Good riddance to a bad leader

Those of you who know me and who have followed my blog during the past decade know that I have written frequently about bad leaders and bad leadership. The definition of a bad leader can certainly vary from person to person, but in my book, a bad leader is one who does not appeal to the best in people, but to the worst. A bad leader is one who finds the basest character traits and behaviors in all human beings, including himself or herself, and elevates them to something noble. Traits and behaviors such as narcissism, selfishness, egotism, aggressiveness, violent talk, bullying others, harassing others, greed, cowardice, making fun of others, being deceitful, lying, and lack of accountability for one’s actions and speech. I could go on, but you get the picture.

All of these traits and behaviors I’ve mentioned describe Trump very well. They perhaps describe his supporters to some degree, but I have a problem with this aspect, because many of the Trump supporters I know call themselves Christian, are good people, would never think of behaving the way he behaves, and would not teach their children to behave in this way. So what is the explanation for Trump’s popularity? I think it is horrifying that half of the US population voted for this man. It wasn’t just that they didn’t want Biden. They wanted Trump. They like him. They see him as a great leader. They see him as a Christian. This is what I don’t understand, and what I would like them to explain to me. How is he Christian? Is it so simple as to say that because Trump says that he is anti-abortion or holds a bible (upside down, no less), that this is enough to label him a Christian? What about his making fun of a man with cerebral palsy at one of his rallies? What about his vulgar view of women, of wanting to grab women by the pussy? What about his making fun of John McCain, who served the country in Vietnam and suffered greatly as a POW, something Trump never did? What about all the lying, the lack of accountability, the chaos around him, the lack of reflection, the lack of interest in a peaceful life? What about the constant aggressiveness and anger in tone, speech and behaviour? How come there exists such a huge disconnect between what he says and does, and what his supporters want to believe about him? Because there is a huge disconnect, there is no denying that.  

I have written a number of posts about him. I had his number a long time ago. He is a bad leader and a dangerous one, because he basically encourages others to do his dirty work for him. I’m guessing he’s always been like that, so it’s nothing new. He is a mouthpiece for the disgruntled in our nation, but they in turn do his bidding. It’s a sick and abusive relationship he has with his supporters. Unless you’ve been bullied/harassed yourself, you will not understand the dynamics of such a relationship. You can fight a bully, or you can cave in to him or her. If you fight a bully, you risk being physically attacked, verbally attacked, threatened, having your name dragged through the mud, and having your family suffer consequences as well. If you cave in, you ‘make a deal’ with the bully that if you do his or her bidding and keep your mouth shut, you will be left alone. You will not be attacked or hurt. The bully controls you because you fear him or her; the bully brainwashes you to think that he or she is your protector or savior, that your behaviour prior to caving in was what caused the bully’s aggressiveness toward you. You learn not to say anything that may offend the bully. That’s a sick relationship. Trump exploits others--their weaknesses, their cowardice, their lack of motivation. That’s why he is a dangerous leader, just like Hitler was. Trump uses the people in his administration as his personal lackeys; their loyalty is all that matters to him. In a similar way, Hitler rose to power because those who worked for him turned a blind eye to what he said and did, and did not stop him. Those that tried to stand up against him were fired or re-assigned to positions in places where they could have little impact.

We should learn from history. There is no guarantee that the USA must remain a democracy; the only guarantee we have is that good people stand united to fight those who want otherwise. Trump wanted to be a dictator. His followers don’t see it that way. He is a bad leader; his followers don’t see him that way. The good thing is that our founding fathers drew up a system of government that divided political power among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. Power is not concentrated in one place. The president is not a king or a dictator; he or she does not have absolute power. That is a good thing and that is what will save the USA from becoming a fascist country. Trump has been a test of how well that system works. In the final analysis, the system has taken a severe beating but has survived, in no small part due to the judicial branch that rejected most of his attempts to undo the election. Trump himself is nothing more than a failed president, a bad leader, a bully, and a coward. That is his legacy, and history will not be kind to him. 

