The news can be depressing, can’t it? If it’s not covid, it’s all about personal freedoms being taken away. There are border police in our own country preventing us from moving from one state to another. WA’s dictator would have done the secessionists proud. He’s given up a test match – an ASHES test match – to “keep the people safe”. Hey, Mark. Covid is now endemic. Get over it.
Then there’s Ukraine. And really, that has to be Europe’s problem to deal with, just as the Asia Pacific has to cope with China’s expansionist aggression. I was hoping that I’d never see a major war in my lifetime. The Cold War was bad enough, with the spectre of nukes always a whisper below the horizon. Now, I’m fearing the worst.
Still, China doesn’t have to drop a bomb here. Economic warfare will work just fine. There will be a beer shortage this Christmas, not for the usual reason of industrial action, but because of a shortage of wooden pallets. Surely we can at least make those ourselves? Then there’s chlorine tablets. Not for the pool. We need them for our septic system and they’re getting very, very hard to buy. Has anybody else noticed the many empty shelves in the supermarkets? And all of you guys that bought Chinese cars (MG, Haval, anything by GWM) just wait for the day when Xi orders all their systems turned off. Computer chips are everywhere.
Still and all… There’s beauty and peace to be found.
And that’s the thing everyone would do well to remember. Whatever happens in our petty human lives, that burning ball of gas one hundred and fifty million kilometres away will still be converting hydrogen to helium and its many, many satellites will continue to travel along the cosmic paths decreed by its gravitational field. That will still happen when we humans disappear. Sometime in the future descendants of another technological society from a distant part of the galaxy might gaze at the ruins of our cities and wonder what sort of creatures could possibly have built all this.
Enjoy your weekend.
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