Downer Alert!
Actually, I discovered the 35th Anniversary of the radio play When The Wind Blows rather coincidentally. One of the web sites I frequent regularly, is Bella Caledonia, a Scottish web site with a rich background of culture and life in the Northernmost part of the Island. Having spent time in Findhorn, and having fallen in Love in Inverness, there are only good memories of the time I spent in Scotland.
When I saw the headline of "When The Wind Blows By Raymond Briggs", likely to be put back into the light due to the new cold war, I was immediately beamed back in time - to the year 1984. Orwell's year. It was not so turbulent due to that reason, although there were a many people who commemorated Orwell's vision of 1984. What was going on, was the doubling down on the Cold War. Especially by the West, who never put to rest the attempt for lasting 'regime change' in the Soviet Union and subsequently Russia. Everybody on Earth knows, that some people are not entitled to their own resources and instead have to concede these resources to the wanna-be Empire in the North of America. Before the backdrop of constant 'regime change' operations in Central and South America, proxy wars in Africa and Asia, When The Wind Blows appeared first on air. On BBC Radio, of all places.
When I say 'Downer Alert!', I mean that any investigation of the present state of global affairs will return similar results. If our world was a highly dangerous Planet in 1984 - 2019 proves it to be even more so. With the recent rounds of abolishing treaties that had somewhat promised to protect Earth's inhabitants and their co-inhabitants from a nuclear winter, chances are once more upped in favor of cataclysm. It is because of these specific circumstances - including but not limited to nuclear missiles stationed in Europe - making Europe again the target of preemptive, retaliatory and accidental annihilation. It will be interesting to follow the appearing of "When The Wind Blows" in the media coming its anniversary.
Will there be voices that say, "Hey, do you realize that people are not much less naïve today?", offset by those that will argue that the internet has created a much more informed society. But is that true beyond sports and entertainment - which for some also incorporates the scent of war?. The smell of sweaty hands that can't wait any longer for the Big One? They are excited over the preparations for intentional, or 'accidental' war of two parties getting ready to defend themselves against each other. Both parties including various additional Nations defending each other against each other.
How could it be possible that people are actually not more informed, but more informed about certain irrelevant aspects or topics. Others? Not so much. Way too many of the most urgent topics are not properly re-examined. Among them is the era of nuclear missile deployment in Europe. To hear the pulse of this era, 'When The Wind Blows' does give an excellent insight into the degree, so called 'governments' - that actually represent more of a regime or dictatorship than any verifiably elected democratic government - are programming their respective populations. The way in which the two main characters are keeping up, reveals the depth of indoctrination in not only the British society. The knowledge that is reflected has its origin in government brochures about how to survive something that can't be survived.
Now comes the part where it gets surreal. While I listened to the play and saw the animated movie, Life moved on to the 90s. When I saw the first creations of the Aardman Studios: 'Creature Comforts' and then its subsequent series of 'Wallace and Gromit', it escaped my memory for voices, that 'Jim' the lead male character of 'When The Wind Blows' is spoken by Peter Sallis. It was odd, or surreal, when I listened to the play having the voice of Peter Sallis now allocated to 'Wallace' the marvelous inventor. There was this blending of the two events, when I imagined how 'Wallace' would have managed the exact same situation. And to the most peculiar extent possible, there are moments, where one could not figure out which one is which. Meaning, that it could have been 'Wallace' in the play and not the character 'Jim'.
This is of course not to promote a version of 'When The Wind Blows' in the world of Wallace and Gromit. May he and his loyal Canine Buddy live long, prosper and keep entertaining kids of all ages forever.
With the ever increasing screams to topple a democratically elected government by the new axis of terroristic evil, people should be reminded that we have been here before. Only death, suffering and pain were the results among those on the receiving end of the Fascist stick. Fascism is not a problem in those countries who perpetrate it on the planet and its people. Americans, Canadians and Australians have long joined the likes of Germans that were fighting for the thousand year Reich up to the very last moment of its twelve years of existence. May the world be spared the continuation of the Western Neo-Fascist Neo-Reich, like it was spared the Nazi one. Even though the Neo-Fascists are already waging illegal wars in the Middle East based on lies and propaganda for 18+ years and thus have outperformed the Fascists of Germany, Italy and Japan.
'When The Wind Blows' is more than a resurfacing memory of times passed. It is a warning actually, that nothing has improved since then. That the doomsday clock is closer to the midnight of extinction than ever before. That poverty, homelessness, diseases and for-profit wars are worse than ever before. That an ever increasing zero-tolerance policy of the Fascist regimes everywhere make the dissent of these murderous acts illegal and will soon lead to incarceration itself. Maybe the time to ask ourselves what war is good for is longer overdue than the song with the same title. Maybe there have to be practical means to express that the bucket stops at Venezuela?
To the contrary of what Venezuela is accused of in good old psychological projection fare, it is time for the populations of the new Fascist axis of evil to do a change from 'regime' towards a direct democracy. Without middlemen that can be bribed to act out against the wellbeing of all people. As long as the US remains to be the worst dictatorship in human history, for as long will its vassals also be able to destroy the livelihoods of people in their own countries and in those who do not possess nuclear war heads to defend themselves.
You are either with the Fascists, or You stop drinking Coca Cola, eating burgers and buying anything coming from the land of the regime.
Of course it is all some form of satire, isn't it? Talking about the decrepit actions of a conglomerate of Fascist countries attempting to convert the planet into the United Fascist States of Earth can only be political stand up satire, correct?
I thought so, too.
On a personal note: Thank You for the new editing interface. Although I miss the preview, I do like the ease of formatting now. It is very much appreciated. Now, can I get the preview window back?