I’m not as optimistic about the future as I was in the past.
Yogi Berra
I am not a numerologist. However, there’s something about numbers as multiples of ten. Example’s are a 50th birthday or a 25th anniversary. Of course there are exceptions to this general rule because on my 29th birthday I was whining about getting older and that my next birthday would be the big 30. I remember telling Becky I read that Abby Hoffman said you should not trust anyone over 30. The ever practical Becky then pointed out that I was already in my 30th year. Well, that was comforting.
Have you ever wondered why we think in groups of 10? We use the base 10 undoubtedly because we have 10 fingers rather than eight. Perhaps if we had three fingers and an opposable thumb we might use and count in a base 8 system. Science fiction writers sometimes speculate on other sentient beings in the universe who most likely would be different from us. Perhaps these aliens might have four digits on each hand and count differently. But let’s not digress.
Fourteen years and 750 essays ago, I began writing for The Knoxville Focus. In the base 10, fourteen does not seem like a milestone, but 750 certainly does. What began as a challenge from a friend to begin spiritual journaling ultimately led to perhaps my secondary career of writing. And about fifteen years ago a liberal friend challenged me to submit an essay to a writing contest in the Knoxville News Sentinel. I won the opportunity to do op-eds in the newspaper during the next year. Needless to say, the liberal editor at the Sentinel was glad when the year came to a close. But I soon found a home at The Knoxville Focus where my conservative opinions were more appreciated than they were at the Sentinel.
Some weeks I struggle for things to write about, but unfortunately, of late, there is a wealth of topics. I am not going to discuss the SCOTUS hearings and the candidate who cannot define a woman, denies knowledge of CRT after lecturing on the topic, cannot offer an opinion on when life begins and gives drastically reduced jail time for child pornographers. Some say diversity demands an appointment of a Black woman to the court. If these are the criteria, isn’t that the definition of sexism and racism?
I’m afraid that inflation, supply chain issues, the war in Ukraine and rising prices for gas and food will obscure the disturbing Great Reset which is being implemented under the radar. Someone must’ve told Joe Biden about the global elites and progressives machinations because he recently mentioned the coming “new world order.” AOC said that most Americans couldn’t define capitalism or socialism. Well, folks, you better be aware of the Great Reset because it is more dangerous to freedom than Putin’s war machine.
And I’m not talking about Hillary Clinton’s infamous Russian reset button. The Great Reset was coined by Richard Florida in his 2010 book. The thought is that after the Long Depression of the 1870s, the Great Depression of the 1930s and the 2008 economic crash, opportunities for “paradigm-shifting systemic innovation” surfaced.
You may not have heard of Klaus Schwab, but you need to know about this dangerous globalist. He is the “founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum.” Klaus and his elitist buds fly on their corporate jets to Davos, Switzerland every year to hobnob and determine the new world order. Schwab said the Covid pandemic is an opportunity to institute a great reset of the world order. Remember what Democrat Rahm Emanuel once said: “Never waste a crisis.”
Schwab promotes his notion of “stakeholder capitalism” as opposed to traditional shareholder capitalism. Stakeholders are members of society, whereas shareholders are people who actually own businesses or have stock in companies. He believes business enterprises must serve society, not just stockholders. In this scheme, societal solidarity is favored over competition and social welfare is favored over economic growth. In stakeholder capitalism the free enterprise system is to be replaced by corporations in league with government to intervene in the economy and society. This has been labeled as “corporate socialism” and “communist capitalism.” The latter is now operative in China.
A command and control economy and society, such as exists in communist China, will lead to a loss of individual freedom. In China social credit scores are tallied for good behavior and allegiance to the state. Failure to comply will find you marginalized, fired from your job and shunned. We have seen what the cancel-culture and political correctness can do in our country. And the suppression of free speech by the media and Tech Lords of Twitter, Google and FaceBook are ideological and real. Lastly, we have seen what the lockdowns did to our economy, our children and the very fabric of our culture. Yelp estimates that 60% of small businesses will never reopen. Mom-and-pop businesses have been replaced by the big box stores.
We are seeing a dangerous merger of crony capitalists, Tech Lords and government agencies to suppress freedom. Just recently the SEC is moving to control/influence, not only large publicly traded entities, but also non-publicly traded businesses. The SEC is not empowered to influence small businesses, but through mandates on large publicly traded companies they can force compliance on small companies who do business with those larger entities. An example is forcing compliance with global warming mandates or suppression of non-Orthodox speech or opinion. An example of the latter is the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story, which arguably changed the result of the 2020 election.
However, my favorite poetess Emily Dickinson once said, “Hope is the thing with feathers – That perches in the soul.”
It is my hope that the “sleeping giant has been awakened” to the machinations of Big Tech and the corruption of the media and virtually all governmental agencies. Those with open eyes can see that no aspect of the Biden administration and the Democrat’s agenda is working.
It is my hope that a different kind of great reset is coming which will throw the Dems out of office and thwart the “new world order.”
God help us if I’m wrong!
