FREE SPEECH IN THE WEST, WHAT MUST BE SAID, WHAT CAN’T BE SAID

In the region of the world that claims it has free speech a great many people appear to be tying their own tongues in knots.

A wide range of subjects and issues are now bordered by rules consisting of cancel culture barriers. Infringe on these and those doing so soon find out there are limits to a freedom they were told was inalienable.

These dogmas that are to be obeyed on sufferance of censure and loss of livelihood have varying degrees of sense to them. Naturally there are few circumstances in which voicing an admonition to kill is appropriate... yet for the U.S. military there is an obvious exception.

To use hate speech is also prohibited and with good cause, to maintain good order within society where prejudice doesn’t raise its ugly head by promoting division. Yet certain government officials are allowed a special dispensation when talking of nations not within the U.S. orbit of control.

To display racism is another case in point and the USA has one of the world’s worst records along with the previous white regime in South Africa. Yet the wars the USA has waged against other nations in recent years have all been against weaker nations with colored populations.

On the flip side there is the notion claimed in the western world of the free press and media. But just how “free” is it when certain narratives are clearly fixed in aspic and ruled to be incontrovertible? The best example is the New York Times’ output on the subject of Russia. How many balanced articles appear? How many journalists believe anything approaching a balanced article on Russia will be accepted by the editorial staff and published. The figure I am certain is zero.

How truly “free” can the ‘free press and media’ in the West be when the resultant journalistic product follows obviously strict guidelines on what can be said on such subjects as Vladimir Putin, Russia, China, Ukraine, Venezuela and others individuals and nations that the USA is seeking to depose, subvert, overthrow, destabilize and bring about regime change within?

The rules governing the etiquette of the cancel culture are quite loose in favor of prohibition. For some the slightest wavering from an agreed narrative is cause for cancellation. During the last four years and continuing to great extent still, anyone not adhering to certain motifs regarding Russia was fair game to be slandered, socially ostracized and denied access to a right of reply in mainstream media. The case of Professor Emeritus on Russia, Stephen F. Cohen is a case in point.

Unless you vocally salute the right narrative on Russia you are looked on as suspect at least and considered by many either a ‘Useful Idiot’, one of ‘Putin’s Puppets’ or a ‘Russian Agent’ and possibly a traitor to your country.

A similar standard of intolerance is shown to those who object to the evidence-free accusations against the Chinese Communist Party regarding the Wahhabi-influenced, previously terror-attack-inclined Uyghur minority. If you wish not to accept at face value accusations of genocide based merely on the word of activists you will immediately be called a ‘genocide denier’.

This was seen also in the attitude to ‘The White Helmets’ in Syria, the group formed by a former British intelligence officer and funded to the tune of $millions by western governments and their NGOs. To even suggest that they were not an even-handed, truly humanitarian entity was tantamount to a treasonable offense. To point out that they were an obvious CIA/MI6 construct would get you immediately framed as an ‘Assad Apologist’.

This is the portrait of freedom of speech in the western world that belies the oft stated noble principles on which it claims it stands resolute.

You can say what you want then be attacked for it, shamed for it, sacked for it, excluded for it and branded a near traitor for it. That is how free you are in the western world. If that is the definition by which freedom is gauged then I leave it to the reader to place their own estimate on exactly how free that “freedom” truly is.

 

THIS FINAL WORLD WAR WILL DETERMINE FUTURE GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

Each side in this war sees it as described above.

Though the explanations of why it is the case cannot be wholly trusted on one side of this divide.

At its most basic level you have:

1. Nations who have clearly expressed a wish to be left in peace to trade and to expand their economies.

2. Nations who have dedicated themselves to assuming the mantle of ultimate arbiters of good and bad with the sworn mission to change the nations in 1.  above.

The reasons for those in group 1. feeling the way they do are stated in the description and hardly need further explanation. There are no signs that they wish to spread their modes of governance to any other nation.

