Topsy turvy!
Everything is upsy daysy
Topsy turvy!
Everyone is acting crazy
Dross is gold and and weeds are a bouquet
That's the way on topsy turvy day...... *
Everything is upsy daysy
Topsy turvy!
Everyone is acting crazy
Dross is gold and and weeds are a bouquet
That's the way on topsy turvy day...... *
* from Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
9/11, 11/9,
the world has gone topsy-turvy, Terrible Trump is taking the White House and
millions of munchkins are wondering when a massive storm might bring a house of
impeachment (or wave of civil rebellion) down on his ooh-too-orange-too-unnatural-scary-head
so that the rest of the world can come out from hiding and resume more logical,
joyful and humane activities.
But the
Dorothy who might have saved us isn’t allowed in the White House because she is
a woman. A woman perceived by the
disenfranchised munchkins and a bunch of sexist oompa-loompahs to be too elite
to rule. It makes no sense. But when mercenary
media and the FBI conspire in myriad ways to make a heroine look bad, it’s only
in Hollywood that she comes out on top; or perhaps in New York.
Don’t
believe me? Well – like or dislike our Dorothy – imagine a male replica of this
same candidate on the campaign trail and tell me (in these same circumstances)
that would not have led to the White House? Many an ‘ism’ is fuelled by
resentment. It doesn’t have to be on the surface to be a real contributor. But
the red heartland has too many strange lights in their eyes, bullets in their
guns, blocks in their brain, and kinks in their kindness to see what’s really
at stake.
Not all the
American munchkins have distorted vision of course, near as many despise
Terrible Trump as idolise him. But, wish as we might, we find ourselves not on
the road to Oz or clicking our heels to return to Kansas, but falling down the
Rabbit Hole to a Mad Tea Party most of the world don’t want to attend – unless
of course you’re a Mexican munchkin in which case you can’t come in because
there’s a big wall keeping you securely in your third-world-
who-gives-a-shit-about-anyone-but-ourselves-place.
At the new party
there are characters much scarier than the Cheshire Cat... there’s a couple of
self-crowned, cocky, foreign ferrets called Fuckwit Farrage and Bastard Boris.
There’s Pukey Putin and Terrible Trump, assorted apparatchiks and wicked wannabes,
all clapping their hands in glee, wielding Ursula-like tentacles to snatch and
grab, reject or wound at whim. This is a party without conscience or compassion,
it’s all ego and greed, the terrifying, I-really-do-feel-sick-and-sad, beyond
the Twilight Zone, OTHER PLACE .
Yes, the
other place we read about in 1984, Animal Farm and Schindler’s List... where
‘the other’ becomes a religion, and the Big Fat Male Pink (aka white) Pig
Rules. And it isn’t a dream or a story, it’s real.
On the
upside, in this brave new world we should all be able to go for jobs we have no
idea how to do. I want to be a Nero
Surgeon at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. Why not, hey? Perhaps you’d like to be an astronaut? It
doesn’t matter if you get vertigo, claustrophobia and fail the sight test,
qualifications no longer apply.
In this
brave new world the outlaws rob the banks, tie up the sheriff, assault your
women, put your children in camps, then get a ticket-tape parade through the
main streets of the 1st world to celebrate.
There’s no
income-tax. No public-services. No NATO or United Nations or international
goodwill.
In this
brave new world no matter what you’ve done (or failed to do) you can get the
most powerful job in the land. This White Man’s Club (strangely supported by
some women and others who misunderstand what’s going on) is not a step back in
time to the vast and glorious Commonwealth, nor is it a Middle Ages Crusade - though
it may feel like it - IT IS THE FUTURE!
Or, as has
been said, BACK TO THE FUTURE!
But BEWARE, there’s
no special car waiting to magically take us all away to safety as lightning
hits the clock tower. There’s just an ugly finger hovering over a red button,
with keys to The Situation Room, and those fingers belong to a sociopath who
stoked the fires of selfishness, racism, sexism, homophobia, in many cases ignorance
and poverty, to believe the Wicked Witch was their economic saviour.
It makes no
matter that even his aides thought him too irresponsible to do his own Tweets.
In this brave new world recklessness doesn’t stop you from scoring the top job.
And more ironic: this particular Witch
has been a multiple bankrupt and tax-avoider, proving the greed and
irresponsibility which led to the Global Financial Crisis of 2008/2009 from
which so many voters are still suffering, is far from gone and probably stuck
in a sinister loop of circular-reasoning where Terrible Trump has no more idea
how to improve his brand of fabulously unfettered Capitalism than thousands of
others on The Hill.
Nevertheless
in the topsy-turvy world of Terrible Trump, a character Doc Holiday might well
call “the Anti-Christ”, is given the keys to our earthly kingdom. And we are powerless to do anything about
it. (Or are we?! See Michael Moore’s FB page @mmflint) But we can’t lick our wounds by saying “oh those silly Yanks”, because only five months ago roughly half of the
citizens of the UK gave America the quintessentially xenophobic example of
Brexit to feed their isolationist nationalism.
It seems
many nations are caught in a BACK TO THE FUTURE psychosis of one sort or
another. Unless of course you’re lucky
enough to be Canadian, God Bless them!
So just for
the record: don’t ask me to be moderate in my outrage or concern, or in my
judgement or sadness, because the oompa-loompahs who have got us into this mess
have not been moderate in their intolerance or bigotry. And that fact remains
however you attempt to explain or justify their choice.
Make no
mistake: this was not an election about left or right, Democrat or Republican. This was not a debate about preferences or
even needs. This was an election about
morality - a time in history where our very humanity was at stake. And anyone who voted for Trump (or UKIP or Brexit) bear
a heavy responsibility.
So you can call
me arrogant, de-friend me, criticise or ignore me. I am not afraid of free speech or the normal
push and pull of democracy; even if I doubt its efficacy when campaigns are
filled with lies and hatred, voting is not compulsory, people lack education or
are given too many examples of egoism-gone-mad to see the wood for the
trees. But this election was different –
it was crucial - and I make no apology for being devastated or seeing the
outcome as grossly immoral.
Germany and
Japan carry their collective conscience with great elegance and compassion, for
the writing on the wall they failed to see in the 1930s. They campaign in their
daily lives and in their parliaments for rigorous inclusion and munchkin-on-munchkin
respect. Bigotry and drums of war are not tolerated. These countries now stand up proudly for
peace and human dignity. And that is why they now take their place as true
leaders of the world.
You’ve
missed a key moment America. You have blindly but willingly walked into a war
of your own making – a war on compassion, tolerance and respect. So how are you going to wind back the clock
and be sure the next Tea Party is less Mad and more Moderate, less Heartless
and more Humane?
Because if
you think the economic spoils of victory will be better shared or distributed
this evil way, the Terrible Trump way... then you have no-one to blame for
finding yourselves on the dark side.
Meanwhile
the rest of us munchkins can only pray we find our own Willy Wonka in the merky
waters of political leadership, our own transcendent Dorothy, so that you don’t
drag us into that ugly abyss.
Oompa, Loompa, doom-pa-dee-da,
If you’re not greedy, you will go far
You will live in happiness too
Like the Oompa Loompa doom-pa-dee-do.
Highly recommended:
#ProtestTrump (in your city) Don't be silenced!
