In former times it seemed to be a matter of course to talk about the ‘silent majority’. And it also seemed to be debatable: Did it exist?
These days we know: It does!
The statistics you get from business departments such as support, online and offline, confirm:
For any person letting a company, an organization, or platform know about their issues or problems or worries, there are around 100 silent ones who do not speak up. Some are too lazy. Some are too busy. Some are just too self-conscious, don’t dare to draw attention to themselves.
Whatever the reasons may be: I also know from actual experience how often people in everyday life underestimate the universal facts of human life:
Emotions, feelings, worries and also joy so often are felt very similarly. Yet, very often also people don’t know about that and therefore feel disconnected.
Sharing helps: Experience, emotions, and thoughts. And my blog is one place where I like to share for exactly that reason. To help and to spread perhaps a (little) light of understanding.
‘Social media’ have their limitations and their uses. I use them with care – but I also know what I do not need. I can only share with any of my readers who are wondering: Make sure you ‘turn them off’ regularly, too.
Just as in former times people were wondering about being ‘in’, about ‘belonging’, so can social media these days create the impression that some things are crucial and should and have to be followed in order to be up-to-date.
That is NOT the case!
At some point you will – especially if yet young – come to realize that not ‘every thing’ is worth your while – nor ‘every body’.
Yes, the downside can be that there are people who use these channels just as they would ‘real life meetings’: To bother and torture others they find irritating.
Because that is what bullies do: They try to ‘remove’ the concept, the idea of life that seems to call their own into question.
And there are those that just have to be right, because being wrong is not contained in their own image of themselves. Almost sad really: They usually grow up believing that making mistakes is basically some sort of ‘sin’.
The thing that must not be.
I personally like to deal with social media a little like a tool that can be sharp and should be handled with care and laid down when not necessary anymore.
I like to observe a certain way of being respectful and polite.
But I also know that just as in real life there are all kinds of people around.
But I do not like to be around any kind of people… neither online, nor offline. I stick to my values and aim at spending quality time only with people of like mind.
My father put it rather graphically this way, in regard to judging the majority’s beliefs:
“If a million flies sit on excrement – do you have to sit there too?”
Most of us past teenage years have seen and experienced misunderstandings. Some can be tragic, some can seem funny even, looking back, some are funny – and some are rather mundane, really.
What can make it difficult can be situations such as the following, a nice example I came across the other day, paraphrased here:
A group of people were scheduled for a training of communication. Everybody arrived in time, wore casual clothing as per agenda and was quite relaxed, chatting and waiting for the training to begin. A little while into the day’s itinerary, a young man who everybody had been wondering about, arrived far too late. He was very quiet, wore a business suit that obviously had been expensive and showed a rather withdrawn behaviour.
The group decided that he seemed rather arrogant and they felt annoyed and treated with a lack of basic politeness.
It took a while to find out that he had been to a funeral, unexpectedly and of a close person and barely had found time to arrive at all…
This little anecdote makes it clear nicely how easily unrelated events can be made into a chain of misunderstanding.
Keeping an open mind and realizing that our interpretations can be wrong in spite of appearances can be the first step towards real understanding.
Money, more money, profits… (Image licensed via Adobe CC)
All of you who are wondering and perhaps even seem to be challenged in believing it: Trump and Putin actually and truly are close.
Why?
How can it possibly be that a fiend such as Putin is close to someone like Trump, after all the president of the leading nation of the ‘free world’?
It’s basically three principles that apply:
“Cui bono?” – The Latin phrase is age old and describes what you would look for in most questions of business and politics to get a clear picture: “Who benefits?”
There’s history to rely on for similar examples: The Roman Empire especially and its several emperors in its later stages; corruption was common then.
Trump as well as Putin are very much alike in terms of personality: They crave attention and power, to different degrees. They need money and more money to achieve that.
That’s their basic common denominator or ground.
One proof was presented at the time (2016 US-presidential elections) by two newspapers, one of which cannot be trusted these days anymore because it was acquired by amazon’s founder. The proof was confirmed by the Pulitzer Prize committee (among others). The New York Times still stands like a beacon, as yet.
Also please take into account that war especially in modern times is a means to an end. Cruel, but just that. Just as Netanyahu first aggravated and then used the conflict about Gaza to cover up the fact that the numbers of his votes were decreasing fast at the time – and the support for his internal politics declining.
