The World's Going Mad -- But You Probably Already Knew That

It seems to me that, in light of recent global affairs, our new initial reaction to everything is to throw whatever we can at any form of crisis (from money to missiles), curl up in a corner and hope the scary scenes go away and stop being so darned nasty. In a way, it's almost like we've shrouded ourselves in our ideological bubble wrap to the point where if someone happens to walk past with a pointy stick and prop it slightly, we lose our minds and screech 'what do we do?' to the first poor beggar we happen to see in the street, drinking his coffee and texting his mother.
   But why react in such a manner? Surely if something is amiss -- and it negates the better interest of several governments and their respective fiefdoms -- with the application of unity and good ol' fashioned 'team spirit', why do we repeatedly fail to reach a logical outcome without springing some new issue that we blind ourselves to for a few years? It doesn't seem to make sense. But then, it does. Is that a good thing?

Obviously, though we reluctantly shake hands with our UN peers and smile for the camera, our views and interests vary, collide and counter-act one another. One country wants this, another country wants that, and a third country hates both and just can't wait for them to move out already. But when Mother walks into the living room and tells them to behave, you can bet your lucky cufflinks that they will -- they just won't enjoy doing it very much. 
   Is that what keeps preventing us from succeeding in being rational problem-solvers? Petty squabbles? I dread to think it. And naturally, before we collaborate to argue and spite each other as a team, people scramble and choose sides pretty quickly to argue and spite each other as separate entities; when put in the same room together, it spells 'trouble' with more glaring signs than a neon display of the committee of letters that assemble to spell the word itself.
   Bloody hell, that was a stretch.

If you look at -- let's say -- the situation in Syria (gasp, shock, the horror), it should be a simple case of everyone versus Daesh. But it isn't. Instead, it's a silent case of everybody who is against Daesh is also against each other. Hell, not even Daesh likes itself. 'I prefer IS', 'I prefer ISIS', 'I prefer ISIL', et cetera.
   Madness. 
   So is that also preventing us from achieving a straightforward logical goal? Vanity? One thing to consider is that nearly all modern politicians are shameless demagogues; they'll give you any old hogwash policy to climb to power at some point because you kind-of sort-of agreed with something they may-or-may-not-have said once. 'Remember That Guy from That Party? Remember when he said that thing once? Let's vote for him'. Then, once they've been voted in, they stop caring until the next election. Naturally, when it comes to a global crisis like Syria, they'll do or argue amost anything in the popular public opinion to ensure their rise to power. Then they'll tell you it's 'within Britain's best interests'. Well, when you put it in the context of the public opinion, they're not exactly lying as such. 

But what's a crisis without propaganda? 'We've always been at war with Eastasia'; replace Eastasia with 'The Middle East', and you've basically got the same thing, so says the Far Right. Which is funny, because I'm pretty sure there have been times where we haven't been at war in the Middle East. At least . . . I think so . . .
Oh my god.

Put together, this is what I like to call the "Fire Triangle" of (to quote columnist Frankie Boyle -- ah, yes, boo to you, too) psychopathic autopilot. Only instead of fuel, oxygen and heat, you have childish squabbles, vanity, and a rudimentary form of doublethink perpetuated by semi-educated, pseudo-intellectual sods who siegheil for a bloody passtime. It is because of these frankly ridiculous societal impediments that we can hardly ever find a rational resolve to some of the most arduous and demanding scenarios we are faced with, and it's appalling. Well bah to you all, I say. Thrive off the hysteria for all I care -- you're only an appealing argument for the dolphin uprising when they achieve enslaving us all and treat us like the primitive beings we pretend not to be. And when they do, I'd like to see you walk with your undeserved, scumbag air of self-porpoise.