The appeal of science fiction

I'm a diehard sci-fi (and sci-fi horror) fan--books, films, and series. I don't remember the first sci-fi book I read that got me hooked on the genre. Perhaps it was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle when we were children. The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells was another book that fascinated us as children. My parents were good at introducing us to different literary genres. The Andromeda Strain was published in 1969 and I probably read it around 1970 or so. I also read C.S. Lewis' The Space Trilogy when I was a teenager, and This Perfect Day by Ira Levin. To enjoy sci-fi, one must be able to let go of one's own world and enter into new and unknown worlds created by the authors and accept that those worlds may be nothing like one's own. That was never a problem for me. The appeal of sci-fi is likely different for each person, but there are some common elements. Part of the appeal was likely escapist when I was younger; now the appeal is more a fascination with dystopian themes and with other worlds, unknown worlds, the universe, time travel, parallel worlds--in short, fascination with stepping outside of the natural laws and our world (outer and inner) in order to experience other worlds. Judging by the interest in sci-fi, I think we will always be fascinated by the possibility of doing just that. I think man has always looked up at the stars and wondered what was out there. Or looked around at ordinary life and happenings and asked--what if they were different or changed, or completely unlike what we could ever imagine? Man has always been both fascinated by and afraid of the unknown and of the dark. Monsters and aliens may live there, and they may not be friendly to mankind. Even so, I would love to be able to travel through time to other worlds if I could do so via a transporter or through a wormhole, just as long as I could return to the safety of my own world when I wanted. That's asking a lot, but in the sci-fi realm, anything is possible.  

Some of my favorite sci-fi authors and their books are as follows:

• Ray Bradbury--The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451
• Stanislaw Lem--Solaris
• Philip K. Dick--Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
• Michael Crichton--The Andromeda Strain, The Terminal Man, Timeline
• Neil Gaiman--Coraline, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, The Graveyard Book
• John Wyndham--The Day of the Triffids
• C.S. Lewis--The Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength)
• H.P. Lovecraft--The Best of H.P. Lovecraft (falls into the horror fiction genre, but many of his stories would qualify as sci-fi horror)
• Isaac Asimov--Fantastic Voyage, The End of Eternity
• David Lindsay--A Voyage to Arcturus 
• Aldous Huxley--Brave New World
• George Orwell--1984
• H.G. Wells--The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man
• Ira Levin--This Perfect Day

Some of my favorite sci-fi films and series are:  

• Forbidden Planet
• The Blob
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• Soylent Green
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind
• Star Wars
• The Man Who Fell to Earth
• Westworld
• Alien
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers
• Aliens
• Blade Runner
• Brazil
• Deep Impact
• Event Horizon
• Jurassic Park
• The Lost World: Jurassic Park
• Men in Black
• Alien3
• Alien Resurrection
• The Day After Tomorrow
• I Am Legend
• WALL-E
• Jurassic Park III
• 28 Days Later
• District 9
• Pitch Black
• Minority Report
• Solaris 
• Another Earth
• IO
• Extinction
• I Origins
• Prometheus
• Interstellar
• The Martian
• Oblivion
• Edge of Tomorrow
• Alien: Covenant
• Arrival
• Ex Machina
• A Quiet Place
• Blade Runner 2049
• Jurassic World
• Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
• Raised By Wolves (HBO series)

Hope is a way of life

Norway's King Harald holds a New Year's Eve speech each year. This year he started by sending his sympathies to those affected by the quick clay landslide in Ask in Gjerdrum county, a short distance from Oslo. The landslide is a catastrophe (‘Catastrophe’ ends already awful year (newsinenglish.no); 11 people missing after landslide strikes southern Norway, leaving large crater - CNN                    

He then spoke about 2020 and the pandemic, and how the country has managed to deal with the worst trial it has faced since WWII. He said: 

"Vi kom oss gjennom fordi vi aldri ga opp håpet. Fordi det å håpe er en måte å leve på. Håp er vilje, håp er handling. Håp er å feste blikket på noe som gir oss mening og følge det. Håpet skal bære oss alle inn i 2021." 

Translated to English, it reads:

"We got through because we never gave up hope. Because hope is a way of life. Hope is will, hope is action. Hope is fixing our gaze on something that gives us meaning and following it. Hope will carry us all into 2021."

HIs message is a good way to end 2020 and to start 2021. 

