THE DECLINE OF THE MODERN WESTERN WORLD

A Comedy Of Errors

Throughout lockdown and particularly so recently, I’ve found it difficult to switch off and enjoy the outdoor things I used to, like cycling.

Last year, I wrote quite a few articles about the continued shutdown and I tend to find writing about it drains my energy.

The frustration with other people who can’t see what’s happening and the worry about where this is leading has been quite stressful.

I suppose many of us are in a similar boat and some far worse off.

Rather than venture out as much as I used to, recently I’ve been taking my mind off things in the evening by listening to music and watching old comedy clips.

I recently got into the Beach Boys and was amazed at the composition and complexity of some of their music. The talent and inspiration behind such songs fascinates me.

Similarly, I’ve been exploring certain comedy acts further and branching into stuff I’ve never seen or knew existed.

Comedy always relaxes and inspires me.

This Laurel and Hardy five-minute clip I think is amazing and I often watch it when I want a very short release from the stresses and strains of the day.

It has an innocence and charm from a bygone era.

I like a lot of the older British humour too but just lately I’ve been drawn to a series of American shows which took place just a little before my time, during a period around 50 years ago.

I stumbled across this the other day while searching for another comedy act.

The Roasts

These were a series of panels made up mainly of actors, comedians, singers, sportsmen (and women) and even politicians where on each show one celebrity would be ‘roasted’ by the others.

These were hilarious, mainly for the sledgehammer wit and insults. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Muhammad Ali, Ronald Reagan among many featured.

I recommend you click onto Don Rickles, Foster Brooks and Ruth Buzzi for what I think are the funniest.

The humour was often, non-politically correct, sometimes racial – and yes, over the top.

But the point I make is that the panels were diverse, and whether Jew, black or Italian, man, woman, drunk or sober, they all gave as good as they got.

The humour was also self -depreciating and they were all great friends.

Unlike today’s virtual-signalling celebrities, they didn’t gloss over their differences or self-censor.

In a sort of way, I would say it celebrated American culture and diverse heritages as it was clear once the insults ended, they all had a mutual respect for each other regardless.

Even Ronald Reagan, whom many today won’t be a great fan of, seemed to have an honest warmth about him and was comfortable within the diverse panel and evenmore diverseinsults.

I suppose you could say there was equality as they all got equally insulted.

Above all, the material was highly intelligent and clever — in my view the best I’ve seen.

Contrast this with today’s comedy entertainment, which is obsessed with pandering to and patronising minority groups with PC.

One joke vaguely out of line and you’re cancelled.

Anyway, I am confident that at least some of the above material will have you in stitches.

Moving towards a more serious note, all this got me thinking further of the uniform world we now inhabit compared to the intelligence, creativity and wit back then.

We just don’t hear and see such music and comedy these days.

This, in my mind, is one sign something has gone wrong at many levels of society.

Anyway, I’ve written previously about the reasons for the decline but thought I would tie it together to get a fuller sense of where we are today and why.

This is largely written on reflection of the so-called called Covid-19 crisis and lockdowns and looming world conflict.

The Symptoms

In the UK, I see a nation of people who’ve retreated into a shell.

Many, particularly of the less well-off who’ve been more directly affected by lockdowns are confused, fearful and distracted.

Others seem oblivious to the wider suffering, sitting in large houses, yet are terrified of catching Covid-19, being the first to roll up their sleeve for the experimental ‘vaccine’.

I’ve experienced this strange, alarming mentality at first-hand, among my family and friends.

There is a distinct lack of empathy for others, the perception that it’s all necessary for the greater good.

Many people are incapable of weighing up basic evidence and would rather leave decisions to the government and their ‘experts’.

The destructive effects to the whole fabric of society, and a year into the madness, they don’t have the faintest clue about the dark deliberate motives involved.

Many people of all classes and backgrounds are consumed by group-think and by the belief they have to belong and conform to a group.

People, especially during lockdowns, are increasingly becoming divided and suspicious of each other.

That suspicion is not directed towards the correct target, those who rule and make decisions for us.

Pointless virtual-signalling, the obsession with ‘diversity’, has created an uncomfortable and divisive climate, led by an out-of-touch celebrity culture.

Nowadays you can’t out of interest even ask a person about their family heritage without fear of causing offence to the PC police.

All this in turn has created a pushback and misdirected hostility towards immigrants, foreigners and other groups.

Today, rather than be concerned about the destructive lockdowns or looming conflict in the Middle East or with Russia, people are more interested spending their free-time debating Meghan Markle or Piers Morgan’s tantrums.

Nuanced debate on serious matters and respect towards the views of others is largely absent. Cancel culture and ignorant Twitter mobs rule.

Individual creativity, free-thinking and intelligence are being sucked out of life. Conform culture, a pampered, fearful and dumbed-down populace prevails.

Those are just some of the problems I see.

We now live in a society completely divorced from what’s really going on around us.

The future has never looked bleaker.

The Causes

These have been quietly ongoing for many decades, the current crisis exposing how far we’ve declined.

Many of these overlap and interconnect somewhat but I identify these as my main observations.

Education

Poor education is a key cause, obvious to me even over a few decades.

I wrote about this in detail here but in the past many children received a good grounding in the core subjects.

Maths, English and science but also including history, geography and critical thinking.

Decades ago, there was a tendency to require students to think and problem solve.

Now it’s more about dumbed- down qualifications and league tables.

Hence, during this crisis, many under 40s can’t or won’t interpret a graph or understand basic statistics or probabilities.

They don’t have the creativity or structured thought to consider opposing arguments.

They can’t grasp basic scientific processes.

They don’t have the ability to compare and contrast historical events and learn from them.

They have travelled all over the world but know not where they’ve been.

And as I said above, they accept what they are told to think.

As a result, they lack curiosity and a thirst for knowledge and truth.

There are some exceptions of course but this is largely the reason we are where we are.

Money, Status, Family, Technology

In the past, I feel more people were content with having financial security but enjoying a balanced life of work and family and outdoor pursuits.

They let their kids go out without supervision.

Nowadays with social media, many adults are more concerned with their Twitter profiles.

They are focused very much on their careers and way up the corporate ladder.

This is understandable in a way as people wish to provide financial security for their families.

However, there are too many distractive influences and pressures.

Nowadays people aren’t satisfied with one car or one laptop.

They take on a debt whereas decades ago, people saved up.

Unlike the past, holidays are regarded as a right rather than a treat.

Of course, where debt is available and manageable, that’s fine.

But I think the balance has gone and explains our attitudes and sense of self-entitlement reflected in wider behaviour.

Even before the lockdown, many children in recent years have been pampered, not allowed out on their own and are addicted to their phones.

Most parents of my age will have noticed the difference between the freedom and self-expression we had compared to kids in today’s risk-adverse society.

The result of all this is that children are less resilient and physically and mentally prepared to become healthy, well-adjusted adults.

Media Propaganda

This has been covered extensively on this site over the years and requires little explanation.

Mainstream media nowadays is owned by a few press barons in the pockets of governments, intelligence services, big financial corporations and pharma.

They are totally controlled.

The main things are the dominance mainstream has over the narrative from Covid-19 to Syria and the ability to sensationalise events, which ‘divides and rules’.

And poor journalist standards and coverage.

In this background, with the other factors I mention, it’s easy to see why people accept what they are told and take reports from BBC correspondents as ‘expertise’.

Media coverage of Brexit, immigration and Meghan Markle are designed to divide and distract the public away from more pressing concerns the government of the day don’t want discussed.

In the past, there was a little more media independence, less trivia and investigative journalists with some courage and gravitas.

While I don’t think we ever had a decent press, I think half- intelligent people could at least discern the good journalism from the dross.

Now, it’s virtually all the same dross dressed up as liberal or conservative leaning and factual which a largely unsuspecting, dumbed-down public accept.

Crime And Perception

Corruption is everywhere but it just isn’t called corruption in the West.

I wrote about it here.

One thing I’ve noted is that we’ve developed an inertia towards wrong-doing.

We complain about fraudulent scam calls and illegal immigrants but don’t call out large-scale corruption and wars abroad pursued by elites.

It’s almost as if we think they have mitigating circumstances because they have stressful jobs in running the country.

Without exception, after these events, we learn of the sheer criminality involved.

I often come across people who manage to recognise a fraud or an illegal regime change war which has killed millions.

The politicians claim it was a ‘mistake’ but they were right in the overall scheme.

Yet, western publics can’t understand the seriousness or translate it into prison time.

And it goes on and on.

Hence why Covid-19 and lockdown narratives and the collateral damage have been entertained for far too long.

The reasons for this attitude towards crime are linked to other points here, education and media indoctrination.

But perhaps among the public, a general lack of interest and empathy, them struggling with their own hectic lives.

Groupthink

Groupthink is everywhere, especially big workplaces.

This illness has now reached the general population through the dissemination of bad science and lockdown measures.

It is destructive and could kill us.

Groupthink crept into my last workplace and has been there ever since.

My previous article goes into detail on this.

Anyway, putting the deliberately engineered reset agenda aside, the experience I had in the workplace then is very similar to what’s happening at a national level.

Loads of useful idiots trying to climb the greasy pole, unaware of the big picture.

As I said above, people cling to ideology and causes which in the grand scheme are irrelevant.

They are being played, being distracted and becoming divided by government policy and media reporting.

But they will realise when the life-changing disaster which is reset unfolds further.

Nannying, Political Correctness, Poor Problem-Solving.

As is clear from the above, we live in a nanny state, many people incapable of thinking and acting for themselves.

But they are not finished with us yet.

Watch the clear skies in the next few months and see if Mary Poppins one day appears on the horizon and replaces Hancock and is appointed Minister of Health.

PC and nannying has taken over.

I see this most prevalent in workplaces and in recent years has invaded all areas of our life, particularly in the last year.

I witnessed all this in my last job, an organisation which resolved financial disputes.

Our very diverse organisation introduced a restructure to improve efficiency.

When that went tits-up, they rolled out endless ‘unconscious bias’ and diversity and inclusion training courses, presumably to distract from the disastrous restructure.

Because of the stresses and strains of the way the organisation was being destroyed, mental health issues among staff went through the roof.

The company’s mental health support network proclaimed that resilience among staff was the issue and prescribed ‘resilience’ training courses and advised anti-depressants if staff members’ symptoms persisted.

As in all walks of life, rather than problem-solving the root causes, they were fire-fighting the symptoms and blaming the staff becoming ill through their policies.

I had anxiety/stress issues at the time, but in the end told the organisation that they were causing this and that of hundreds of other staff.

I told them to shove their nannying tendencies and anti-depressant pills where the sun don’t shine.

They backed off and my anxiety disappeared overnight. A true story.

Does any of this sound familiar to what’s happening now?

What Can We Do?

There’s no magic wand.

But for starters you can tell them to shove the vaccine.

But society generally may have to go through the process of being shocked into realisation of the disaster unravelling, clear to those of us who maintain a functioning brain.

We should be sympathetic to those who don’t but who will one day be forced to engage theirs.

Meanwhile us truth-seekers should all unite and not become distracted by issues which in the grand scheme don’t matter.

On the lockdown sceptic and anti-war spectrum, there are differing viewpoints but we all want the same outcome.

In any event, we should all watch the clips above and marvel at the times when wit, intelligence and creativity prevailed.

If you are not sufficiently amused, I’ll provide a refund.