My Blog Week: December 29 to January 4

A Word on the Week

Headlong

Imagine a group of old men, who get together at their clubs and societies—and one of the “truisms” they banter back and forth among themselves, while tittering a bit at the impropriety of saying it publicly, is that when the world ends, unfortunately the old will be the ones who have lived out their lives, enjoyed their young years, won ample portion of the fruits of success. The newly born will be wholly out of luck; kids, and strugglers in their twenties and thirties not much luckier. The old men express this indifference to the welfare of younger generations with fatalistic remarks, “When it’s your time, it’s your time.” When asked about legacies, they say they don’t care, or it won’t matter.

Supposing there are such people, we don’t want them getting elected to presidencies, or prime ministries, then overriding all laws and principles that put aside present glut for the future sakes of those who will outlive them. Anyway. In 2016, rallying in Iowa, the president of the United States said this about Kim Jong-un: “It’s incredible. He wiped out his uncle, he wiped out this one, that one. This guy doesn’t play games.”

As the story has it, Trump was presented some days back, at his private home/resort in Florida, with military options in retaliation for an American death in Iraq. Did his advisors take into account the possibility their “commander” might be envious of dictatorial leaders’ fiat for ordering deaths; that he might see this as a status symbol? At any rate, the president himself has since invoked the 1979 hostage crisis, and attached a mystical numerism to it, using Twitter to threaten 52 Iranian sites, one for each hostage. As he makes the suggestion himself, the Iranian government may take him up on it…they seemed to understand last time that human shielding puts an opponent over the barrel. (Also, this threat raises the possibility that our European allies might have to side with Iran to prevent the destruction of World Heritage sites.)

The thread that runs consistently through Trump’s actions seems his wish to be a hero…a head on the body of Rambo, no less. When he negotiated in 2017 for the release of Otto Warmbier, it was widely speculated he had paid a ransom, 2 million dollars, despite denials and the money being pegged as payment for Warmbier’s medical bills. Maybe, as the 2020 election draws near, and his successor seems better placed to end the trouble, he will pay a ransom to Iran—in this completely speculative, made-up scenario.

Where there’s smoke

A word on the cataclysmic fires in Australia. Recovery and restoration will be hugely expensive. Should Australians want their taxes raised to help pay for this? Conservatives have used deficit spending as a way of supplying needed programs to their nations with the illusion that these programs don’t cost what they really do. And what is money borrowed on? The promise of future revenue. Does that fact produce an ironic impetus for Scott Morrison and his coal party?