As the rites of the peaceful passage of power in a nation that is exhibit number one of what democracy and freedom truly means, the erstwhile leader of the world’s most powerful country, President Joe Biden, delivered a valedictory not only for Americans but to the people of all democracies, as wind-swept fires continued their destructive path across California seemingly reminding us that in a snap, everything we may take for granted would always be there can, could, and will, turn after all inevitably back to dust.

It was a farewell speech that painted a beautiful, heart thumping portrait of democracy’s reason for being for all freedom loving nations but it also provided an ominous stark warning of what ironically it could spawn if the people did not take heed of the evils of what it could mean to lose our freedoms.

Biden sentimentally pointed to the Statue of Liberty’s engineering ability to sway with the winds, during good weather and bad, with all its symbolism, to be reminded that democracy can, at times, seem to bend its knees in apparent surrender but the Lady of Liberty will always have the strength to stand firm and face all storms that may come its way.

Biden waxed nostalgic as he spoke about the sacrifices of Americans to defend the principles of equal rights and choice for all, regardless of color, creed, gender orientation, or station in life, from the fight for independence against the British to today’s servicemen deployed in all troubled spots of the world. And indeed, on this, nobody can argue what America has done for the world.

However, as he shifted to the highly anticipated swearing-in of Trump, and the drawing of the curtains of his actual policy and leadership team bereft of the theatrics of the campaign, and perhaps tempered by the realities of America’s limitations and the opposing Axis bloc of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, among many other totalitarian antagonists’ determined objective to knock America down from its long domination of the pedestals of world power, Biden chose to downplay the dangers of these opposing totalitarian countries’ simmering antagonism for what America and democracy stand for and instead focused on the unspoken, but loudly whispered, anti-democratic cabal of the unelected leaders of a “third state,” an elite, oligarchic aggrupation of industrial, military and techpreneur billionaires, generals, and tech savants operating for their own benefit, for power and profit, with complete disregard for the people’s best interests, under the shadows of an accommodating Trump presidency, even if it means running counter to the principles of a democracy, manifested by freedom of choice and equality in the rules for all.

Biden sentimentally pointed to the Statue of Liberty’s engineering ability to sway with the winds, during good weather and bad, with all its symbolism.

He spoke of the bane and dangers of the growing waves of disinformation on social media, racial and gender discrimination, mind manipulation, dark money, and the unbridled, unsupervised, unregulated use of Artificial Intelligence. Without having to utter their names, Biden, and we saw this for ourselves, was probably referring to the overwhelming involvement of the richest men in the world, the likes of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, in the victory of Trump. And surely now, their handprints on the policy directions of this new administration will be on full display. It will be laissez-faire to the extreme, and the chasm of the great divide between the haves and have-nots of the world will widen to the hilt even wider than the Grand Canyon. Already we have opening salvos such as the return of TikTok. No more fact-checking needed on Facebook posts. Put on your masks because it will be goodbye to sustainability and hello to “drill, baby, drill.”

Are these just useless mutterings of a geriatric sore loser or is there truth in Biden’s words? I personally choose to believe there is wisdom to what he has warned us about but there are also risks that we should be watchful for with the exploitative use of democracy that has enabled the very rise of this “third state.” What is your own take?

Until next week… OBF!

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