Reflections on the old year, and hopes for the new

It's hard to know where to start in terms of summing up the year 2020. It's been a tough year for many people due to the pandemic, which shows no sign of abating any time soon. So we place our collective hope in the vaccines that have been developed to tackle the corona virus. We cross our fingers, pray, and hope for the best. A lot of lives have been lost to covid-19, lives that might have been saved had a vaccine existed at the start of the year. Lives that might have been saved if some countries had taken the pandemic seriously from the start, encouraged their citizens to wear masks and to socially distance, and to think of the common good. The latter is anathema to many people, who equate the common good with socialism, and God knows they don't want any part of that. Their individual rights and freedoms come first, before all else. If everyone thought like they do, there would be no vaccines, no hospitals, no healthcare system. Why should there be? After all, individualists should be able to treat and take care of themselves without any interference or help from medical professionals or the government. But trying to get them to see reason is tantamount to hitting your head against a brick wall continually. 

I am hoping that 2021 brings an end to the stupidity I've seen around me, read about, and watched on tv in 2020--stupid behavior and stupid statements on the part of selfish people and politicians. I'm hoping for a return to intelligence and rational thinking. But you never know. Those things are not valued in society as they once were. Intelligence is suspect, and rational thinking is reserved for nerds and academics. It's how you feel about things that counts. 'I don't feel like doing this or that'. So people don't do this or that, but sometimes doing those things would be beneficial for society as a whole. Maybe doing those things would bring a quicker end to the pandemic. 

I've learned that there are people I thought I knew, that I absolutely do not know, and at this point in time, I don't think I want to get to know who they are now. Diehard Trump supporters who believe he was sent by God, anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorists. Some people I know are one or more of these types of people. I would never have thought that they would go down those paths. But they have, and it's worrisome, especially the anti-vaccine path. I wonder if any of them have googled smallpox and taken a long hard look at the images of people with smallpox. Smallpox was eradicated due to a vaccine. But I'm guessing that the anti-vaxxers have another explanation for why it was eradicated, and of course their explanation is the correct one. Anti-vaxxers are anti-science, and I don't trust those types of people. Science cannot save every situation, but without it, we would have been doomed a long time ago.

We live in a strange world now, one where it is possible to re-write history and ignore facts/actual data on a whim. It is dangerous to wipe out history, to pretend that the bad things in history never happened. Bad things did happen, and history is there to record them so that we can learn from them and prevent them from happening again. That is the point of history. We cannot just focus on the good things, because we do not, never have, and never will, live in a utopia. No society on earth is perfect, and never will be, despite what some politicians say and believe. America is not the greatest country on earth; it's a fortunate country, yes, but many other countries are also. If you live in one of these countries, your life will likely be comfortable and rewarding because you will not lack for most material things. But people should remember that some of life is sheer luck; we did not choose to be born in these countries, any more than others chose to be born in less fortunate countries. Ergo, the fortunate countries must share their bounty with the less fortunate countries; that is only fair. But that is my opinion. Thankfully, many enlightened people think the same way. They are not interested in hoarding wealth or denying others the chance for a better life. 

My hope for 2021 is that life returns to normal, to our definition of it--to be able to travel, get together, hug each other, eat out, go to the movies, go to the theater--in short, enjoy life again without thinking of the risks and dangers of doing so. Life will return to normal at some point, but we will have learned how to deal with life when it is not normal. And perhaps that is a good thing, since I feel certain that the world is not done with pandemics. Many health professionals think the same thing. So if we have learned something from this pandemic, it is the necessity of being prepared for as many eventualities as we can. We cannot afford to be taken by surprise again. The next pandemic could be more lethal than this one. I hope not, but there is no way to know for sure. Best to be prepared. 

What a difference a day makes

We woke up to snow yesterday morning. It was a heavy snow and it seemed as though it might stick. Pretty--it actually looked a bit like a winter wonderland. But no, the rain started during the afternoon and by today, the snow was gone. It has rained steadily for the entire month of December and been quite mild, and more rain is predicted for this week, as well as continued mild temperatures. Climate change is here to stay. 

Another view of the fast-moving Akerselva river--December 2020

The fast-moving Akerselva river in Oslo--December 2020

This past Friday, we were out walking along the Akerselva river in the vicinity of where we live. The river is a swollen and fast-moving river these days due to almost daily rainfall during December and to attempts by the city of Oslo to regulate the river flow and level. This video of the Vøyen falls was taken near Hønse Lovisa. The walking paths along both sides of the river as well as the bridge you see in the video were wet and slippery due to the spray of water from the falls and the churning river. Oslo has warned dwellers not to go too near the river's edge; there has been erosion along the banks and flooding here and there, which can increase the risk of slipping and falling in. The speed of the river is so fast that it would be difficult to rescue a person and for that person to survive.