For all of my readers who feel discouraged in the face of adversity and the abyss of human depravity, do not despair:
We are not the only ones worrying! The state of the world has been better – but it also has been worse, in the course of history!
Just think what the 30 Years’ War meant to Europe at the time!
Remember: Remind your democratically elected representatives of their tasks – and of what you really want.
Keep at it – and don’t forget about the breaks!
Update March 9th 2025: The New York Times has published a fine news analysis on March 7th here, confirming facts and this view on them – regarding Trump’s view on Putin.
ℹ️ Article should be paywall-free here, from my own subscription, to be purchased with a subscription for that newspaper usually: Trump’s Affinity for Putin Grows More Consequential Than Ever
(URL taken and pasted at March 9th 2025, UTC+1, 01:03 p.m.)
For a comprehensive and concise view on Mr Trump’s biography and background that helps explain, confer to award-winning documentary producer and director Michael Kirk’s FRONTLINE-video on PBS, from 2017, in context of the 2016 elections, available from select locations: President Trump
Be that Trump or Putin, they are about money, and more money – and their networks: They depend on the lobbyists behind them. They are not the only ones, but at the moment the most noticeable ones.
That’s why we see what we read and hear about: Trump has been best buddy to Putin at least ever since Trump’s first run for office. His family was actively maintaining contacts in Russia and with Putin. These facts have been proven. By newspapers such as the New York Times and the Washington Post.
Since then amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos has acquired the Washington Post and already he not only has reduced its staff: The quality and reliability of the content and the reporting has become rather superficial not to say doubtful.
Another dependent and buddy is Elon Musk, who at this very moment is firing thousands of US-government officials in the administration. A cover-up for the government funds he received for development. The Teslas failed and he would have to return billions of dollars and be bankrupt. This way: He just might be save…
The New York Times are a reliable source of information yet, but we can only hope that Trump as well as the several courts over there will let it stay that way. He certainly has done all he could – and had it done for him – to make sure that he practically cannot be drawn into court again. For none of his proven crimes.
In Europe we need to stay united, all those that are not yet compromised by money or power – but know what the true values of a democracy are:
Screenshot of NATO member states, current, taken at 21-01-2025_06-16-46 at https://www.nato-pa.int/content/membership-map
The signs are there: He had the majority of Supreme Court Justices newly instated during his first time in office. He initiated the attack on the US-Capitol. The signs also are there that he will try to limit freedom of the press. At least.
He is on best terms with president Putin of Russia, who demonstrably manipulated elections in 2016 in Trump’s favour. I am convinced that the deal was worked to make peace in Gaza and Syria so that eventually NATO and Ukraine will agree to special contracts, regarding Ukraine’s status as non-member.
And when you look at the OFFICIAL NATO map, screenshot above taken from their website today, you cannot but wonder how one would not feel at least uncomfortable, being part of the white space to the right…
I recommend (yet, as long as they can) The New York Times as source of reliable information: They have won Pulitzer prizes for their reporting, research as well as content. https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/staffs-new-york-times-and-washington-post Note, update: The Washington Post some time ago was acquired by Jeff Bezos, the founder and owner of amazon and a Trump follower. So, although at the time the link’s content was created, it was reliable; it is not anymore.
Trump himself, as regards a non-character who is willing to do anything to appear powerful and wealthy, is a criminal several times over: He was ruled guilty before US courts more than once, for fraud and bribery as well as sexual coercion.
The Supreme Court, whose Justices in majority he instated newly with his followers during his first term in office, overruled those verdicts with the rather threadbare argument that he had been president and thus immune…
Poppea and Nero Have the Head of Octavia Brought Forward to Them by Giovanni Muzzioli – Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons
I wonder sometimes if there ever was a similar government and its head in history as the one coming up on Monday, 20th January…?
They say Nero in ancient Rome was made fun of, at the time and in later centuries; considered to be downright crazy and not to be depended upon. He apparently set fire to Rome, and had his mother and his first wife murdered.
Four years ago a person that has been ruled a criminal several times over in front of legal US courts, incited an attack on the US Capitol. A building that is one epitome of a republic claiming to be the oldest existing democracy and the seat of its parliament.
