Category: Uncategorized

The drivel served up by Trump at his inauguration just confirms what I said in Thoughts 8. The declining power lashes out at internal and external enemies. It can never be a peacemaker, but could very well be a war starter.

Britain isn’t broken – not yet. It’s in a better position than the USA, France or Germany to take but three. Maybe managed decline is the best we can do – it’s better than galloping decline. And maybe faster growth is just not possible for a country in our position. In that case we have…

Donald Trump can never make America great again. He is himself a symbol of the decline, and his policies can only speed it up. The decline can probably not be reversed. It has gone too far. The American Empire is now in the position the British Empire was in a hundred years ago, the ‘weary…

Progress happens but is never straightforward. It is always two steps forward and then one back. It is also crablike. First one country, area of the globe or type of knowledge takes the lead, and then another.

People say that Britain is becoming more middle class, Actually it’s the reverse. Britain has become ‘proletarianized’ in language, culture and behaviour – no bad thing of course. Doctors going on strike anyone? It’s often mistaken for Americanization but it’s something entirely different.

Russia – the land of Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky – is part of Europe but isn’t treated as such. Instead it’s pushed out. If on the contrary it was invited in and treated not as a pariah but as a partner – an equal partner of course – problems like the Ukraine would solve themselves. Instead…

The world is supposed to be speeding up with the advance of technology, but in many ways it is slowing down. Conflicts are more difficult to solve as problems are increasingly frozen rather than ended – shelved as people remain stuck in past attitudes – always liable to flare up again – witness Palestine, Korea,…

It’s impossible to predict the future. There are too many unknown unknowns. We can only say “So and so will happen if current trends continue.” But they never do continue – fortunately. Sooner or later someone or something comes along to shift the direction – the lesson of history if there is one. Anyway the…

You have to feel sorry for Elon Musk. It must be hard being a multibillionaire oligarch when you’re so stupid and ignorant. He clearly knows nothing about Britain or its history.