The Goldilocks Zone

Welcome to The Goldilocks Zone, aka Planet Earth, where you, me and everyone we know enjoy charmed lives. Of course, if we’re just talking about our solar system, there’s no socio-political focus.

But bear with me for the parallels. From the uncharted vastness of the known universe, to the stuff of daily life, we’ve got so much to learn. After some 4 billion years or so, – and with the dedication [and often precarious funding] of NASA and allied international scientists, coupled with our delightful capacity for wonder – we’ve finally moved beyond self-reference.

Consider our global gaff. Not too hot. Not too cold. Not too big, nor too small. Water, elements, energy. Scopes to the ready. Let’s probe!

As never before, our gaze is outwards, to galaxies far, far, away. We’ve tamed the technology, giving the slip to those politicians, policy makers and budget nerds who contrive to stop us pushing at the doors of discovery. Anyone interested in the origins of our solar system and our continued search for signs of extra-terrestrial life, now has greater hope than ever to peer down corridors previously unimagined.

To mark various seminal advances over the past fifty years, our telly screens have been gifting us with some tantalising updates of our collective journey. That has prompted us to ask more intriguing questions.

For example, why of all the known planets orbiting our star, The Sun, is our world the only one on which life has evolved? Or is it? Is it possible that somewhere in our solar system there exist conditions which can produce different forms of life, evolving to different time scales, dependent on different basic requirements? Would we even recognise it as life if we bumped into it?

Those who need an imagination transplant, bleat on that the effort spent on understanding our place in the universe is pointless. Knowledge for them is more about the latest lyrics, bagging a fashion bargain, or re-defining the concept of freedom to encompass the exploitation of people and eco-systems. Let’s not even go down the road of false premise and tautology.

It’s become all too easy to jump the line between ‘I don’t know’ and ‘I don’t care.’ Sadly, that’s true whatever socio-economic class you’re shoved into by the market.

But with the pace of change around the globe ensuring its destruction bit by bit, it’s vital we reach a likely explanation of what may be in our control. That’s how we’ll be able to make the kinds of connections to avert disaster. Granted, the planet itself will spin on for about another 4 billion years while the sun loses its life-sustaining spark.

But will we be coping in the shorter term? We can make the next few hundred years more bearable for the generations to come, but we’ve got no chance if we keep drifting along on a tide of complacency. And we sure as hell can’t leave it to those who’ve assumed the mantle of protection.

What Planet Are You On?

We’re in the throes of discovering that deep underneath the methane oceans of Jupiter’s Earth-sized moon Titan exist the building blocks of life as different from that on our planet as can be. And yet, here on our blue water world, we seem to be trapped in a very small range of socio-political systems with no clear way forward.

In light of the collective naval gazing, picking the lint from any political sanity clogging up the Conservative party, the print and broadcast media have been asking the same mundane questions ad nauseum to the ignorant, the knowledgeable, those with vested interests, those without interest, and Uncle Tom Cobley and all.

Leadership? Gimme a break. We’ve been so conditioned to conclude that leaders in any walk of life have allegedly been sprinkled with some magic dust to become contemporary clones of the Pied Piper of Hamlin. And we’re the rats following in their footprints.

There are no so-called natural leaders.

Some people have enough confidence, by dint of social privilege or acquired expertise, to exert influence over groups of others. They provide a reasoned case to beckon them along a path of escape or freedom from one localised issue.

That does not mean they have solutions for all the problems that render populations impotent to act.

To put the faith of the group into such a leader of limited liability allows them to redefine the problems and polarise the people. S/he wants us to believe they have answers for everything. “Forget those who oppose me,” they counsel. “Don’t worry your pretty little head. I’ll get you out of this. You’ll thank me in the end.” Confrontation replaces community. Such leaders crave total control. And that is fascism.

This isn’t the time or place to dissect the minutiae of current affairs, especially now that it’s more impossible than ever to discern any kind of truth. But there are still clues about what motivates individuals, and discover what’s so important to them that it’s been absorbed into the inner space that builds thoughts and opinions.

So, in a recent interview soliciting his views on this or that candidate for leader, former Tory big cheese Ken Clarke let slip the telling phrase about Conservatives being “the natural party of government.” Think what that actually means. Any other party by definition must be the ‘unnatural’ option.