Anyone inferring this merely from them wishing to engage in trade where both sides win, they gaining resources and wealth and the other products, services and investment, is over-egging the pudding as the saying goes. They are inferring negativity where none is truly evident, though it should be said no interaction of this kind is every wholly unproblematic.

On this side at least there is no significant trace of a desire to rule the world by establishing global hegemony and forcing all others to follow them.

The reasons for those in group 2. feeling the way they do are far more complex. For them, on a surface level as may be expressed by their elites, their mission is a duty based their own perception that they have the most perfect, liberal and free systems possible and that it automatically follows that they must work toward the end of changing all those in group 1 to their particular mode of governance.

The end goal would certainly entail the end of all forms of governance not conforming to that of the nations in group 2. This is surely obvious, and leads inevitably to the conclusion any hopes that the policy of regime change by this group would end were false.

Due to the past activities of many in group 2. a high degree of skepticism is warranted regarding their stated reasons, i.e. democracy, freedom, western liberal values as standard. The track record of the nations making these claims hardly confirms the purity expressed in the terms used. National interests of the nations concerned have time and again been the priority for many of these nations as evidenced by their assistance to nations who flout their claimed goals and still do to this day. In addition, several of these nations have undermined figures instigating the policies they claim to wish to spread and replaced them with those directly opposed to those policies, i.e. dictators rather than democrats.

However, the elites (both political and within mainstream media) insist that they have a refined and just purity of intent now, despite any slight “mishaps” of the past.

On the subject of world domination it seems clear that only group 2. has this ambition. That in as much as they wish to remove all forms of governance except their own (with the possible exception of certain Latin American and Middle Eastern dictators if such are willing to conform to their geopolitical dominance).

The title to this commentary is not in any way wild hyperbole. The war being waged now, can with justification be called the Final World War. When one side or the other wins there will remain no possibility for any further such conflict.

I will now speculate upon what might emerge after the total victory of one side or another where one side realizes and acknowledges they have lost and capitulates fully. (Of course this would be a long drawn out process and such a clear and unequivocal admission of defeat would be unlikely, but could be seen clearly by other means than a stated surrender.)

If the nations in group 1. win there can be no doubt that there will then exist a world where diverse systems of governance are tolerated. In the atmosphere of such a world agreements can be made under conditions of mutual respect. A greater degree of unity of purpose, despite all differences, will emerge as a strong possibility due to this high degree of respect being shown. The sovereignty of nations would without doubt be regarded as sacrosanct and international law once more be adhered to without any one nation being able to act above it.

If the nations in group 2. win there can be no doubt that there will then exist a world where diverse systems of governance are not tolerated (except by decree in specific cases by the victors). Nations who had previously been run under different rules of governance would be subject to close inspection and control requiring a high degree of monitoring to ensure they never slipped back to earlier, unacceptable modes of governance. It is very likely that a massive expansion of entities such as the NSA and GCHQ would be required for this monitoring to take place effectively.

These, as I see it are the two potential destinies of our world depending on who wins this last of all possible world wars.

My estimate is that most of us alive now under the age of 70 or even a little above in continuing good health will see clear signs of which group will emerge victorious in the hugely bruising war now under way.

There could hardly be a more important issue due to the mode of global governance of this planet in perpetuity, for every generation to come, being at stake.

 

 

 

DODGY DOSSIER MK. II? WHAT’S COOKING IN BIDEN’S PROPAGANDA LAB NOW?

First, read this extract from one of Britain’s foremost mainstream newspapers, ‘The Independent’, from an article published on Sunday 15 November 2020:

‘Coronavirus has been circulating in Italy since September last year, researchers say.’

‘Coronavirus was present in Italy months before its outbreak is known to have started, according to new research.

Scientists have found Covid-19 antibodies in blood samples from as early as September last year. (Edit by me: September 2019)

The findings “may reshape the history of the pandemic”, they said.

