With statements like "I beat China all the time!" and "I could shoot someone and not lose voters!" potential future US Prsident Donald Trump epitomises all that is great about America, if by the word 'great' you mean 'mindnumbingly idiotic'. The good news, however, is that most of the other potential POTUS' are an equally horrible lot, so at least there's some consistency. If it is true that the people of a country get the leaders they deserve, then what does the line-up for the next "commander in chief" say about American society?
But Americans shouldn't feel too bad, Europe (and much of the rest of the world) is in equally dire straits, both at the political and social level. Someone appears to have decided that it's a good idea to try and tear the fabric of European society apart by flooding the union with desperate and angry refugees, along with a smattering of jihadi terrorists, thereby inflaming racial, religious and ethnic tensions.
Meanwhile, there are growing signs that that strangely self-aware animal known as the 'global economy' is in very poor health, and may even be planning to throw itself off a fiscal cliff in the near future, dragging us all down with it.
A perfect storm of mindless inanity and fecklessness at the global leadership level, hysterial and xenophobia at the social level, and unfettered greed at the economic level, seems set to blow up in all of our faces. Time to sit back and watch the show?
Join your regular hosts Niall Bradley and Joe Quinn, and our special guests Elan Martin and Bahar Azizi, for a discussion of the madness that passes for normal life on planet earth at the end of Empire. This Sunday 7th February: 12-2pm EST 6-8pm CET.
Running Time: 02:06:00
Download: MP3
Here's the transcript of the show:
