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BlueGreenGrey You're welcome😊
I agree, child mortality has decreased, and HIV, while unfortunately still around, now allows a longer life expectancy with its required medication. However, I think poverty is increasing as the cost of living has skyrocketed, compounded by the global crisis of the last few years because many businesses closed, people lost jobs, and therefore, with no income, many have lost their homes. A friend of mine who lives in New York recently went to L.A for a vacation, and she told me she was appalled at the number of homeless people living on sidewalks and under bridges, in extreme contrast to the multi-million dollar palatial homes not too far away. This is also happening in other countries where poverty is rising and where also, the use of drugs as a means to palliate depression eventually spirals into addiction, making it hard for many to escape the deep hole they find themselves in. Add social rejection and lack of treatment, crimes increase and so a vicious cycle is created.
This song impacted me when I heard it years ago and it still does today. If I were to make a new video of it, some images could be easily replaced with current personalities and situations/conflicts. One example is the case of the Colombian political hopeful who was gunned down 2 days ago by a 15-year-old boy; a child with a gun and a mind with a distorted view of reality. Or of the shooting in an Austrian school this morning by what they think is a student, claiming the lives of 8 people. Drugs, guns and the influence of twisted ideologies are ticking time bombs waiting to explode. Sadly, news likes these becomes something that no longer shock some people, desensitized by many others that have happened in the last 3 decades.
It is indeed in our hands to change things but only through joining hands can this be possible...not through riots or killings, but applying the power of the masses, called ''People's Power''. It's not that we refuse to do so, it's because they are erasing from our minds the rights we have. We should never forget that the will of the people is sovereign over a minority of tyrants. Popular Sovereignty is defined as follows, ''Popular sovereignty is government based on consent of the people. The government’s source of authority is the people, and its power is not legitimate if it disregards the will of the people. A government established by free choice of the people is expected to serve the people, who have sovereignty, or supreme power.'' That's how things should be, instead of being controlled and manipulated by powerful and corrupt individuals to serve their personal agendas.
Yes, the only relation the fascists had and have with Aldous Huxley's writings is in direct relation to his writing the book'' Brave New World'', a cautionary tale that warns people of the dangerous consequence of a totalitarian power that controls people using their argument of stability and national security, promising a utopian world( their kind) and where they exploit the power of science and technology to establish its supremacy over its citizens. This is the ideology of fascism. ...world dominance, something Huxley was warning us about.
“That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.”
This Huxley quote I had selected, much like art, can be interpreted in different ways; to fascists, it is convenient to forget the past, deliberately misconstruing Huxley's words to brainwash us to focus on the future instead, with their promise of peace, advancement, prosperity and happiness through a ''well-controlled'' environment. Huxley, on the other hand, wrote his book to warn us that it is NOT science and technology that are the culprit or manipulates the citizens, but the World State that uses them to establish their ideology of totalitarianism in all aspects of people's lives... but people, with this irrational human condition we have of being easily impressed by progress and the promise of making things easier for us, tend to believe the intentions are benevolent. I interpret what he said in the quote as: The most important lesson that history has taught us is that we have not learned the lessons of history.....lessons that are so important to learn because by not acknowledging the past, we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes. Some would say Huxley's words could be a variation of what philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) said, ''History teaches us that man learns nothing from history.”, also attributed to theologian Søren Kierkegaard. In essence, history is a good source of lessons and information that need to be learned to not trip over the same stone twice.
Thanks to you as well for sharing your thoughts about it. I appreciate it when a post is not only read but when people share their impressions and ideas, a real interaction between members that makes one feel that posting is worth the effort and worthwhile☺