Italy reported its first coronavirus cases in late January, after which an outbreak swept through the country, hitting northern areas such as the Lombardy region particularly hard.

Traces of coronavirus have also shown up in Italy’s water from December last year – suggesting the virus was circulating more than a month before the country’s first confirmed infection.’

Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/coronavirus-italy-anitbodies-covid-study-b1723243.html

And this from LIVESCIENCE:

‘COVID-19 may have arrived in US by December 2019‘

‘COVID-19 may have already arrived in the United States by December 2019, before the disease was even identified in China, a new study suggests.

The study researchers, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), analyzed more than 7,000 blood donations collected by the American Red Cross in nine states between Dec. 13, 2019 and Jan. 17, 2020. Of those, 106 samples tested positive for antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

The findings suggest "SARS-CoV-2 infections may have been present in the U.S. in December 2019, earlier than previously recognized," the authors wrote in their paper, published Monday (Nov. 30) in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.’

Source: https://www.livescience.com/covid-19-united-states-december-2019.html

I would be surprised if you heard about even one of the above instances of Covid-19 being present in 2019, well before any mention was made of Wuhan.

Of course neither article proves that the virus DIDN’T come from the lab in Wuhan and adds nothing to the debate about whether an animal to human transfer took place.

However, the reason you probably heard nothing about these reports is that they would tend to take the focus off of China. And this would be contrary to what must strongly be suspected was the central mission of the Trump administration and U.S. foreign policy both then and now, to use anything possible to weaken China by any means possible.

China represents an enormous economic threat to the USA. The USA’s global dominance and ability to exert power of command depends upon its economic strength. Without that economic strength behind it it cannot possible have the manipulative ability it now holds to defend what it calls its ‘national interests’. These ‘national interests’ are open to wide interpretation but certainly include and are most likely dominated by access to economic assets and political influence.

It must be obvious to most of us by now that the elites of the USA and its client states, most prominently the UK, are engaged in an economic and attendant propaganda war against China. There is hardly any attempt to hide this now, nor has there been for some time.

As with the similar ongoing war against Russia it has been almost exclusively one sided until quite recently. For a very long time previously both Russia and China simply took the flak and remained largely silent. Perhaps a muted statement of disagreement regarding one of the state-to-media channeled attacks was voiced which received next to no coverage in western mainstream news. However, this has changed in recent months.

You will hopefully have noticed that the responses from both Russia and China in recent months have become more robust, challenging the attacks against them in far more aggressive terms than at any time over the last many years. They have clearly decided that enough is enough after finally recognizing that no amount of trying to 'get along’ with ‘western partners’ (as Vladimir Putin used to call them) was going to change anything. That this was a war to the death by the West, no matter what it took and no matter what was said or done, it would continue.

Now we have Biden asking the U.S. intelligence community to look into whether the virus did indeed come from the laboratory in Wuhan or alternatively came from some animal to human transfer.

On the face of it this may seem innocuous to some but what is the likelihood of that being the case.

A previous investigation in the USA into the same question was terminated due to the conclusion that it was a waste of public funds. Where was there any great benefit to be found in doing this compared with the undoubted vast cost of doing so? And why rely on spooks to get to the bottom of it rather than virologists and others within the scientific community?

This brings back unhappy memories of Blair’s 'Dodgy Dossier’, a series of desperate attempts (including a student’s college thesis) to create a convincing report and PR campaign to “prove” there was a case for going to war with Iraq.

 If it could be announced that a “definitive” answer had been found, as asked for by Biden, and that the answer was that Covid-19 had escaped from the Wuhan lab, or better still had been manufactured there and an escape engineered, this would suit the current U.S. foreign policy agenda very well.
Russia will not be dropped as a regime change target but my suspicion is that it will be put very much on the back burner now in order to concentrate the vast majority of resources on attacking China. China is after all, by far and away the primary threat to U.S. manipulative power worldwide.

