[jamesn.]

Thank you for the compliment, Stephen; you are most kind. Certainly, I will be more than happy to join in and contribute whatever I can to the coming discussion with Kristina. I’m so sorry she has to endure this horrific nightmare tragedy.

Speaking of which I want to mention something that I think has much to do with all the toxic animosity that has been making everyone so miserable for a long time that bears watching looking ahead. To me one of the greatest contributors to hatred is willful: “misinformation”. Not only has it cost lives here in the US concerning the Covid pandemic but has been used as propaganda to spread lies and change perceptions across a number of platforms for a very long time. Russia in particular has been notorious in weaponizing this as a political tool since the cold war; and of course, the Nazi regime as Joseph mentioned in POM turned people from a “thou into an it”. Especially treacherous considering the slaughter of millions of Jews in gas chambers back during the Second World War. The US along with many other nationalities turned African people into slaves for several centuries; and the recent rise of White Supremacists bears witness that racism has returned across the planet in a big way, (especially given the recent rise in immigrant populations of which this new war is going to contribute).

For me I think this issue in particular is going to be huge in the coming years ahead because climate change is going to negatively impact the world’s ability to feed itself. (That, and all the destruction that’s going to be caused by violent weather events because the global environments are now all very out of balance. Melting polar ice caps, warming sea currents, huge temperature shifts and increasing moisture in the atmosphere along with more and more carbon emissions polluting the air and rising sea levels are going to cause masses of populations to relocate.

Everything in my view is going to hinge on the world’s ability to come to civilized agreement on how to meet these needs and demands. Perception of whether someone is your friend, or your enemy is going to be a major factor in combating these coming crisis situations looking ahead. Think this is mere speculation? Watch your news feeds and look at all the violent protests across the planet right now. Joseph said the world is a mess and will always be a mess and you are not going to change that reality. (But he also said: “you participate in the mess that the world is with compassion”.)  I very much look forward to participating with you and Kristina on this topic next week. And thank you very much for asking. Sorry to veer so far off topic.