Dimitri Lascaris is convinced that the Ukraine war is a dangerous conflict for all of humanity and that Western leaders have abdicated their duty to protect its people from the ultimate catastrophe. He traveled to Russia and Crimea to engage in citizen diplomacy. Upon returning to Canada, peace groups from across the country convinced him to undertake a trans-Canada speaking tour to advocate for the peaceful resolution of the Ukraine war, but he declined any remuneration. The report says that disinformation experts used threats of violence and outright fabrications to prevent talks at the last minute in Toronto, Winnipeg, Montreal, and Halifax.

The generosity and talent in this world are tremendous. While it is one reason to be optimistic for humanity, its impact is often lessened by the dark shadows of social dementia on a global scale. And, from my perspective, the overall trend does not look good. Historically, social dementia has carried with it a sense of acceptance of bad conditions and circumstances in society and the workplace. Most people deal with adversity with prayer; some have rebelled, and a few have tried to make sense of it.

In trying to make sense of it, some have died, been abused, or been threatened. In a world on the threshold of extinction, be it sudden and nuclear or in the grip of a creeping disaster we call climate change, we must pray. Pray that rebellion does not lose its way and that I continue trying to make sense of it along with others on the MEER platform. It is imperative to find ways to counter all existential threats to mankind. We are all worried, but we don't know what to do. I have maintained my balance by being aware of Ockham's Razor, complexity theory, and a loyal thought bubble circling my head, asking, "Is this what it is?" We are all looking for answers. Let's think like Schrödinger, though, when he advised: "The task is not to see what has never been seen before, but to think what has never been thought before about what we see every day." Every day can be pleasant, every day can be dreadful, and every day can be the first and the last.

For some time now, I have followed several informational platforms in the hope of finding a rich vein. I have read erudite essays and marveled at the many diverse and convincing arguments and opinions, and I have been dismayed and troubled by some. Regarding influential platforms, let me start with Global Research News and a reference to a recent video, "The Engineered Destabilization of the Global Economy," as well as focus on some articles by one of its frequent contributors, Peter Koenig. From a different source, I have noted a fanciful geo-engineering target, namely, shielding the Earth from sunlight to slow down climate warming. Somewhat facetiously, why not smear the Earth's territorial surface with a planetary sunscreen, and why not over its seas and oceans? And a few more lines: as long as governments exist, freedom is an illusion; people are deluded into being slaves.

Begging the master for longer chains never works, and if it does, it is temporary. The way to end it is to remove the system that does such things. Although these lines would have resonated well with Watt Tyler and Emile Zola in 1776, their inertia makes it difficult. It cost Europe a lot to put down fascism in WWII, but fascism has not been eradicated. In my appeals to Vladimir Putin, I stated that states have the power to erase individuality and culture, to victimize, destroy, and kill perceived irritants. The state also has the power to right wrongs, provide pathways to clemency, and nurture democracy. It seems all too easy to misrepresent democratically expressed political opinion.

Peter Koenig recently asked, "Who in hell gives the UN, WHO, and the EU the right to impose digital vaxx certificates?" He thinks that evil reigns and that the West has not just become a sea of criminal institutions. If not stopped now, it will continue with its drive towards the completion of its eugenics and transhumanism agenda—way before 2030, when the UN Development Goals 17 should come to fruition. He says we, the people, must stand up here and now against this tyrannical attempt by three specific institutions with influence and clout to dominate, enslave, and tyrannize the world's populations. Most recently, he says most people are sold, either by money or by threats, and he simply cannot believe how evil some non-people are. There is truth between his lines. Even so, society requires a way to constrain madmen and mayhem, but it must also have the competence to understand madness and deal with it.

I first came across Peter with "The Great Freeset Versus the Great Reset," which contained an urgent message from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It presented our choice between freedom and tyranny. Kennedy is a contender for the Democratic nomination for President of the USA. One of Peter's three institutions is obviously the World Health Organization (WHO), which is claimed to be everything but a defender of world health. Recently, in these pages, I addressed the participants of the World Health Assembly twice, emphasizing the need for philosophy. Did anyone hear? Not one participant is prepared to give up his or her comfort within the status quo. There is not a single philosopher active in the international community.

What reverberates in my head are the words of the objectors, mainly doctors, to all national systems of health, including the British NHS, which is 75 years old this year. To pass parliament in 1948, it needed gold to be stuffed down the throats of senior doctors. While it was a big step forward for the population and for me, the original model was watered down between conception and launch. Beneficial systems are always undermined. Nowhere was this so dramatic as in 1848, when the first public health attempt was fought tooth and nail by landowners fearful of the tax burden. During the 4th Crusade, the altar in Hagia Sophia was drenched in blood as Western knights hacked each other to death to get a larger piece of the spoils. It is fortunate that today the remains of the spoils carted and shipped off to the West are found in collections and museums, with a significant part as yet unexamined.

