It seems like there will never be any equality in the world. Just look at the situation between the United States and Russia, as an example of how everything is upside down. It doesn’t seem to matter which party is in power in the U.S. The person in the White House doesn’t matter either. Hollywood rolls on, as do the corporations, growing and growing, piling billions into the coffers of “self made” men and women. And elsewhere, nobody, and I mean nobody can get a fair shake.
“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” — Marcus Aurelius
Look at Vladimir Putin, as a perfect example of unfairness. If he goes on a fishing trip, he’s dressing up his manly image. Meanwhile, his contemporaries in Washington, or London for that matter, roll out their pitifulness to the fist pumping of whichever hordes of sad admirers adore them. Donald Trump gassing protesters outside the White House so he could stroll across the street for a photo op with the “Word of God” in his greasy, Big Mac grubbing hands comes to mind. Or, look at Joe Biden for an even starker display of “WTF is wrong with America?” The guy is a disgrace.
As for Putin, he’s accused of just about everything. But somehow the evidence of his crimes and misdemeanors never really materializes. The best the west’s multi-trillion dollar surveillance state can come up with is “very high probability” or “high confidence” that Putin did “whatever” wrong. Back home, however, a smoking gun, camera footage, CIA documents, surfaced emails, satellite photos, voice recordings, and a past conviction as a serial killer couldn’t get an American out of office.
My, how things have changed. I remember some idiot zealots who were trying to help former President Richard Nixon, getting a president to resign over what Barack Obama authorized the NSA to do to the American public. Edward Snowden dropped a dime on the Obama administration, but Barack never waved goodbye to the American public in disgrace. George H. W. Bush launched the first Gulf War which, as an investigation by journalist Joshua Holland concluded, “was sold on a mountain of war propaganda.” His son George W. invaded Iraq on a false pretense, killing hundreds of thousands and costing America trillions. He’s still got a library.
“It is the duty of a good shepherd to shear his sheep, not to skin them.” — Tiberius
I could go on, and on. The point is, if you’re an American in leadership getting drunk, wrecking your car, and drowning your girlfriend won’t get you in jail, much less unseated from the halls of power. And we thought Jimmy Carter’s brother Billy was an embarrassing disgrace! Billy would be a better leader than anyone on Capitol Hill or in the White House these days, beer cans all over the lawn and all. The world would be far more equitable and balanced if my country had an honest idiot in charge. At least when Putin or China’s Xi Jinping got accused of mayhem, Americans could stand erect and show their pride for having an honest man or woman to lead them. But nope. We are just fine with the lying scumbags the corporate elite throw at us.
It’s called “empire” folks. Reference names like Caligula, Commodus, and Nero. Rome loved them too, up until things like the incompetence of leadership, a bad economy, climate change, internal struggles for power, the health of Rome’s people, religious changes, and the numbers and effectiveness of her armies doomed the empire. Sound familiar?
Well, at least we’ll have Russia’s leader to blame. As if it will matter then.
Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller “Putin’s Praetorians” and other books. He writes exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.