Obsessions and the State of the World

Obsession: an idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person’s mind.

The media these days is obsessed with sex scandals that crowd out urgent news. Granted that I was not raised to think of the opposite, or even the same, sex as “sex objects.” Nor was I raised to abuse others. Nor am I saying that the media should ignore sexual wickedness in high places. But obsession is too much attention if it like a weed crowds out other flora.

With the focus on entertainment and political sexual misbehavior, many urgent issues are getting scant attention.

  • The opening of the United States embassy in Jerusalem. We should take notice of this in relationship to the administration’s policy in the Middle East. The move inflames the tensions between Palestinians and Israel.
  • The imminent withdrawal by the United States from the Iranian nuclear agreement. While the other signatories of the agreement may save us from our folly, what the world does not need is an Iran with nuclear weapons capable of targeting Israel.
  • The nuclear superpowers, Russia and the United States, have conflicting interests in the Middle East: Turkey, Syria, Israel, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, etc. “Local wars” in this area are likely to involve Russia and the United States.
  • While the administration is boasting about the success of its belligerent policy toward North Korea, the summit has not yet been held and no one knows what may or may not come of it. It should be obvious that South Korea’s willingness to enter into a closer relationship with North Korea is as much a concern about its American ally and a potential war in Korea which no one will win as any real accomplishment of the American “policy.”
  • A war in the Korean peninsula, like a war in the Middle East, has a potential to drag China as well as Russia and the United States.
  • There is also continuing tensions between Pakistan and India which could lead to nuclear war between those two. Could the United States and Russia stay out of that?
  • These are all scenarios that could lead to a nuclear World War III.
  • Then there is the massive corruption in the federal (and not a few state and local governments) unlike anything we have seen before.
  • The Russians attacked the American (and European) elections in 2016. They are attacking American elections in 2018 and our administration is doing nothing to counter that cyber warfare.
  • Bannon’s “deconstruction of the administrative state” goes on at an unprecedented rate. Environmental, safety, financial and health regulations are being trashed every day by this administration.
  • Poverty in the United States is on the rise and the middle class decimated.
  • Racism is rampant and growing worse.
  • The flow of billions of dollars into our national, state and local elections and political systems from domestic and foreign special interests is drowning out democracy and the voice of the people.