In my long career, from the twilight of the industrial revolution, the scythe, and the headgear of mines to the chatrooms and boxes of our times, I have come across two dreadful polarities or dichotomies, namely, the symmetry of tenement rows and the asymmetry of communications, especially with respect to large-scale institutions. On that journey, I noted Sir Roger Casement's comment: "I know of two tragic histories in this world—that of Ireland and that of Macedonia." Both of them have been deprived and tormented. His was also a tragic history: he was a whistleblower on the atrocities in the Belgian Congo, leading to his execution in London and public anal examination.

I did try to contact Koenig with "Dear Peter" notes on his platform and then again on the platform Global Research News, offering him this: "Your concerns are perennial, but in complex systems, the force of coincidence asymptotically approaches zero!" I asked him if the speed of approach increases with complexity. I told him that while I read his thought-provoking articles, I take them with a pinch of salt, which is how I take myself. Call it skepticism, even healthy skepticism. The Report of the Club of Rome and the first UN Conference on Environment and Development, along with Jay Forrester's computer simulation on the extrapolation of the quality of life, signaled alarm half a century ago.

Today, the issues being addressed send out a more screeching alarm to those who can hear. It does not mean that what alarms us is totally understood or that the policy to turn it off is the right policy. Conflicting agendas for war and peace exist. It is easy to know how swords can be fashioned into ploughshares (know-how), but it's hard to find a way to end war and maintain peace (know-what), knowing that over the 5,000 years of so-called civilized life, warfare has taken up more than 90% of the time.

At the time of the Crimean War, the geopolitical situation was complex. Florence Nightingale, who was knowledgeable in philosophy, told the top brass to get the horses out of the drinking water, and they did. The influence of nursing must grow and play a greater role today. We certainly need more nightingales. As World War I got underway, the good guys were the Germans, and the bad ones were the French, and these sentiments were inverted by propaganda. To turn the British people away from positive sentiments towards Germans and towards the French was the glory days of propaganda.

As a boy, I learned that the Crusades were to take back the Holy Land from the Infidels, not to sack Constantinople and gain territory. Knowing that boys older than me were killed during WWII by bullets manufactured on my doorstep in Manchester has been with me ever since. As far as I can recall, effluents, gases, waste, and dangerous chemicals were quietly released and pumped into the atmosphere, waterways, and oceans. They were then mixed with a greater volume of air and water, carried by wind, currents, and tides, to ensure equality in spread. In parallel, an abundant food supply to feed the world could not be adequately distributed. It always seemed to me that those who had a good and better understanding of things and events could easily be pushed aside. Today, we have a decision from the IAEA and the United Nations' nuclear monitoring body that approves the release of tens of millions of gallons of water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean. Who knows? This may be plan C to give radioactivity a role in breaking down plastics that plug up the waterways. Adults who consume higher amounts of aspartame are at a slightly higher risk of developing cancer than those who don't.

Today, Peter says scientists, scientific organizations, and philosophers must stand up and fight against social dementia, nonsense peddling, conspiracy theories, and all that is fallacious to give environmental protection easier passage. He is right. Pulling resources from any system can exceed its restorative capacity. It happens in relationships and in countries. When I was young, it was easy to see the dwindling pantry and the lag time to a new supply. Profit can take precedence over purpose, and a bureaucracy with a purposeful goal can lose out to a trash can model.

There are announced goals and unannounced goals, as well as counterintuitive outcomes and collective and individualistic interests. Even the butterfly effect can lead to strange outcomes. Does anyone believe they can control the world's population and its health? Even Heracles would fail. Do you really believe that the World Health Organization is a white-collar delinquent institution or that the Club of Rome advocates mass genocide? Please tell me, is it true that horsemen galloped into London, announcing that Waterloo was lost and causing all markets to suddenly collapse? Did the Rockefellers buy up properties before the arrival of other horsemen the next day with news that Wellington had prevailed? Do you believe that the U.S. government suppresses effective treatments for COVID?

Do you think that the President of the first World Health Assembly, Andrija Štampar in 1948, did not see the dark side of our world even as he saw the World Health Organization as an instrument to solve global health problems in a spirit of true international cooperation? He fought against quackery, condemned governments in the hands of gangsters, and described infectious diseases as a form of Balkan banditry. Did he, as a communist, not work with evangelists in America funded by the Rockefeller Foundation? Did he not know that Rockefeller's unannounced goal was to hold back communism in Europe? It was clearly stated when they funded a new medical school in Belgrade.

War always has a racketeering side to it. "King Rat" is a fictional story based upon a WWII POW camp in Japanese-occupied territory where, in the brutal prison, one prisoner found ways to benefit his food needs and turn a profit through dominance over his fellow prisoners and a degree of influence over Japanese guards. It is the story of his survival under extreme circumstances while others gave their best. The war in Ukraine also has its racketeering side and must be examined. No black market, no war. This war is terrible for its people, its soldiers, and the soldiers of Russia's invading forces, and it is terrible for the world. When making money from it is considered a worthwhile commercial interest for armament manufacturers, peace thinking becomes an impediment.

