At the edge of 2017

The year 2016 was a fun year!

In January I started my dream job as a college history professor and it has been fun every step of the way.  In June, my Penguins won the Stanley Cup and Michelle and I went to Fort Sumter--something had always wanted to do.  It was also the first trip I ever enjoyed to South Carolina!  Then it was off to Gettysburg, which is never boring!

Then came a thing that everyone said could never happen--Britain leaving the European Union.  The alleged "experts" got it wrong (and would drop the ball even worst later...) while I got it right.

Then came the worst day of my life in August when my beloved furry friend Sprinkles died. It was better that she died at home among friends than in the vets office.  At least it was quick when it happened and we got to spend time together before the end.  We buried here in the back yard and visit the site every day.

The school year began anew and I had a great time with US History and World Civ to 1700, lining students like hoplites and German armies invading Russia.

NC was hit with a major hurricane in October and thankfully, we missed most of it.  The school calendar was mixed up but we adjusted on the fly and made our objectives with style grace and panache.

Then November saw a shocker of an election and the defeat of the supposedly invincible and corrupt elite.

December has rolled by and it has hurtled toward 2017.

I am not one for living in the past, and as much fun as 2016 was, it is  on to 2017 we charge, to make it bigger and better, achieve more and have fun with it at the same time.

End of the ColdWar--25 years later

The Soviet Union collapsed 25 years ago today and it disappeared with barely a whisper.  There was no great revolt, no failed Third World War, no civil war.  Gorbachev left a letter of resignation on the desk in the Kremlin and left.

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

 TS Elliot's poem was, as the Brits say, "spot on."

The Soviet system was literally sick and dying.  Andropov and Chernenko were only around for a year and state funerals were becoming annual events.  Mikhail Gorbachev saw there had to be change and we had glastnost and pereskroika

And an attempted coup by the KGB in August 1991 and the collapse began in slow motion.

There was talk about the "end of history"(idiots!) and a peace dividend.

The West blew it.

American foreign policy became hyper agressive and the European Union is just as tyrannical as the Soviet Union.  Then we were straddled with the millstone of Political Correctness.

Like its Soviet predecessor, we see the cracks in the EU and Political Correctness.  They are not invincible monoliths that cannot be stopped.  They have weaknesses because they are built on lies.  Internal contradictions are the worst kind.

Like I wrote earlier, the first age of the Cold War era is over. Brexit and Trump (?!) are the beginning of something else.  Good,bad, in between, remains to be be seen.

Humanity's natural state is to be free.Yes, there must be order, but once it becomes the Evil Empire, conflict arises, trouble begins, and in the end, oppression will fail.  Moscow was smart and left before it became bloody.  Over here, we had an election.

Now, let's do it right.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, say what you want,but don't tell others what to say.

That lesson was free :-)

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The second age of the post Cold War era

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I remember reading the Wishsong of Shannara a long time ago and there was a phrase I just remembered. It is kind of weird to remember one phase out of a book nearly 400 pages long but it came out of the dark corners and took center stage

Allanon the Druid is dying from a battle with the Mord Wraiths and he tells Brin that "the age must end" and he performs some sort of ceremony and anoints Brin his successor.

When the Berlin Wall fell back in 1989, we entered a new era, a post-Cold War age removed from superpower rivalries and a nuclear Sword of Damocles hanging over everyone's head.  The danger of a Third World War had been removed and there was a "peace dividend"  waiting to be used for something that could benefit everyone. There was even a talk about "the end of history" with the triumph of liberal democracy.

First off, history never ends.

Many have charged that US foreign policy became more aggressive after the Soviet collapse and others also maintain that our government has become as dictatorial as what we faced in the Cold War.

Maybe, maybe not.  That is for you to decide.

The year 2016 saw a resurgence of nationalism and populism and the erosion of transnational organizations such as the European Union, which has displayed serious undemocratic tendencies.  That explains Britain's succession from the EU and Eastern Europe's coming defection. Here in America, there are several similar feelings toward our own government and moribund political system.  The candidacies of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders showed that the People will not be ignored.  The 2016 election, psychotic as it was, was a serious, an d necessary shock to that political system.Barack Obama had promised "Hope and Change" and ended up endorsing the establishment everyone--Republican and Democrat bases--despised.

Hence, Trump and Sanders

The age must end and a new one is dawning.

Whether it turns out to be good or bad remains to be seen. History does not end and it often repeats because many never learn the lessons.  Sometimes they do.

Here's hoping...