A novel by Maggie Shipstead, Great Circle, has following lines, “One thing I have learned is that you don’t just love a person, you love a vision of your life with them. And then you have to mourn both.”

The followers of Imran Khan fell in love with not just the handsome Kaptan and his persona but they also imagined a life in a Pakistan, under his rule, which will be free of corruption, a merit-based society, and ground breaking of state-of-the-art projects that will put Pakistan on road to modern state. Unfortunately, after his 3/1/2 years of more bashing of previous corrupt leaders, nothing much materialized. It is hard to give up the person they loved and the dreams they built around him. His failure mean that they also failed. Although failures of last 3 ½ years are in front of them, but unceremonious removal of Imran Khan was insult to IK and his fans. Although fans were already frustrated, dishearten, and disappointed at the failure of progress in IK’s tenure, but IK’s removal was a bridge too far to give up idol and dreams build around him in the snap of finger. Now all the anger, frustration, and disappointments are pouring out-not just of the last 3 ½ years, but previous decades. And the spoils belong to whoever can exploit the most.

The Court was the midwife of Jim Crow, the right hand of union busters, and the dead hand of the Confederacy, and is now one of the chief architects of America’s democratic decline

This behavior, moreover, is consistent with the history of an institution that once blessed slavery and described Black people as “beings of an inferior order.” It is consistent with the Court’s history of union-busting, of supporting racial segregation, and of upholding concentration camps.

Full Article

A crop of new books attempts to explain the allure of conspiracy theories and the power of belief.

For the millions who were enraged, disgusted, and shocked by the Capitol riots of January 6, the enduring object of skepticism has been not so much the lie that provoked the riots but the believers themselves. A year out, and book publishers confirmed this, releasing titles that addressed the question still addling public consciousness: How can people believe this shit? A minority of rioters at the Capitol had nefarious intentions rooted in authentic ideology, but most of them conveyed no purpose other than to announce to the world that they believed — specifically, that the 2020 election was hijacked through an international conspiracy — and that nothing could sway their confidence. This belief possessed them, not the other way around.

At first, I’d found the riots both terrifying and darkly hilarious, but those sentiments were soon overwon by a strange exasperation that has persisted ever since. It’s a feeling that has robbed me of my capacity to laugh at conspiracy theories — QAnon, chemtrails, lizardmen, whatever — and the people who espouse them. My exasperation is for lack of an explanation. I see Trump’s most devoted hellion, rampaging down the halls of power like a grade schooler after the bell, and I need to know the hidden causes of his dopey rebellion. To account for our new menagerie of conspiracy theories, I told myself, would be to reclaim the world from entropy, to snap experience neatly to the grid once again. I would use recent books as the basis for my account of conspiracy theories in the age of the internet. From their pages I would extract insights and errors like newspaper clippings, pin the marginal, bizarre, and seemingly irrelevant details to the corkboard of my mind, where I could spy eerie resonances, draw unseen connections. At last, I could reveal that our epistemic bedlam is as a Twombly canvas — messy but decipherable.

The punishment for my delusion was reading the entirety of The New Heretics by Andy Thomas. The latest project of one of the UK’s alleged “leading researchers into unexplained mysteries and conspiracies,” the book purports to “foster understanding of why questioners [conspiracy theorists] feel the way they do” while pandering to those whom Thomas also calls “truthers” or “heretics.” It is impossible to tell whether Thomas is aware of this duplicity, because The New Heretics is as coherent as a radio with a busted tuner, cycling between ungrammatical static, marbleless rambling, scientific illiteracy, and — if you listen closely — multiple references to Dictionary.com.

Full article

posted by f.sheikh

The paralyzing fear and distrust emerging from the horrors of war in Ukraine must make us conscious to record the truth of global leadership failure and truth must be written in the annals of history that we all failed to stop the tyranny of war by the people against the people and that we had no idea how we continued to harm our present and cripple our sustainable future with weapons that should have protected our freedom, not destroyed our existence. (The Author).

Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD.

How to Stop the Leadership Cruelty?