There may even be some attempts to encourage discord between Russia and China, to entice Russia with certain positive developments such as the meeting arranged next month between Biden and Putin.

Whereas the Trump years were all about “Russia! Russia! Russia!” it is clear the Biden and Harris years will be almost (but not quite) exclusively about “China! China! China!”.

Any and all weapons, great and small against China will be used in what I believe will mirror the tactics used by the USA and its allies against the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact in the Cold War. And quite likely in even more merciless fashion where the dirtiest tricks imaginable are deployed.

The current ridiculous and utterly scurrilous claim that the Chinese Communist Party is committing genocide on the Uyghur population of  Xinjiang is a prime example of what to expect.

The gloves are well and truly off on both sides now.

And Biden appears to be cooking up the latest weapon against China in his propaganda lab right now.

 

RED SCARES, YELLOW PERIL & THE RED, WHITE AND BLUE TERRORIST STATE

Look over there!

See the danger approaching!

Look at how terrible they are. What they are doing is unconscionable, don’t you see?

Let us save you from them!

Meanwhile... let me just insert this newly sharpened knife into your back.

Let me just ask… who is the true danger here? And why might that be?

The elites of the USA know that money is the key to power. For decade after decade they have acted in the light of this knowledge. A casual observation of U.S. actions both overt and covert over the past hundred years will allow you to see exactly how this transfers into crimes against humanity... all for the best of all reasons (as according to the accepted formula).

Usually the need for ever more money (and attendant grip on resources along continuance and increase of power) is always sanitized as “protecting national interests”.

Suddenly, with the unstoppable rise of China there is a new guy on the block that can offer a different relationship to the one of do as we say, not as we do, threat and violence methodology of the U.S. elite.

It is no secret that the abiding ethos of the U.S. business world is to play hard ball whenever and wherever necessary. There cannot be a single person reading this who has not at least watched a dozen Hollywood films and TV series that show this in graphic detail without reading academic tomes or even accessing documentary films.

The ethos of the U.S. state within successive administrations shows that it reflects that of its corporate community to the nth degree. The U.S. political elite superstructure acts as a mega-corporation jealously guarding its assets around the world playing as hard ball as it gets. There are no holds barred in this enterprise, massive loss of life, destabilization of rivals, every kind of dirty trick imaginable overt or covert and an abiding determination to win at all costs retaining power and pushing its influence ever wider.

But, as said earlier, finally there is emerging an increasingly powerful and influential protective shield against the virtually constant abuses of the West stretching back a hundred years and more. It is now no longer the case that the rest of the world is sufficiently weak, vulnerable and unable to resist it. The rising stars of the east, Russia and China have become invested in sufficient power to say, “Enough!”.

That alone was sufficient for the state terrorism and criminal propaganda of the West to be activate full force against them. The propaganda now seen on a virtually daily basis against the leaders of Russia and China is blatantly obvious and I content the reasons for that propaganda are to be found above. And the means being used have significant effect due to the modern nature of mainstream media news in the West.

Within the closed vacuum flask of western mainstream media news the narratives concerning Russia and China are exclusively those of western political elites. The variety of broadcasts forwarding these narratives focus almost exclusively on areas within Russian and Chinese political life that can be exploited for political purposes.

The long litany of crimes against humanity, coups, assassinations and wars based on self-interest and lies by the USA receive virtually no mention. That hundreds of thousands, even millions have died, entire nations destroyed and regions fragmented beyond repair rates hardly a mention if any mention at all.

The memes used to excuse and justify the above crimes of state terrorism are clearly accepted at the editorial and administrative level of the news entities and corporations of the West and thus are consigned to some category of unmentionable subjects.

What consequences does the failure to hold western elites accountable lead to?

Clearly it leads to a license to endlessly repeat the process.

The elites of the USA, UK and others within the western world have set themselves up as the righteous judges and arbiters of all behavior. This could not be sustained if an honest appraisal of their own crimes was agreed among their fellow elites as it is among most of the world’s population.

