What goes around comes around. Reading and hearing all the hype about the US Presidential Election, the lovely Easter carol comes into my mind and leaves me with a smile.

Till trump from east to west shall wake the dead in number

Of course, the carol refers to the trumpet of the Final Judgement that will announce the general Resurrection prefigured by the Resurrection of Christ. Will Trump from New York to San Francisco wake the spiritually dead in number? The joke seems irreverent, but it sticks in the mind.

I wrote a post on exactly this subject back in 2016 – End of the Season. I am wintering my boats as it is the end of the season and the clocks have gone back. The autumn colours are with us. The weather is dry but cloudy, and the days are shortening, and we still have nearly two months to go before the Winter Solstice. The other difference is that I am now divorced and living my re-found bachelor’s life in my village house in the Mayenne. Solitude has to be carefully distinguished from loneliness. Since April 2021, I have never had any doubt about having done the right thing to preserve my own mental health and perhaps even my very life.

My assessment of the American situation is enlightened by the UK with the Two-Tier Kier Starmer regime and the uncertainty in Europe. The UK had Brexit, and we on the Continent consider the green agenda with trepidation. It all seems to be the same as a force greater than our nation states and federations seems to be on the ascendancy, with the sole objective of increasing the power and financial wealth of the billionaire elite. It all looks like those old James Bond films featuring Blofeld and the diabolical organisation SPECTRE. The endgame seems simply to be organised crime and the abolition of law.

The anguish still revolves around the same subjects: the war between Zionism and Islam, Putin and Ukraine, uncontrolled illegal immigration, who is going to pay the enormous national debts. Does the western world still have a culture and values to preserve faced with the advent of the Caliphate or the New Soviet Union run by the billionaires? I cringe when I hear the positions of both Left and Right. It is fashionable to be Woke and left wing, but we have to be honest. It is a mental and spiritual cancer. Will Trump do better this time if he wins the election? I am sceptical. However, I cannot afford to be indifferent to the consequences of American domestic and foreign policy for those of us who live on the other side of the “pond”.

We dread the advent of totalitarianism, but we have to consider our own health of mind and ability to reason independently. I encourage you to listen to this following podcast which essentially gives us the same message as Dostoevsky, Thomas Mann, Wojtyla, Rob Riemen and many others who have experienced the collectivist “utopia” in gulags and concentration camps. We must not be parts of a mass but autonomous human beings.

I keep away from all political demonstrations and protests, where people chant slogans. I suppose it gives people energy to be part of a crowd or at a football match. I cannot think of anything more horrid. I try to analyse the various ideologies from a philosophical point of view, and to keep informed. I suppose I am slightly to the left of centre, because I believe in the welfare of the poor, the weak, the sick and the exploited at work. At the same time, I am utterly opposed to collectivist socialism. I also abhor the pigs of Animal Farm, and admire George Orwell for his prophetic vision.

May the tide turn in one way or another. May the Prophets of the Old Testament bring us hope, which is the central theme of Advent, hope for the Messiah and the Redeemer, who is Christ. As we are let down by the institutional churches, themselves following the same insane political ideologies and corrupt self-interest, we have to find God and the Holy Spirit within ourselves and in all things beautiful, true and good.