Top 10 NATO Countries with the Highest Defense Expenditures (by total US$)
Without US spending NATO would be a severely depleted military force. Source:ttps://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/nato-spending-by-country
I am probably undercounting the ways, but from my personal observations as a rigorous follower of events across the globe, all of these aspect streams point to a future marked by the following trends. If not counteracted, we will likely see:
·a proliferation of various cultures of victimhood;
·demands to restrict freedom of speech and stifle debate using the notion
of being offended and triggered;
·the blacklisting/boycotting of opponents for ideological reasons;
·the politicization of the sciences, including such organizations as the
WHO and the EPA, the CDC in the United States plus their adjuncts elsewhere in
the West;
·An ever-increasing surveillance state coupled with the ease at which
people are willing to forgo their individual sovereignty in the name of
security and safety;
·repeated demands for activist judges to undermine democratically elected
bodies/persons;
·the dangerously short pipeline between media, big tech, and governmental
institutions at the expense of local and effective decision-making;
·globalist anti-border policies and the off-shoring of manufacturing
initiatives that weaken the nation-states;
·Appeasement of Beijing by moneyed and political interests in the West:
·Contempt for the rule of law and due process of law. Included in this is
the differential application of the law based on identity characteristics.
Liberalism is a political philosophy that emerged during the Age of Reason in 17th-century England. At its core, it is centered on the notion of liberty. The philosophy emphasizes the necessary exchange of ideas, free speech and openness to debate, free markets, private ownership of property, and the rule of law. Liberalism values a political system (republican, parliamentary, or some other facsimile) built on a foundation of scientific rationalism, empiricism, and healthy skepticism. Individual rights sit at the cornerstone of liberalism.
Leftism is a useful group name for the philosophies that emerge from the extremes of progressivism. On an extended level, it is a grouping of thought structures that are motivated by a litany of attacks on empiricism and established norms in favor of an eventual utopia.
In Leftism, there is a need for a nouveau elite who will carry through the necessary collectivist programs of social engineering. Leftists believe that the environment is the critical variable that can be manipulated to establish their specific utopia. The individual, by necessity, will always be secondary to the collective.
There is a strong tendency for parents to want to recreate their children in their own image. It is only natural. After all your kids have your DNA and you provide them with the environment so by extension they should be copies of you.
This of
course is pure folly. Life doesn’t work like that. Your kids are your offspring
but they are also unique individuals. The blend of nature v nurture doesn’t
have to conform to our expectations and that is a good thing. A whole myriad of
combinations can arise and your kid is one of them.
Value your
children for who they are not for who you want them to be. They will have their
own strengths and weaknesses. Some of which you will recognize others you
won’t. Beating square pegs into round holes of your own preordained dimension
is a losing proposition. Two people will emerge unhappy from such action... you
and your child.
I have seen
this with my own kids. I am a science person my son isn’t and I am fine with
that. He has other passions that he will hopefully make use of to guide him
through his life. What I can do though is offer him important advice with the generalized
life problems that arise. Problems such as confidence of being, organization of
thought, time management and decision making techniques. These have universal
application.
Let you kids breathe. Don’t smother them with your expectations. Help them whey need help but avoid go out of the way to cushion every blow that life deals them. Sometimes failure within safe parameters is the best teacher. We learn through experience. Their pathway may not be your preferred direction but it their life not yours..
All of this like most parental challenges is of course easier said than done. We want to use our life experience to give our kids the leg up. Why not? Life is difficult enough.
But stepping back with necessary caution and allowing your loved ones to frame their own life is the best gift that you can give them. Let them know that you are there for support but give them the opportunity to manage their being. Stepping back a few steps ultimately equates to more meaningful gains elsewhere. We as parents need to put our ego and notion of our own importance on hold as others need to develop their personal sense of self and life trajectory.
I am in the finishing stage of completing my book Navigating the Chaos. It is in the terminal editing phase which involves back-and-forth tweaking of the writing. So far all looks well. I will post more updates here as they become available.
It astounds me as to how often the media makes a mistake and then
seemingly brushes it off with barely a shrug. Imagine if other professions -
medicine, dentistry or engineering - were so error prone on the big items you
could likely lose your license to practice. Not so with journalism where after
having one story debunked you simply move over to the next.
There is no such thing as the objective media. All that exists are
countering narratives with various degrees of truth, hyperbole, falsities and
intended omissions.
One does not need brute force to bring about a dictatorship the
mere threat of being ostracized from the herd will suffice.
People rarely vote for what is right or wrong. They are mostly guided by
personal convenience. It takes a brave person to resist such an urge.
Very few politicians are foolish enough to delve into the specifics of a
plan on the campaign trail. This is of course completely intentional. If the
plan succeeds then they can take credit for, if it fails then they will say
that the plan initiated was not the one that was spoken of earlier.
Interventions from other sources necessarily weakened it.
When old religions die it is imperative to invent new ones.
The most important ingredient in any religion is the establishment of a
priesthood that has access to a particular knowledge that cannot be questioned.
This is the reason that scientism works so well.
Signs of the emerging totalitarian state.