The judges must be put within a framework of purity of intent, honest endeavor and be constantly provided with the right to mete out death and destruction wherever required.

This is the upside down world of western geopolitical thought in a nutshell.

The state terrorist nations, the USA, the UK with the active complicity of others have taken the right to inflict their brand of terrorism on any nations they choose to attack out of their own narrow self-interest. No judicial entity within the western world dares admit this fact. The International Criminal Court at The Hague attempts to assert its right to investigate war crimes of the USA or allies of the USA such as Israel and is sanctioned for it. This reveals the vital necessity for western elites to maintain their facade of saintly judicial rectitude despite bathing in the blood of their victims at regular intervals.

But no, no looking around here at home. Look over there past the still rising smoke of our last cruise missile attack, don’t listen to those relatives wailing in grief over their dead children, ignore the tombstones raised over the millions we slaughtered... it’s over THERE you must look. At the terrible foes who objected to our wars and who resist our demands, who insist on their sovereignty and wish to make agreement, not aggression the way forward.

THEY are your enemy.

And that pain you feel in your back? You are mistaken if you think that it’s us doing that even if we the only ones here with you. That is them over there too!

RED SCARES, YELLOW PERIL & THE RED, WHITE AND BLUE TERRORIST STATE.

 

THE USA: FOREVER SPREADING ITS CANCEROUS “PERFECTION”

There is no nation on the planet more riven by discord, poisoned by hatred or fueled by mania than the United States of America.

Yet this is the nation all others are recommended to follow as the premier example of good governance and order.

If you can square that circle you are a modern magician my friend.

It’s almost akin to an Aids victim so devastated by the discovery of his affliction that his impulse is to spread it to as many others as possible.

No nation has slaughtered more people, destabilized more nations, fractured more regions and spread more fear than this one.

Yet, it is this same nation that crows about its magnanimous bounty, it’s special place in the eyes of God, the sanctity of its purpose and the perfection it embodies.

There must surely be a psychiatric term to fit it and its noxious presidents who preside over the spreading of its toxic lies. A term that captures the insane mental cancer that spawns its crimes against humanity. A term which renders understandable the rabid form of self-awarded sanctity with which its leaders pursue goals leading directly to mass misery, destruction and the slaughter of millions.

And the treatment?

Currently there appears to be no vaccine against the virus of American interference mania. In its most virulent form seen time after time it feeds upon itself, each mind infected and compartmentalized to only see what it wants to. And what it wants to see is always the same, a shiny haloed city on a hill... but never the river of blood running directly from it.

The vision of sanctity held unmovable in such diseased minds provides the fuel which in turn provides the self-awarded justification to do with the rest of the world whatever they wish. This fixed mania, surrounded by endless layers of myopia keeping reality at bay, denies all the symptoms of decay within itself, holding always before it the false image of its own “perfection”.

Legions of state entities have been put in place decade after decade reinforcing all these delusional notions with interminable mutual agreement on how “perfect” the USA is and how noble is the cause to preserve it.

It stands, not as a shining city on a hill, but as a piece of blatant fakery akin to a smiling shop window dummy, hollow and vacant of any true reality, rotting from inside out. A dummy wielding a weapon in some decrepit army and navy store’s window. Its diseased eyes seeing nothing... certainly not its own state of decay.

However, an antidote to this monstrosity of a nation is on the geopolitical horizon. A fast rising China has an economic strength in depth that the U.S. has always claimed for itself. It is putting to use every precept of the so-called American Dream with one hundred times the efficiency and equanimity of its tawdry western foes. And very soon in geopolitical terms China will soar past its rivals who are desperately trying to restrain it, impotently doing their dirty best with as many lies and criminal economic acts as they can muster.

China has proven herself very good at combating the kind of virus the USA, UK and others represent. Her ability to stem the tide of the western disease has been exemplary to date and shows no sign of weakening, despite all her enemies efforts.

