But there's never been a storm yet that didn't pass. If we know one thing in Nova Scotia, we know about wind. We know once in a while the wind arrives with real force, a true fury that demands our attention and actually changes the landscape. And then it’s gone. My memories are filled with the sense of community and care that emerges and lingers in the calm after the storm. These rare gusts—the storms, hurricanes, the ones that uproot trees and rearrange lives—are the exceptions. They’re reminders that for all its bluster, and power, and that power the wind wields, we’re still left the same at heart — hopeful, human, helping each other put things back together. The wind can blow. But it doesn’t change us.
I have to disagree about your assessment of Trump. I think he's far closer to a Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin or at least Orban and less of a Morawiecki than we might hope for. In those cases "the wind" did more than rattle a few windows, it left a swathe of destruction that took years to clean up and fundamentally reshaped the world. Those storms are rare in the extreme, but they're happening more frequently of late, as are the partisan politics that are subtly altering the rivers of political discourse world-wide. Remember, I suppose, that reshaping the course of the Nile can also bring down empires, at least for a time.
I understand your position and was cognizant when I was writing that I was writing against this common view of things, which you have well articulated.
Liberal, maybe. I don't think my view is actually "common" given how close the numbers seem to be. Or at least I don't think "common" or "average" people truly understand how devastating a political demagogue can actually be, given that most of them haven't actually lived through one. I imagine the common view is broadly similar in Russia too because people generally have a hard time (in my experience) viewing the broader picture from (a state sponsored) limited perspective. It's one of the ways social media and state sponsored disinformation campaigns have skewed or spun what is actually factual toward false narratives. It may, in fact, be one of the reasons social media is allowed. It's become relatively easy to influence swathes of people to believe in total bullshit.
I have to disagree about your assessment of Trump. I think he's far closer to a Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin or at least Orban and less of a Morawiecki than we might hope for. In those cases "the wind" did more than rattle a few windows, it left a swathe of destruction that took years to clean up and fundamentally reshaped the world. Those storms are rare in the extreme, but they're happening more frequently of late, as are the partisan politics that are subtly altering the rivers of political discourse world-wide. Remember, I suppose, that reshaping the course of the Nile can also bring down empires, at least for a time.
I understand your position and was cognizant when I was writing that I was writing against this common view of things, which you have well articulated.
Liberal, maybe. I don't think my view is actually "common" given how close the numbers seem to be. Or at least I don't think "common" or "average" people truly understand how devastating a political demagogue can actually be, given that most of them haven't actually lived through one. I imagine the common view is broadly similar in Russia too because people generally have a hard time (in my experience) viewing the broader picture from (a state sponsored) limited perspective. It's one of the ways social media and state sponsored disinformation campaigns have skewed or spun what is actually factual toward false narratives. It may, in fact, be one of the reasons social media is allowed. It's become relatively easy to influence swathes of people to believe in total bullshit.