History in the making seems to be a matter of lulls and big events with undercurrents flowing all the time. In some ways, it’s like geology, where forces are at work but are not noticeable except to experts who are aware of stresses building up that at some point, will result in a devastating earthquake or volcanic eruption.

In recent years, seismic political rumblings have been occurring at an alarming rate, for example in the election of a sociopathic would-be autocrat as president of the United States in 2016; the failure of the Republican Party and the great majority of Republicans to repudiate him and hold him accountable, choosing instead to adopt his depraved moral ethos as their own; the transition of the Supreme Court of the United States into an instrument for implementing an extreme right-wing agenda.

Other rumblings include the rise of authoritarianism and brutalism, and weakening of democratic institutions throughout the world; the stark failure of humanity to effectively combat global warming; the COVID-19 pandemic and threat of future ones.

More include the rise of an imperially minded regime in China and the accelerating militarization of that country; and the shedding of inhibitions on the part of a megalomaniacal Russian dictator of Napoleonic bent, resulting in an ongoing horrifying amount of death and suffering, and the peril-generating resumption of the Cold War.

Edward Packard

Durango