Meanwhile the USA and its obedient clients continue repeating their mantra of the The West is Best, still triumphalist while the rot deep within their societies bursts out of the fake shiny bodies they claim as their real selves.

The cancerous perfection broadcast is fooling less and less of the world’s population with each passing day. The bursting out from its vainly re-plastered self of myriad demons, destructive impulses and a plethora of social diseases cannot be contained. Sooner or later the edifice will fall revealing the mewling wreck of a fatally diseased victim, still desperately, violently and delusionally attempting to assert its “perfection”.

 

AS EVIL AS HITLER - NO QUESTION ABOUT IT?

When there are geopolitical issues that have acquired unquestioned status, which demand only one side of a story is ever told, and when this approach is consistent across all major media outlets/political parties, you can readily infer one fundamental fact with great accuracy.

Leaving aside the actual content for a moment, when only one narrative is THE single take on a geopolitical issue, you know that war is being waged on that target.

This is quite obviously evidence of a general state of one party at least, being in ‘war mode’.

These days wars are rarely announced. No formal announcement is heard on radio or on television. The attack upon and invasion of Iraq and the bombardment of Libya are most likely the last semi-announcements of military operations against an “enemy”.

There are now no perceived benefits in announcing an enemy before seeking its destruction. The preferred mode now is at the most to confer the status of ‘adversary’ on those you wish to weaken, and potentially destroy.

It is most likely felt that this mode of framing the perceived enemy as an ‘adversary’ creates the same effect as the word enemy and transmits the required general attitude in the listener but also signals that he or she need not worry over any disruption from a military conflict.

This allows adversaries to be attacked using semantic means via selected accusations which are emphasized again and again and which provide the new ammunition which replaces bullets, bombs and missiles.

The new wars then, consist of weaponizing words therefore, along with the use of other means such as economic weapons, i.e. various forms of sanctions.

In these new wars the same rules apply as in the earlier hot wars of military conflict. The entire nation attacking is expected to adhere to the rules I have tried to enumerate at the start of this text regarding conformity of view.

The enemy/adversary is to be hit with every form of word or economic weapon which weakens it or strengthens the attacker. Facts lose importance, evidence also. The accusatory words are almost solely in command at the public level. Meanwhile economic means are applied with only minimal attention to the public sphere.

As it is deemed of overwhelming importance that the war is one and the enemy/adversary is defeated those who are refraining from attacking it or worse still, relating information that minimizes or reduces the guilt of the target is themselves seen as in league with the target and therefore well on the way to being seen as a traitor.

There can be no tolerance for minimizing the asserted guilt of the target. A vast number of staff commensurate with the vital importance attached to the war are put in place, or already exist from previous wars, to attack and negate those seen as de facto traitors.

You need only imagine this scenario in the context of the Second World War. Consider how you would have seen those who expressed the opinion that Hitler was not as bad as he was portrayed in western press, that there were good points about him and perhaps talking with him would bring better results than waging war.

There were indeed such people, people such as notable aristocrats and figures such Oswald Mosley. I don’t think many of you reading this would have had much sympathy with their words at the time and would have been minded to silence them if possible. The war effort was that important, the lives of millions hung on the defeat of Hitler. The concept that he should get ‘a fair hearing’ would hardly find any favor with you I surmise.

This I believe is where we stand now in regard to Putin, Xi, and those who work closely with them. Joe Biden has even gone as far as accuse Putin of being ‘a killer’ and having ‘no soul’. Xi is not receiving this treatment just yet however, if the accusations over the Uyghur people of Xinjiang (genocide by the Chinese Communist Party) are taken to their logical conclusion he soon will be. They are more likely than not to be depicted ultimately as being just as evil as Hitler. In effect this is the case even now by implication. With Putin it has gone further than implication at least since 2006 when he made it clear Russia with him as president would not follow instruction from western nations.

