Predictions for 2018 (Living in the Age of Stupid)

[image error]Firstly, I’d like to wish all of you a very Happy New Year, and in 2018 I hope you will reach your goals with sufficient effort to satisfy you, but sufficient ease to leave you ready for more in 12 months’ time.  If you’re one of the 121 readers who read one of my books in December, thank you and do leave a review, whether good, bad or ugly.

Now that 2017 has slid into the more repugnant end of the cesspit of history, what does the coming year have in store?  Among other things, statisticians can tell us that X people will die in traffic accidents, there should be Y aviation incidents, and if we’re lucky, we’ll see Z breakthroughs in a number of tech, medical and other areas.  But the more interesting anticipation comes when we consider the astonishing trends currently playing out.

A mere 48 months ago, the idea of a referendum on the UK’s EU membership was a sometime/maybe/never sop to the racists on the right-wing of the Conservative Party.  Now, aided by a popular press which indulges in the kind of hate speech that would see editors being prosecuted in more moderate societies, those fringe racists control the popular dialogue.  Two years ago, the feeble-minded simpleton in the White House was known mainly for being a spoilt, uncouth, loud-mouthed, failed property developer who was such a great businessman he actually lost money running casinos.  Now, he swaggers around the world spouting any lies that come into his flabby, confused head and barely troubles to disguise the fact that he is an asset of the Kremlin.

Predicting what comes next in such uncharted waters is tricky.  Brexit appears to be heading for a typically British fiasco.  If the UK government were in any way serious about it, places like the Port of Dover would be hives of construction activity to handle the increased border-control needs so trade can keep flowing, but that’s not happening.  The likelihood for this year is that nothing will change and the UK will, in the fashion of the Light Brigade, continue its charge towards the cliff edge.

For me, the most terrifying thing to emerge last year from the White House was the claim that not even Hitler used chemical weapons.  Easy enough to laugh off, but the level of ignorance required—especially the lack of basic education—defies belief.  It is people that boast this staggering stupidity who now have the ability to go to war using the most powerful armed forces ever assembled.  Some people, including at least one man who lived through the era, are comparing events today to those of the 1930s.  While there are parallels with the hate speech and the burnishing of wilful ignorance, a closer look shows much that is lacking.  Foremost is the absence of any political ideology.  Putin’s key objective seems to be to destabilise Europe.  The Syrian refugee crisis, Brexit, and the election of the feeble-minded simpleton can all be laid at Putin’s door, but any objective other than the destabilisation he’s already achieving today is difficult to ascertain.

Similarly, while the current incumbent at the White House is clearly an idiot, the vast majority of his supporters also seem to share this quality; there is simply no focus other than hatred for Muslims, a religious group comprising more than 1 billion members, quite a few more than the Jewish faith.  Apart from that, he and his backers do not stand for anything concrete and have no obvious plan to change the world.  As his recent tax-bill showed, he’s only in it to steal as much from poorer Americans as he can and give it to his rich friends.  This is hardly earth shattering or even unique among Western leaders.

I believe we need to start calling this the Age of Stupid, and I think 2018 will continue to prove it.  With one exception, I don’t see anything radical happening this year, just more of the same Stupid.  The exception is this: if the feeble-minded simpleton and his handler in the Kremlin do have a broader scheme that involves the abrogation of democracy in the US, then something will have to happen to allow the 45th President to strengthen his grip on power by postponing the mid-term elections on 6 November; something very violent and shocking, something which will cost more American lives than 9/11, and something which, somewhat obviously, will be deemed the work vague, Muslim-connected terrorists.  If Putin wishes to keep his asset in place, he cannot allow the Republican Party to lose control of the House of Representatives, and if the covert tactics the Kremlin used in 2016 to swing the Presidential election no longer work, then the destabilisation will have to become overt in a most violent and shocking manner.  Let’s see what happens.

Happy New Year.