No wonder that Tory millionaires find common cause with the aggressively wealth-accumulating Americans. On the surface, both these capitalist elites wear the sneers and garments of patronage and confidence. But, under the microscopic analysis of class cultures, as opposed to glass cultures, only the British approach the world with an unquestioned sense of entitlement.

For Americans, rich or poor, it’s always just about the money. Just as there’s a lack of consensus in the UK defining sovereignty among aristocracy, middle class aspirers, and down and dirty labourers, our American cousins cannot provide cohesion around the concept of equality. They can only trot out feeble measures, fearful their positions on any social ladder render them fair game to tumble down to hell.

Wobbling Orbits

I’m totally amazed, not only by the dedication of the international community of space scientists, but by the way they can extrapolate the data from several disciplines and apply it to predictions of future events. One of these is the relative wobble of solar systems and the planets orbiting within them. This phenomenon has increased our body of knowledge about the state of the universe by peering back in time. And creating theories about the future.

Considering the inconsistent social wobbles which have destabilised the relationships between the classes, it’s clear our orbits are dangerously out of control. We must look to those regions which have declared themselves to have the answers.

In recent times, only the Occupy Movement and Extinction Rebellion have sought to challenge them. It’s urgent. We don’t have too much time left. We must ask better questions.

Sadly, some powerful factions on all sides of the establishment have hidden agendas. Their proffered solutions lead to total control. That is fascism.

There have only ever been three deadly sins in American society: to be poor, to be ill, and to be old. Over the ensuing decades since I grew up there during and after WWII, added to those have been to be non-religious, to be non-white skinned, and to be non-heterosexual.

Here in the UK, the establishment rides a herd of horses each pulling in different directions to escape the EU. Their hidden agenda relies on lies. Each wants to adopt the livery of the lackey. To orbit around their chosen star.

With the controversial visit of the President, so many lies are spouted it’s a wonder the weight of them hasn’t quite yet caused a wobble in the fabric of Realpolitik.

Let’s not forget the real reason for Cheeto’s visit, which will cost UK taxpayers millions of £s. Trump may fool himself and his followers that his own family is every bit as royal as the Queen’s. And I speak as an opposer of the concept of monarchy.

But inserted into the D-Day activities is a scheduled confab with the Duke of York. He’s the royal in de facto charge of trade negotiations. He’s not actually allowed to negotiate on behalf of Parliament, but it certainly explains why – amid American campaign fever – the White House control freaks are so determined to get the UK out of Europe. Their agenda is to foment protest throughout Europe and break up the EU. And to pledge trade deals which will never be truly honoured, as we’re regarded as the junior partners and always have been. I grew up in that duplicitous country – there has NEVER been a special relationship. NOT EVER.

There’s a lot of dung talked about what great allies we were in WWII. Not so much even whispered, though, that Russia was also a great ally. So many lies.

The US ambassador to the UK – contradicting the official line that any trade deal between the two countries will have the NHS ring-fenced against privatisation – is on record as saying all aspects of it are “on the table.” And Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt [the former Health Secretary who published papers advocating privatising the NHS], confirmed just after he was the first official to greet Air Force One, that although the Tories were pledged to retain the NHS, he would not deny that future trade deals with America would likely include private procurement. That means forcing American drugs at inflated prices, and supply deals for personnel, whether medical or ancillary.

Both here in the UK and for decades in the US, whenever the President is in trouble at home, despite the fairy-tale lies of fake news, the remedy has been war. War on foreign soil. War manufactured by false justifications which will prove to be false – just give it time. After it’s too late.

Water or Methane?

This time, the stakes are higher than ever.

There are more dangerous control freaks than ever. The puppet-master in chief is National Security Advisor John Bolton. Not only does he crave war, he wants to destroy a network of countries, from Sudan and sub-Saharan Africa, Cuba, Brazil and Venezuela, all the countries along the Red Sea, port access and river control of Ukraine, countries rising from the seas of Indonesia and Japan. He has gone on record that nuclear war is a viable option, and he wants to eradicate the Muslim world.

Are you an ‘I don’t know,’ or an ‘I don’t care.’? Let’s face it, this very world is at stake and we’re a long way off getting another. Doesn’t sound much like Goldilocks to me.

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This post was written by outRageous!