The global warriors have infested mankind with tyranny and transgression. The resulting killing of civilians, destruction of human habitats, cruelty and global disorder are widespread across West Europe having influx of millions of refugees and Russian sphere of strategic influence go unchallenged. All tyrants get corrupted by their own tyranny. Russia, America and NATO needs to be wise, not to become Warrior Empire in global future-making. Obsessed with weapons and power of energy (oil and gas) , Russian and Western leaders have embarked on to reinvent global disasters by proxy war in Ukraine and its spill-over immediate impacts on neighbouring Poland, Moldova, and the rest of Eastern Europe relentlessly. The NATO, the EU and Russia created strategic divides and now bombing the perpetuated animosities. There is no check and balance strategy open to international accountability – no international law and no so called preservation of the Geneva Conventions. Contrary to the official statements, the daily killings of the civilians go unabated across Ukraine War Theater. The end goal is to destroy the national freedom and identity of Ukraine as a free nation.

We, the People, We, the Humanity are reliving the unthinkable horrors, bloodbaths and massacres of innocent civilians watching the daily news screen in Ukraine and what happened during the Two European World Wars – still fresh on human slate of memories. Wars and aggressions kill people and do not produce peace and harmony but resentment and degeneration. History illustrates when a nation or its leaders challenge the limits of the Laws of God and approach near the end of their lifespan, insanity takes-over common sense and they tend to ignore warnings and reject all voices of reason.

Analyzing critically and comparatively, most Western leaders defy the logic of reason and honesty while reflecting on the current war between Russia and Ukraine and its spill-over impacts on all global nations. Most are not truthful about their capacity of strengths and weaknesses; they pretend to be stage actors to appease the masses as if they are doing something useful to protect human lives as endangered species in war zones across Ukraine.

Not so, words do not replace actions. They are fearful of their own obsession of animosity which could not be defined in simplistic narrative against Russia – the outgrowth of the former USSR. Do the Western leaders (America, NATO and the EU) have the capacity and determination stop Russia and its almost three month’s long invasion of Ukraine? If they claim unity of minds, why can’t they challenge Russia to stop the war against Ukraine? They launched a bogus war against Iraq Weapons of Mass Destruction (2003) , but Russia has far more superior advanced weapons against the West and its affiliated entities. Even the US Congress joined the wrongful war against Iraq. Did the US, NATO and its allies realize the horrible mistakes of the past? Have they learned any moral and intellectual lesson from the living history?

Perhaps, Western leaders have weapons but not unanimity of minds and aims to challenge Russia and its unexpectedly prolonged capitulation of Ukraine on many fronts. Do they view Ukraine as a test lab – how the war will go to encounter Russia in future war zones of common socio-economic and strategic interests. It is fast becoming unpredictable when the fateful conjunction between the old and obsolete and the beginning of new age of visionary peace and sustainable future will grasp the human wisdom. Whatever happens in-between, Ukraine is at great loss being allowed by the Western political mythologists to be victimized by the Russian onslaught. History will haunt Russian, Ukrainian and Western political thoughts and cultures for rational answers for generations to come. All parties involved in the war zones seemed engaged in unbridled ambitions and power to enhance their own fame and fortunes.

The UNO Missing its Credibility and Usefulness

The UN Secretary General should have asked President Putin for an immediate ceasefire in Moscow. If he had the courage and self-confidence as a leader, he should have demanded compliance to the International Law, peacemaking and respect for the territorial integrity of Ukraine. The UN and its leadership act as if they are ignorant of what is happening on the ground and forgetful of their own Chartered-based role-play in global peace and conflict resolution. The UN and its organs were supposed to be active to prevent such horror stories and massacres of civilian population across Ukraine as it happened during the TWO WW, but its leadership is no different than the inept leaders of many other global enterprises – they issue statements of “grave concerns” while Russia bombs Khairve, charcoaled Mariupol lives and habitats and most importantly 10 million or so refugees displaced forcibly in neighboring countries. What kind of the UNO is functioning today to resolve emerging conflicts and to usher peace for the 21st century humanity? Its leadership failed miserably as did the IRC to evacuate the civilians in war zones emergencies. International Law and the Protection of Civilians in War zones (Geneva Conventions) – were they all paper-based conventions that nobody cares or respects in actual conflicts?