Think back so see when you last heard a positive article regarding Putin in particular. I would suggest that you have not seen or heard even one such article. Let us though take a lesser case, how many articles about Putin have you read where there was a balance of negative to positive accounts? I would suggest again that you have not come across even one.

This is not normal journalism. Not in the least. Whether or not you believe the negative accounts given is not the point. It is simply evidence of something else at play which is not related even tenuously with true journalism. It serves another purpose entirely. That purpose is the demonization of an enemy you are at war with and who, whether rightly or wrongly you must frame as totally black in thought and deed. A person with no saving grace, no positive characteristics whatsoever, a monster in human form and indeed a person quite as evil as Hitler.

JUST KEEP SMILING

It was very clever. And just what we needed.

It was not only under everyone’s radar they came, they got under our skin too... due to their happy effect on us.

What was there to dislike?

They were highly personable. They knew the subjects that would interest us. There was nothing obvious about it. It wasn’t as if they flattered us. There was nothing you could put your finger on, they were just very amiable and we liked them. A lot.

After the pandemics we longed for a bit of normality, we felt a desperate need to talk, enjoy some company, laugh, smile and forget the deadly seriousness of what we’d been through.

The Smilers were right there, ready and willing... just at the right time when we needed them.

You’d meet them at bus stops or at the garage, shopping in the mall or market, fetching the kids from school, at soup kitchens or charity events. Quite out of the blue you’d be chatting with a stranger that felt like an old friend and feeling the relief of something a little more satisfying than regular small talk. And it was so good to find yourself smiling again.

Their presence had a knock-on effect that gradually began to permeate whole nations. Suddenly the world seemed to be brightening up all at once. People were beginning to realize the pleasure there was in interaction with one another. The freezing of relationships other than with nearest and dearest during the pandemic of ‘25 had been total. Life had turned down the happiness dial on all of us. Now things were at last on the upturn.

We began to avoid mainstream news as a downer. As the happiness quotient went up interest in the doom and gloom dramas they endlessly fired at us went down. A new spirit began to flood the zeitgeist, that of trusting one another, of opening up, of letting our bare faces hang out and just being there one to another... we were having fun again and being ever more inclined to see the brighter side of life.

Heavy topics were becoming studiosly avoided. Religion was being abandoned with all its solemn intoning and life-deadening rules in ever-greater numbers. A hedomistic spirit tempered by a sensual openness that was not degraded by abuse, but simply reflected open attitudes of pleasure and trust, began to pervade our lives.

We were not aware then that the Smilers were finding their way to positions where our newfound love of life and trust in others could be encouraged, nurtured and made integral to our lives.

They appeared no different than anyone else, jollier yes, and chatty... folk who were interested in us rather than trying to be interesting. They didn’t want an audience... they wanted you to be the star of the show. They were simply the kind of people that could refresh your life just by the simplest of means, human to human communications.

Except, as we know now, they were not in fact human. Funny, isn’t it?

Back then we were  simply breathing out again after a year of hardly daring to breathe at all, let alone sneeze, cough or even talk. They brought us back to life again, made us feel truly human once more. Really and truly adult humans and happy once more to be human.

It’s ironic, I know.

It was around six months in when by one means or another the news reached us.

One or two of us were still watching the nightly news, we hadn’t all become cheery chappies and chapesses switching to the endless comedy shows appearing then.

The number of missing children was rising.

For those without children this was no big deal of course, they had some initial slight concerns. But not for long.

For those of the W.C. Fields persuasion this was in fact a real boon. They could go on holiday now and no longer be made to perpetually frown due to those noise brats.

For those whose children were safe at home it was only of slight concern at first.

But this was about to change... and quickly.

In these new times Mom and Dad had again begun letting their kids loose from their previous home confinement.

In the decades just past, fear of infection, injury, bullying, the prevalence of soft drugs and much else besides had brought about a trend of keeping kids at home. Now, with the new bright outlook for the future happening and people seeming much more friendly, responsible and nice, caring one for another it seemed the right time to let the kids rejoin the real world outside and to hang with the risks that seemed much diminished now.

