking its horn in an attempt to overtake. If I wanted to live, I had to focus on survival.

Harsh, bleak facts are not a pleasant reality to come to terms with. However, not believing or dismissing the outright precariousness of a situation limits your chances of surviving it.

The Western world in 2025 is very much like me in 2020 after I learned about the cancer growing in my body. I didn't think then it was possible to be dying, and today neoliberal society is in denial that most of its democratic institutions have fallen to the fascists.

Photo by Alejandro Cartagena 🇲🇽🏳‍🌈 on Unsplash

The nations we call home are either like the Nazis of 1940 or France's third Republic in that same year-ready to capitulate to totalitarianism. We aren't living through a fascist coup by Musk, Trump and the oligarchs. We are living through its mopping-up stage.

Whether we want to admit it, the USA is experiencing a revolution which has the full backing of its nation's oligarchs. If the USA is undergoing a revolution, its vassal states are undergoing a revolution because we must either resist the fascism of Trump or submit to it. We can't trust the top income earners to protect us against fascism because their allegiance is to preserving their wealth, and the status it bestows on them. We can't trust or hope corporate journalism will take a stand against fascism because the Billionaires didn't purchase the corporate news media to preserve freedom or because it was an item of bling. They bought the news media to own and fashion the truths we consume to their needs.

America had one shot to stop a fascist takeover of their nation, and that was in January 2021. Then, Trump should have been arrested for treason after his failed putsch. He wasn't because the nation's entitled class governed by greed abdicated their responsibilities, which doomed an already failing democratic system.

Authoritarianism was easy to acquire because the attention of citizens was diverted for years by consumerism, austerity, and culture wars.

Is there a means to exit our present reality of darkness at noon? Yes, but it won't come easy.

It won't come from doubling down on capitalism or neoliberalism. It won't come from ignoring the climate emergency. It won't come from venerating wealth as wisdom and virtue. It won't come from depoliticising trade unions or vilifying migrants and refugees.

It will only come if enough people feel they have nothing left to lose because they and their kids can't get ahead no matter how hard they try.

To reclaim democracy for "we the people", there will be martyrs.

Some will die, some will be tortured, and others will be imprisoned, vilified or impoverished. It's a battle no generation from the West has experienced since the war against the Nazis. The hardships ahead shall be dire because our current political system is too corrupt to fight alongside us.

But here we are in a revolutionary world not of our choosing but partially of our making. I have no idea how all this ends, except to know we won't be the same when this is all over. I hope our side wins but all bets are off until we start to mobilise. The clocks are almost striking 13, so we better act fast or we shall live under the boot of totalitarianism for an eternity.

Thanks for reading and supporting my Substack. Your support keeps me housed and also allows me to preserve the legacy of Harry Leslie Smith. Your subscriptions are so important to my personal survival because like so many others who struggle to keep afloat, my survival is a precarious daily undertaking. The fight to keep going was made worse- thanks to getting cancer along with lung disease and other co- morbidities which makes life more difficult to combat in these cost of living crisis times. So if you can join with a paid subscription which is just 3.50 a month or a yearly subscription or a gift subscription. I promise the content is good, relevant and thoughtful. But if you can’t it all good too because I appreciate we are in the same boat. Take Care, John.