"Leaves will soon grow from the bareness of trees"

Image Source (Pexels)

Overt abuse of power and transgressive leadership are tolerated by supporters who assume that such behaviour is justified for the sake of group or identity advancement (interesting link to a scientific paper here). People identify themselves as belonging to a particular coordinate within the left-right political spectrum and/or cardinal directions (north, south, east, west). And once the decision has been made, it becomes a package deal. It doesn't matter that the figurehead is morally corrupt, as long as the group or platform that this figurehead represents wins. Dishonorable. Unfortunately, non-support for this group is assumed to be support for the opposite extreme, where one may also find similar kinds of moral corruption.

I think the drastic difference between the present time and earlier periods in human history is driven by access to information. The caveat is its overabundance, a substantial amount of which are non-informative noise--primarily aimed at provoking human emotion. Because when the stimulus is strong enough and the emotions are unleashed, the source of the non-informative noise wins by creating a chain reaction. Either geared towards magnifying a particular sentiment or by just creating chaos. 

We are in the process of an election and I'm glad to have been able to vote early. Hoping for good results for my country (my province)--my country that is not the topic of my rant above about another young country that is a jigsaw puzzle of little countries. I have to admit to being silently amused by the interwebs. I get basic facts from AM radio then I go online for both facts and entertainment. Like snorkeling in the ocean where I find a variety of interesting stuff including beautiful coral reefs of things that have always inspired me and made me happy (thank you) or schools of fish that educate me (I learn something new all the time), including encounters with suspicious looking open water creatures with grotesque features that want to either scare me away or lure me (no thanks).

But these dismal, wintery circumstances will be replaced by longer days soon. Here's a nice song by the band Ben & Ben...