Stopping the boats of migrants trying to enter England or pushing NATO closer to the borders of Russia with, say, missile launch pads in Romania by the USA does not seem to be in the direction of peace and increased security. Migration can only be curbed by a massive reduction in inequality. There have been many notorious eugenicists, some of whom poisoned the good offices of public health, including Hitler's demographers. Courageous elderly Catholic activists entered the largest nuclear submarine base in the world illegally to symbolically disarm the US Trident of its nuclear weapons and went to prison. Navalny and many others are still there. We need a philosophy of health; we need a philosophy of life.

As you indicated, Peter, the World Health Assembly (WHA) is scheduled to vote on a new set of International Health Regulations (IHR), including a controversial and intimately related Pandemic Treaty. We should all be interested in the World Health Organization on several different levels, even though it turns down the use of philosophy. WHO for all, all for WHO. We have little else in our fraying world. Peter's last question about seeking fake harmony or dishing out threats should be further explored. The last quote I picked up from the platform related to the planet's 8 billion people and advocated that, to save lives, the COVID-19 vaccine must be discontinued worldwide, here and now. I would say that inequality should be discontinued. One route is the implementation of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, 2030 Agenda). I should say that the WHO is entitled to an opinion on misinformation and social indicators, but it is far from being an authority on such matters.

There are always slogans like "leave no one behind," "you've never had it so good," and "a chicken in every pot," but ruling out forces directed to leave most behind cannot be ruled out. It means enlisting the goddess of public health, hygiene. Yes, the West is crossing a new red line by even thinking of sending banned cluster munitions to Ukraine, and this is reflected in a letter to President Biden, stating that it undermines American moral leadership.

The way out of the crisis: Socrates said to young people, "Fall in love, get married, have children; if marriage works, perfect!" If not, become philosophers. Today's best way has been promulgated by the World Philosophical Forum in Athens, and last month in these pages, it was reiterated by my friend and colleague, Fidel Gutierrez Vivanco. He calls for an update of our worldview based on the principles and laws of the universe that reside in universal reason and truth, appropriately shaped for this time of existential threat. It provides a formula for the integration of humanity that can materialize in the formation of the "Universal State of Earth." The human mindset must coalesce with reality and be governed by universal principles and laws. We must learn this universal order and know that the bond between universal wisdom and the universal state of the earth is inseparable.

Notes

Dolthood, as opposed to adulthood, should ideally bring about maturity. It is a concept I have created to address the state of social dementia, which is characterized by a decline in global empathy and the collective madness of our world—a condition not solely attributable to the present era. In this article, "dolt" (described as doltish or exhibiting doltishness) refers to an individual who is considered an idiot, moron, nitwit, or lunatic, as well as someone who suffers from social dementia—a person lacking common sense or displaying senselessness. A "dotant" is someone who has lost full control of their faculties, typically in old age. The term "idiot" in English originated from the Greek word denoting a private person who remains detached from public matters.

When I set out to write this piece, I had no reason to focus on Peter Koenig. But as I came close to completing it, I felt an atavistic pull back to 2011. The penny dropped when I recalled writing a piece titled "Warning: The memorandum could seriously damage your health. The memorandum shackled Greece with austerity, and I described it as a creeping socioeconomic nightmare detrimental to the future of Greek children. At that time, Christine Lagarde, minutes into the top job at the IMF, pressed Greece hard to implement austerity measures (a new health hazard) set out by the IMF and the EU, adding that it was a prerequisite to any further aid (Greece over a barrel). It presented a poor view of European solidarity coming from the EC. Lagarde's message to the Greek political opposition was to support the government in a spirit of national unity.

She offered no comment on how the enormous debt had been precipitated. In parallel, nineteen economists made a strong case for reform in Greece or facing economic catastrophe. They saw the application of the memorandum as the last chance for Greece to modernize. At the same time, Peter Koenig called on the people of Greece to wake up. He urged them not to believe their politicians and media! He advocated for a stop payment on the debt and a negotiated settlement. Germany renegotiated its international debt in 1952 with the London Agreement on German External Debt and had the support of Greece. "In the recent Greek elections on May 25, 2023, the existing debt passed without examination, and the very serious demographic problem did not even make the agenda.

Canada, a country that has done so much for health, tells us that a pandemic did not occur and that public health participates in genocide." I am sure we are hearing the same humanitarian distress signals coming from the troubled waters of our world. I have made unsuccessful efforts to reach Angela Durante and remind her that John Last, a Socratic learner to the end, decried the closing of the Toronto School of Public Health, just as I decry the execution of Greece's unique school in Athens (2019).