And here they all are, be that Microsoft, Apple, Uber, amazon or Boeing: Millions of dollars donated just for the inauguration. Licking his boots.
The most pitiful spectacle is Trump himself who earnestly sends a message of ‘everybody wanting to be with him’ on social media.
Let’s just hope that somebody over there still has some sort of sense left and eventually will stop this sorry excuse for a man.
So needy he stops at nothing to get attention and be counted ‘powerful’ and rich, when you look at his history (Link to PBS broadcasting company’s site, FRONTLINE series of documentaries; this one award-winning).
Special effects used as a front – lighting and stage decoration used to intimidate or frighten people… (Image licensed via Adobe CC)
To start a conflict, manipulate people into it by threatening them in multiple ways; to position oneself as a representative of an interest group, a lobby; then in the limelight apparently get people back together again for peace talks and eventual – and so sudden … – peace or at least truce…
What do you call that?
‘Smart’, because the person reaches their goal of appearing to be the hero of the hour?
‘Business-like’, because using money as a weapon they appear influential and the ‘wise guy’ … of the day?
Or ‘Cruel’, because many lives are lost in the process, hostages kept for years in fear and captivity, marred for life while others suffer intense pains of loss and worry?
I am happy and very relieved that so many are now apparently released from captivity as hostages! For themselves and for their families, their near and dear!
But they might not have been to be in that place at all, in the first place – used by a president-to-be and yet another ally in Israel, Netanyahu, who had to fear using his ‘job’ – and thus started to get beligerent. Follow the history on channels and newspapers to trust. It was rather obvious.
And war one way or another throughout history has been known to be a welcome and often-used method to distract attention from internal affairs and issues – of a king, or a dictator, or a president…
The result, and the tragic and cruel truth can seem unbearable: It’s once again about power and money. Ultimately. People are just so much cannon fodder, once again.
And we can expect ‘more of the same’, in the coming months, if not years.
Eagle – or Vulture? (Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons by Thermos)
I wonder if we would perhaps rather laugh than weep: Trump, true to form, spreads chaos, misinformation, and the simple self-centered accusations against all and sundry he is so well known for.
Well, himself as well as his latest ‘aide’ turned-suddenly-Republican (G.O.P: Not so grand after all…) Elon Musk are a pair if ever there was one: using money in bucketloads to draw any kind of attention to themselves.
That Musk has rather suddenly changed his tune a few years ago is quite explicable and not the least bit surprising, if you know that some of the latest Tesla-models face severe technical faults and even a failure of his whole company is around the corner because he would have to return millions of government funds (yes, taxpayers’ money!) – if he cannot find government officials that rule in his favour and keep things just ‘floating’ his way…
Let’s all of sound mind and responsible ideas keep our voices heard, loud and clear! This is no way to go, Mr Trump and Mr Musk!
Note:
The other day Mr Trump has made clear he wants to be seen as ‘deal maker’. Turning back to his oldest profession, the financier, businessman… ‒ who’s caused bankruptcy to thousands of his stakeholders in order to save his own ‘hide’ ‒ so, he would use anything to close a deal.
Deals usually are closed any old way: Using threats is one of them.
Get the other party to believe in your decisiveness, your preparedness to go to extremes.
In other words: Blackmail.
Surprising? Not really. Awareness is key: We just won’t stoop or succumb anywhere to such base methods.
You can easily feel discouraged looking at news these days: People in New Orleans suffer from an attack, numerous people die. The Ukraine-war raging on. The Gaza strip and Israel and Palestine conflicts going on into the 7th decade…
‘What’s going on with people in this world?’, you could ask.
Let’s remember two very important truths:
News are about some aspects of life – but news are not LIFE!
News are often rather sensational, they focus on the dramatic, the ‘scoop’ – because that’s what newspapers and channels live by: Drama sells. (Just as sex does, by the way.)
Courage comes from hope and thus let’s remember:
An African proverb is supposed to run like this:
“If many little people in many little places all around the world do many little things every day, they can change the face of the earth.”
Keep at it – and remember the breaks too!
Know that we are strong, together!
A happy, peaceful and friendly new year to all, with friends and relations – ‘near and dear’ – full of hope and courage!