Towards understanding the Facts not Fiction of the Universe in which Mankind Lives – Civilizations Grow out of Peace, not Wars

Many Western and Russian scholars falsify facts and articulate media-based fictions about the on-going war in Ukraine. Russian leadership terms it as a “Special Military Operation”, contradicting the global view of War against Ukraine. In March 2003, it was not different when the US-NATO invaded Iraq under a false pretext of WMD. Sherwood Ross (“US Sponsored Genocide against Iraq 1990-2012 killed 3.3 million including 750,000 children.” Global Research: 12/06/2012), outlined many such pertinent facts. The encompassed picture showed Arabs and Muslims as if they were born in the eyes of dangerous storm that should be crushed by advanced American –NATO technology available to pilots when bombing the Iraqi-Syrian landscape. The crush for war is instinctively part of human ignorance and arrogance and alive in Ukraine. What if the same could happen to Russia? If Russia military operations are too confident, they could end-up getting surprises form the Western alliances. Whatever remains in future – and however improbable at this moment could become the truth of future. Wars contradict the human nature and the Nature of the living Universe. It is co-existence and peace that brings people and nations together and helps to flourish life and relationships befitting to the human Nature and the Nature of planet Earth and the larger Universe. Civilizations grow out of peace not fear and conflicts. The global leaders are destroying the Future – Our Earth – Our Universe of Peace and Harmony.

The global leaders are obsessed with war. They need to learn how to co-exist in universal harmony. They should take a trip to outer space to view the existence of the Earth and how the all Powerful God has created it and continues to manage it harmoniously despite large scale human ignorance and violations of the Laws of Nature. Could the warmongers grasp the basic knowledge – how the planet Earth exists and moves at its axis and rotates at 1675 km per hour or 465 meters per second that is 1,040 miles per hour. The Earth’s circumference at the equator is 40,075 km. And the length of time the Earth takes to complete one full turn on its axis is 23.93 hours. And how all the living beings get lifelong nourishment within the splendid Universe? Do people ponder and realize how human beings are created by the Divine process and how societies flourish since time immemorial? This understanding is critical towards peacemaking and peaceful co-existence within the Universe.

The history speaks loud and clear how in every age and time few powerful warmongers often mentally retarded individuals have always driven the mankind to large scale slaughters, victimization, deprivation and long term ripple scars that it never goes away from the human memory and written pages of human history.

To challenge the deafening silence of the American, Russian and Europeans, and of all the authoritarian rulers for global peace and security, the global community must find ways and means to look beyond the obvious and troublesome horizons dominated by the few warlords and continued to be plagued by daily massacres, displacement of civilians, barbarity against human culture and civilizations, destruction of the habitats and natural environment as if there were no rational being and people of reason populating the God’s created splendid and living

Universe. The global human conscience feels an urgent need to organize peaceful public protests and sit-ins against the warmongers. What is happening between Russia and Ukraine must not be viewed indifferently by all the global war players. If Russian, America and NATO leaders are honest, proactive and accountable to the global community, they urgently need people of new ideas and creative strategic THINKING to cope with multiple scope of the political conflicts and humanitarian crises and to find peaceful and workable solutions away from the entrenched political box of the few global warmongers.

Recall what this author proposed recently to the leaders on both side of the iron curtain (“https://www.uncommonthought.com/mtblog/archives/2022/04/19/ukraine-russia-and-the-easter-of-insanity.php and https://english.pravda.ru/opinion/151200-easter/) 4/19/2022:

To stop the war in Ukraine, the US, the EU, NATO should have a direct face to face communication with President Putin. It could be facilitated under the G20 auspices. It is logical when people of diversity and opposing ideals come to talk directly, tensions and evil mongering is reduced to reason and mutual interest. This has not happened except military options for weapon supplies and enlargement of the scope of regional conflict. Time and history will not forgive nor forget any of the leaders if they failed to agree to an immediate ceasefire and peace deal.

Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs-global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: One Humanity and the Remaking of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution.Lambert Academic Publications, Germany, 12/2019