DIVISIONS WITHIN DIVISIONS WITHIN DIVISIONS

You could be forgiven for thinking that whatever god you may believe in has abandoned us to our own devices.

The world has never been this divided while having so many ways to connect & potentially find unity.

Islam is at war with the French government and a magazine publishing images anathema to Muslims.

Armenians and Azeris are in a fight to the death over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Britain is leaving the European Union and Scotland will attempt to then leave the United Kingdom.

Rioters in Hong Kong want it to leave China.

India and Pakistan continue to war over Kashmir.

The Jews of Israel and the Palestinians are no closer to resolving their differences than ever.

Saudi Arabia continues to fight a proxy war against Iran in Yemen.

Turkey fights to keep the Idlib region of Syria from the rightful government of the country.

Donald Trump has partitioned a section of Syria in order to steal its oil.

The USA continues to pressurize Venezuela and Cuba and intends to do the same to Nicaragua.

U.S. elites talk about Russia and China as adversaries or even enemies.

Meanwhile... a pandemic best fought in a unified manner runs rampage due to diverse standards across the world and even within individual nations.

And... if the scientists are correct the disastrous effects of climate change will soon be upon us demand us to seek a unity of purpose or be overwhelmed by death and destruction.

Telecommunications link us all in a web that should bring us closer, make us feel connected, no longer alone, no longer isolated, part of a global civilization that has a bright future where solutions are increasingly found to problems long thought to be intractable.

We have such awe-inspiring, adaptable and flexible technology now, our power to effect change has never been greater, our knowledge never so fast or so accessible. Yet we flounder almost blindly from one crisis to the next, misunderstanding each other, contradicting, insulting, marginalizing and demonizing each other.

Seen from space our world appears tranquil, startlingly beautiful, turning quietly in space. We are blessed with a million delights, wonderful landscapes, incredible natural wonders of every kind, brilliant blue oceans and verdant jungles... an incredible paradise if only we could only find some way to calmly share all this between us.

But no, we are at war. Both within ourselves and with others.

And what is the prospect of better times ahead? With shrinking resources ever more aggressively sought after, with populations outside developed nations rising fast, with this pandemic and who knows worse pandemics to come... and climate change, the catastrophe that might see the end of many of us, many cities too. Rising water levels and harsher climates with interminable storms, wrecked harvests, economies and a species at the end of its tether.

I am not being overly pessimistic I think. The dangers are real. Meanwhile we fight within the dining hall of the Titanic while the lifeboats stand ready if we would only take our attention off of gaining an advantage over others and turn to save us all. If we do not the path we take will, I estimate, be dark and lonely indeed. The survivors may wonder if they made the right decision to claw their way to safety when they see what their existence will consist of in that devastated world of the future.

A wrecked world where all beauty has been destroyed through divisions within divisions within divisions.