A long overdue blog, perhaps… but there’s so much going on!

As I write I’ve just discovered that friends have been ‘stuck’ in Tokyo for two months while war rages in the Middle East.

Marco Rubio came to France for the G7 to suggest that it’s in the ‘world’s’ interests to keep the Straits of Hormuz open, while Iran is still selling its oil but now at much higher prices . They’re also charging for safe passage. The Indian navy has arrived in the Straits to escort not India registered vessels – there are very few of these – but those whose crews are mostly Indian, presumably paying the fee. Saudi Arabia is sending oil through their pipeline to ports on the Red Sea, rather than to the Persian Gulf.

How ridiculous is this? The US starts a war – it has been suggested purely so they can manipulate oil prices – and then expects everyone else to ‘help’. It’s not a type of diplomatic discourse that anyone thinks is rational, reasonable or intelligent. And yet there are people who will be making a fortune – as has been demonstrated by the mysterious sales and purchases on the stock exchanges just before major political announcements.

What are we to make of this? The USA’s relationship with the world’s oil reserves is long established. Some think the seizure of Venezuela’s president was intended to increase this control – others suggest that oil production in that country was such a mess there was no point in doing this. That’s very recent. Who remembers the set up of Venezuela’s oil producing infrastructure? Or Panama? And that the US has always insisted that oil is traded in dollars? There are a number of interesting people writing on this, among whom the Economic Hitman – John Perkins, and former diplomat, Craig Murray may be worth attention.

Whatever is happening now has probably happened before – it’s just more explicit today. But today, Larry Fink of BlackRock finance says that capitalism isn’t working, as it isn’t delivering benefits to all stakeholders, including shareholders and customers. I think this isn’t happening because the markets are being manipulated and the intention is to benefit only the elites, not the rest of us.

I don’t like conspiracy theories but I do think making as much money as you can is only possible now if you can benefit from the instability of the markets – and therefore there’s an incentive to manipulate them.

This is folly. We’re working towards a world where 6 people are in charge and everyone else on the planet is dead, from lack of water, food and oxygen. What can be done about this? Where is agency?

I think the war that’s going on now is more than in the Middle East – it’s a battle for the survival of humanity. We’ve been here before too – the cold war was terrifying. We made movies then about global nuclear wastelands (On the Beach – Neville Shute), strong men arising with private armies (the Billion Dollar Brain) and even the lunacy of US policy (Dr Strangelove), but we didn’t have a designated ‘Secretary of War’ in play or people who don’t believe in democracy in charge then.

What can we do? I’d like to invite the artists to stand up, closely followed by the teachers. Artists show us who we are and what we do through multiple channels reaching billions. There’s Marlowe’s Faust – a great play about a narcissistic psychopath on the path to self ruin.

I can call on the teachers – teacher is to analyse American foreign policy and how imperialism and colonialism have worked throughout history, from Rome to the UK. We can learn. Surely… But this is predicated on the idea that most people want a return to reason, and that they recognise the value of other human beings in terms other than financial. If that has disappeared, how do we convince the tech bros and their ilk that humans should survive?

That’s something to think about. Where’s the nook, the cranny through which light can get in? They don’t need holidays, so they wouldn’t get stuck in Tokyo, They don’t ‘need’ oil in the way we do. There must be some tiny thing through which we can ignite their humanity. I’m on it. Back kn a wee while – in the meantime, here’s some Leonard Cohen…

https://youtu.be/Q9kp-dtJZVE?si=vJhslUb56lyY9x4V