It was when the figures for what appeared to be abductions caused the missing children figures to double on a monthly basis that alarms began ringing in those homes where kiddiewinkels were an integral part of the household.

The discordant effect of a newfound jollity and optimism within our societies when contrasted with this disquieting news of disappearing children was pronounced. Mentally some of us felt torn apart emotionally. It was as if one side of the mouth wanted to arc up in a smile while the other wanted to turn decidedly down.

Psychologists began doing better businessness than ever. Self-help groups were appearing everywhere for worried parents. Meanwhile clown academies had never been more popular and more and more began to spring up.

It was all quite a circus.

Still the numbers of missing kiddies continued to rise. Up and up they went... as did the big tents of circus marquees in most major and even minor towns.
I could see in which population there was an exponential rise however. It was becoming as plain as the nose on your face.

Eventually, presidents and prime ministers were called on to take off their costumes and red noses in their effort to ‘get with’ the times, and attend to matters.

Token study groups of child psychologists, welfare workers and kindergarten teachers were formed with elite members of police forces in attendance. A nationwide campaign was initiated that attempted to straddle the divide between humour and horror in what a lessening minority claimed was in extremely bad taste.

Still the numbers of sweet little darlings disappearing continued to rise.

Most people trusted that it would all come out right in the end, that there was a reasonable explanation, to not worry and instead look on the bright side. This cheerful outlook made a minority of those still inclined to the darker side of these events extremely angry. They took to the streets in increasing numbers, loudly vocal in calling for an end to the totally innapropriate cheerfullness they saw all around them.

Most onlookers it must be said however, tended to snigger as they joked with each other, remarking on how silly the placards were. Those holding them went by faces frowning in anger, some snarling with a heartfelt hatred, threatening to punch the grinning faces gaping at them from all sides.

All was going very much to plan as we now know.

But there was much more to come before we realized.

The Rainbow Unity of Trust (Happiness and Just being plain Silly) group arrived.

It was matched by The Realist Tendency (Holding on to our Sanity) faction who were set up to oppose them.

There were many riots in one. One was a riot of color and gaeity. The other was a mass of black clothes and dark temperaments. The last was rather red and bloody. But that’s still colorful you must admit!

Cream pies flew along with bricks from opposing sides. It made for quite a mess in one way or another. Smiling faces were smashed. Frowning faces were painted with day-glo colors and a funny hat plopped on rabid heads. The psychedelic Sixties of fond memory had nothing on this!

But I shouldn’t laugh. It was deadly serious. At least I’m sure it must have been...

It’s quite hard for me to tell. I find it hard to take anything seriously these days.

There’s this guy who’s our president now who I’m pretty sure I should recoil in horror of regarding his bizarre behavior. He laughs uproarously when giving the most draconian instructions to his band of rather wild and wooly-looking staff. His recent pronouncement that The Realist Tendency was to be designated as a terrorist group was given with a series of belly laughs where he needed several minutes to recompose himself before continuing with his announcement.

But his will was done. And with a determined smirk on every face too!

The round up took several days but eventually all were found and taken to Las Vegas. There they were given a week to shape up and smile. Or, well... be exterminated as wet blankets spoiling the party for the rest of us.

I did take a peek at the news tonight before turning to happier channels so I am able to inform you that none of the terrorist mob could be made to smile. So we are happily free of them at last.

Free too of all those children who could be SO very annoying and demanding, ALWAYS wanting us adults to do what THEY wanted, without EVER giving us a thought to OUR happiness!

It’s so good now. All’s well in the best of all possible worlds.

The Smilers even arranged a big smile on the face of the Man in the Moon!

We’re ALL Smilers now.

You’ll have seen the posters everywhere, am I right?

You got it!

“JUST KEEP SMILING”