And with this picture taken on September 11, 2020, we close the year of 2024. As always, we ask ourselves what kind of year was this? A good one? A bad one? Just a “normal” one?
Well, I had hopes, and all of them were destroyed. All elections went right, and that was wrong 😁
The final catastrophe was the victory of Donald Trump. We all had weird election results, almost everywhere, and almost everywhere it was a jump to the right. The problem with the US is, that Trump got handed such an insane amount of unrestricted power, that only a stupid and truly immoral super-villain would exhaustively abuse it. But that’s what he is and that’s what he will. And what he lacks in super-villainy, Elon Musk has it in troves. So, goodbye to democracy and any alternative for the US for a generation. At least.
Europe? I have no idea. I would have liked Putin to suffer, to fall, and instead Assad has fallen. Bad? Certainly not. Maybe he could have suffered a bit, but well, you can’t have everything.
All in all I feel the world is sliding, much faster than we all think, and although I was sure, living where I do, I wouldn’t have to bear the consequences of our collective folly, I’m not sure anymore. Non-linearity rules, change is exponential, and doom may be around in a couple of years. Months. Weeks. Days. No. Not days.
How about reading a good book? I’ve just read two good books by nobel laureate Peter Handke. “Mein Tag im anderen Land. Eine Dämonengeschichte” and “Die Ballade des letzten Gastes” are as glorious as you can get them in German.
Forget them, if you’re not a native speaker. Something in English instead? What about Ali Smith’s Seasons quartet? I’ve only read “Winter” so far, but if you enjoy modern female artists, Shakespeare and Dickens, well, here’s one for you. Well, four, actually 😄
All the best to us all. We deserve it. See you on the other side 😝