Terrible things have happened before – take the Great War, that was pretty terrible. The Spanish Flu that came after, the Bubonic Plague back in the Middle Ages. World War 2, the Holocaust, more recent. Thing is, human history of our blue planet is a litany of terrible things happening.

So how come we got though all this terribleness more or less intact? The human race is still here, still destroying itself and the planet. But alive and, seemingly, thriving. Seems like even when we have real dumb-ass types in charge, humanity finds a way of stepping back from the brink. 

Trump is gonna lose, I’ll bet my own money on it. And, though the US is in a real shit-storm right now, decent people will take over and work hard to repair the divisions he has wrought. It will take time, of course it will, and no doubt many people will still lose their lives, either from Trumps’s denial of the pandemic or the precariousness of being a person of colour in a nation where that seems to be like a red flag to so many, even some law-enforcers. Maybe especially some law-enforcers.

And in the UK, the next election will see the defeat of the Tories, hopefully for many years. It will, I’m depending on it. The bean counters will be ousted. Humanity will prevail and quasi-dictatorship will give way to actual democracy once more. When that happens, it will present an opportunity for the UK to demonstrate to the US the many benefits of socialism. Right now US citizens are brainwashed into thinking socialism represents a repressive state. But what could be more repressive than free market capitalism? Basically the slogan for this kind of political belief is, ‘Bugger You, Jack, I’m All Right’. We need to return to the teachings of Beveridge and Buddhism. The current global ‘dollar worship’ isn’t working for people, wildlife or the natural world.

So when you see the sun low in the sky, know that it will rise again, if we help to keep it rising. We need to follow all those old fashioned sayings of cutting our carbon, loving our neighbours, caring for and loving our planet and not destroying it with waste and nuclear weapons. Don’t think that someone else will do this stuff, for there is no one here but us. 

For sure, we are feeling low right now, we have been buffeted by gust after gust of lies, disorder, broken promises. But we must not turn away and wait for someone to come rescue us. We have to take a long clear look at our world, decide how we can help to maintain it, reject the current mendacious forces keeping us in fear, and stand up to the Terrible. Together, with love in our hearts for each other and our world, is the only way we can win through.