There can be little doubt that the West is struggling with dramatic change, and for me the only question is whether this change is to be revolutionary or evolutionary.
Evidence is all around us.
When Mrs Merkel announced that Europe would welcome all and sundry to our shores, be they refugees, economic or welfare migrants, or islamist invaders, she was unleashing forces upon us that are yet to be understood and may never be contained.
It didn't start there though, and since the crash of 2008, western economies have been living on the brink of collapse, sustained only with money printed out of thin air, quite literally, as it is now generated electronically with no need to manufacture in paper or coin.
With climate change now a political issue, and seen as an invention of the Left, just as islamic Jihad is portrayed as a construct of the Right, our traditional allegiances have become meaningless and recent elections have clearly demonstrated this.
We have a tech-savvy generation in US and UK, voting for self-declared socialists who are older than their grandparents with ideas to match, and our establishment lurching and stumbling to the Left, such that sympathizing with the Right, in any large or small measure, is deemed almost a crime against humanity.
So the question remains: Are we on the cusp of chaos, or progressing through a quantum leap into a bright new future?
The answer probably lies with our ability to deal with these changes.
When Darwin is misquoted as saying that evolution is not determined so much by our ability to survive, but by our ability to adapt, the message is profound, if our politicians cannot adapt to the clear and present dangers, then change will happen regardless, but in ways that are unpredictable, and without our cherished and stabilizing political institutions.
So how well are our politicians adapting, can they make the necessary changes, or will they leave it to the people to press re-set?
alt-Right
The first time I heard this expression, I assumed it was an alternative Right, in the sense that it appealed to people who had previously been to the Left or Center, and could not, in good faith, vote for the old traditional Right.
Milo seemed a perfect example of this movement. An openly gay man, he is along with Steve Bannon, the picture boy of the alt-Right, and demonstrates just how much right-wing politics have changed. The media assertion that this was a far-right movement, did not wash at first, but I have since learned that perhaps they are only alternative in terms of their anti establishment and non-corporate positions, but still harbor many of the unpleasant traits of the old Right.
ctrl-Left
While the Right was redefining it's fringes, the Left went into full scale assault on everything that stood, and still stands, for freedom and democracy. The notion that socialism sprang from communism, as a kind of benevolent all embracing offspring, is no longer pretended, for today Socialism is seen as a path towards Communism - a leading edge into the past, including that ideology's worst and most repressive baggage.
Antifa along with BLM, are examples of this if any are needed, and both are against fascism in the same way that the Bolsheviks were against Trotskyism. The new Left now seek to control our lives and public discourse so as to limit all speech and criticism thus leaving us defenseless against their excesses. They aim to force their world view upon us in ways that only a few years ago would have been considered impossible.
So where does this leave us?
The concept of Centrist politics is sadly defunct, if it ever existed. Three party politics never lasts for long as the center either gets squeezed into nothing or pulled apart to it's extremes.
As with most things in life, politics has a habit of falling into two camps, not Right and Left, but right and wrong. When coal miners were dying of lung disease and almost unbearable working conditions, the Left was right, but when the Left wants to destroy our way of life, and hard won freedoms...
rel-Right
The reluctant Right, are people who have come to the realization that the threats we face now transcend old-school party politics, that it's not so much about being for the Right, as it is being against what the Left has become.
We are akin to those awakening from some nightmare of drowning at sea, only to find our bed is floating in a rising flood. If our politicians do not evolve and adapt to these rising waters, then Evolution will not save us, and Revolution will be the only option.
It is time for us all to act and do the Right thing, however reluctantly.
