I've been wracking my brains for months about what purpose - what future - the world has with the slightly bonkers way it has gone in the last couple of years. I think I'd feel this way even if I'd voted Leave and was one of those people who feel 'Brexit at all cost' is the only solution. You'd have to be some special kind of ignorant to have not noticed some changes to life since the referendum and eventually, when we do leave our free trade club, we'll notice a lot more - whether that's for good or bad.
Bare with me for a second; there is a conspiracy theory coming up that even for me is up there with fake moon landings, staged massacres and Elvis not being dead...
What do you know about eugenics? I appreciate I'm wandering back towards an old favourite when I ask that, but it is actually an ancient Greek concept and like the swastika has no origins in Nazism whatsoever. However, a cornerstone of eugenics is probably the creation of a master race and usually supporters of eugenics rarely fit their desired description. Just look at Hitler. In fact, yes, let's look at Hitler. A short, slightly ugly, authoritarian pervert managed to persuade half a nation that being tall, strong, with blond hair and blue eyes was the pinnacle of human evolution without the aid of the Internet. He must have been one hell of a charismatic character. He must have been Jesus-like to be able to change the way Germans viewed themselves and others; how he managed to persuade people and politicians with real power that his way was the only way; that took something that I'm sure holocaust deniers would argue was beyond human ability in the 1930s. I mean, you could argue that Hitler, like Jesus, might just be a construct from a number of people, designed by the 'free world' to give a face to the threat - a really dull and unthreatening face...
The internet is a dangerous place. People like me inhabit it. People who kill people stalk on it. Hate groups establish. Paedophiles operate outside of the law with ease. Networks grow. Revolution or Jihads theoretically flourish and however much the people who think they run the world control it, the truth gets out. The antidote was pump as much fake news out there as real stuff; obfuscate the screen; make everything grey; pander to emotions rather than common sense. The internet has created a world where strange bedfellows make unbelievable bargains while brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, grandparents and grandchildren have fallen out to the point where it is impossible to reconcile because the disagreement is about philosophy and beliefs rather than a familiar event.
I've been saying for a while that I think there's a war coming. World War Three - fought in each country between one faction against another. The same way Hitler (if he really existed) turned friends and family against each other, political divisions and social perceptions are driving massive wedges between families. We can also throw culture, race, religion, gender and social choices into the mix - loads of people are prejudiced against lots of things and many would arguably not flutter an eyelid if certain people just disappeared...
What better way to get rid of huge swathes of the population and then impose an authoritarian rule over the people for their own protection. How quick would it become to get rid of dissenting voices then? If the 21st century has learnt anything it's that politicians will use history to their advantage. They will look at fascist dictatorships and communist regimes and they'll steal all the bits they like the best and then label their enemies both. Do we really get the news and do our journalists ever, now, ask the right questions? 24 hour news and then the internet created 'what if reality TV' - a place where inconsequential things will be fearmongered to death to fill air time that you pay for - neat trick that.
As for the opening question... aside from the possibility that we'll face some kind of war - and bearing in mind that the above was written before the UN decided we had another Cold War - I can't think of a way of reconciling humanity. You can be friends with a Democrat if you're a Republican and vice versa; I know as a Labour supporter I like people who (thing they) are Tory supporters - politics alone doesn't have to drive wedges between human friendship; but when solid beliefs are challenged, whether between father and son or brothers and sisters, you often find only a death can heal a wound, forcing people to face each other over someone else rather than themselves.
We are experiencing a polarisation, especially in the Western world; beliefs now rule peoples lives so much more than simple religious beliefs; in an OCD society, obsessed people will allow paranoia, fear and xenophobia to dominate. You only have to argue with one of them to see that for every one of their arguments you can dismantle about leaving the EU, for example, will have something else, probably more trivial, to add to the mix. Leaving the EU for many people was about a belief and no kind of proof was going to change that. I'm struggling to suggest belief is a good thing, because sometimes, especially in 2018, it sets personal bars too high.
The world because of the allowance of diversity to become a barrier is also fractured; too many are poor and hungry, not enough is done for them and plenty is done for the wealthy, based on the 'trickle down' theory, which the right and centre like to bang on about, but little evidence exists that anyone but the rich get richer. If this governmental pyramid scheme worked why do so many people complain about austerity? Even people not really affected by it are now affected by it, because the people they rely on are now affected and by association...
The problem is the world has successfully created a lot of people who don't give a shit. People who metaphorically beat their chests and bang on about the survival of the fittest. People who for no other reason than it's there, will sit on their computer devices and be hateful, cruel, vile and nasty on various social networks because they can and possibly because they feel they have no voice in the real world, so create a storm in a virtual one. The internet created sad pathetic people like this almost 30 seconds after it was created, because hate finds all manner of avenues to invade your lives - just asked that Hitler bloke or his creators.
