The second paragraph is all true; now we are going backwards.

It is true that the United Nations is "unbelievably ineffectual" - except when it comes to interfering in sovereign countries,particularly Western countries.

"This writer's answer" - to ensure that democracy prevails in all countriesis even more useless than the UN. Democracy is on the way out: Covid lockdowns; plans to limit freedom of speech; plans to ban cash; net zero; ESG; brainwashing of school children; removal of courses in independent living skills in public schools; racialising and division of society; growing dependence on Marxist-style governments; climate fear-mongering. In Australia, a voting system rigged to maintain duopoly rule; replacement of the population with multiple cultures.

Most thinking people know why we're going backwards, because of the myriad of pragmatism-devoid intellectuals & the greedy stupid !

Agree with most of this and note more wars have been fought over religious doctrine than almost any other.

6 million Muslims put to the sword during the "Christian" crusades and 6 million Jews butchered by the (quasi religious) Nazis during WW11, with religious zeal.

Wars that we have in living memory WW11 and the war in Ukraine were the result of giving a madman almost absolute power.
Alan B.

Unfortunately for all of us the situation described by Peter is a manifestation of a much deeper crisis in our Western consciousness as described in these two related essays re the origins and consequences of our collective madness.
http://www.awakeninthedream.com/undreaming-wetiko-introduction

http://www.awakeninthedream.com/articles/invasion-of-the-body-snatchers-comes-to-life

Dear Duffy,

«Unfortunately for all of us the situation described by Peter is a manifestation of a much deeper crisis in our Western consciousness»

Who but you can I expect to identify the issue and know that this "crisis" that you referred us to is in the very nature of nature, as old as nature and as vast as space, going well beyond just the West and just our particular era?

Your articles call it "Wetiko" - the ancients called it "Maya", literally "that which is not", not what you think, that whose neither its existence nor its non-existence can ever be ascertained.

Scripture tells us of this dual power of Maya:
1) Avarana Shakti - its veiling power, of concealing from us our true identity; and
2) Vikshepa Shakti - its projection power, projecting the truth of who we are onto various objects, thus making us falsely believe that these are the truth of who we are.

While each of us who so wishes can personally escape these powers of Maya, this which you call Wetiko, the world at large can never be completely rid of it, or else it would not be serving its purpose. At times more of the light of knowledge will relatively prevail, while at other times such as during the present Kali Yuga, darkness relatively prevails, yet the world will always be a mixture of the two and any claim otherwise, as if the world itself can somehow be saved, can produce false hopes in the readers who could come to believe as if a solution can paradoxically be found in this world itself.

Peter, you ask for much in this world of plenty. You say;

"We have ended serfdom and slavery, abolished the divine right of kings, and introduced parliamentary democracy."

Yes, for a selected privileged few that is true. For others in the third world and a minority in our own land of plenty, little has changed in two thousand years. Injustice and inequality brought on by greed, suspicion and a distorted belief in a nationalistic culture of them and us has resulted in wars and poverty in many parts of the world. While ever injustice and inequality exists, there will be no change, the vicious cycle will continue.

Mankind has achieved great things in science and technology, but unfortunately still lives in the stone age when it comes to inter-human relationships.

Dear Paul,

Well of course, serfdom and slavery were never abolished, they just have new names, nor the "divine right of kings" who now simply use different titles. As for "parliamentary democracy", we all know that to be a farce that does not serve or represent ordinary people.

«Mankind has achieved great things in science and technology, but unfortunately still lives in the stone age when it comes to inter-human relationships.»

These "great things" are but a stop-gap to sustain and mitigate the enormous growth in human population, and as such only support the primitive urge to procreate and increase one's family. They don't bring us happiness, only addictions. You can also observe how much of that technology is being deployed in the "science of war" and in regime surveillance of ordinary people.

The real problem is the lack of truth.
People have constructed a 'framework' to their liking, and are busily tying to 'shoe-horn' their lives to fit it.
Or if you like, they are frantically panel beating life to make it fit.
Which can be exhausting work?
And all so unnecessary.
I also have a 'framework'.
It is called truth.
My lattice of truth does very well.
Life fits easily in to it.
Almost as if it were made for it in fact.
I am not bothered by ill-fitting emotions.
Logic abounds.
Very comfortable.

"We have ended serfdom and slavery, abolished the divine right of kings, and introduced parliamentary democracy."

All we've done is changed the names, the game is still the same.

There's an old adage, when you invest in someone else's back yard, yours is bound to suffer.
We have a land that was stolen, it's mineral wealth supporting the nation for the time being, with the end result being a big hole ready to take the worlds' garbage.
Which is growing at an unprecedented rate I might add.
So you may well ask, how clever are we?
We are going to give the planet it's first planetary dump.

Exaggeration you say, probably but you get the message.

When the world calls us 'down under', they mean we're down and going under

But hey, you're right, we've come a long way....in perfecting stupidity.
They can't take that away from us

Let us get a few things straight.
I have never stolen any land from anyone.
And I would almost guarantee that you have not done so either.
I was born here.
So along with everyone else, I am part controller of this land.
For anyone to say we stole it is absurd.
Anything which happened long ago is part of history now, and should not affect the present day.
Do you want to go back and change the outcome of WWII because you think it unfair the other side lost?
Even more absurd.
And ancestry...
Suppose I could show that in the year 1300 I had an ancestor who was swedish.
Do I go around now claiming to be swedish?
With just a tiny smidge of that bloodline?
Once again, absurd.
But if we have a substantial connection to different ancestral lines, we should acknowledge all of them?
In that case, we should not just disregard or ignore one or more lines for convenience.
Which appears to be what is done by some right now.
Mainly because it is financially of benefit for them to do so?

"So along with everyone else, I am part controller of this land."

Fatso, you're part controller of nothing, most of all your inability to comprehend what is being said.
Where did I say you stole anything, or is it your intention to change the narrative so as to suit your non contextual rhetoric.
Don't respond to my posts if all you have is babble 'cos I'm not impressed in your display of limited comprehension.

IP,

You put forward the stock line for justification for today's treatment of Aboriginal people, simply put its one of denial leading to inaction. You and I and everyone else occupying Australia, personal are not responsible for the injustices of the past, but collectively we have an obligation to do our level best to correct the situation to the best of our ability. Its not a great ask, and I am confident that as a nation things will be set right. It starts with truth telling, which leads to reconciliation, and ultimate to positive corrective action for the good of all. What part of that last sentence are you uncomfortable with?

Paul we spend more per head on every aboriginal in the country, even the extremely well paid ones in the aboriginal industry than we do on the age pensioners you hate.

I wonder how much the aboriginal air taxi service that the royal flying doctor service through most of Queensland costs above the regular "services" has become?

The lesson of history is that any incompetent population will be usurped by a more competent one. It has happened through out the world countless times.

These take overs can be brutal, or benevolent. The take over of Australia has been probably the most benevolent on record, & most aboriginals are today so much better off than they were or would have been today without the British arrival.

The Oz aboriginal was very lucky that it was the British who got here first. Had it been the French or Germans they would have had a very rough time.

I read somewhere recently that you can't graft western institutions into non-western cultures- despite their success in the west. This is probably the underlying reason for the wars. Over thousands of years Christian missionaries and others have given up their lives to explain western cultures to other cultures so that there will be less wars.

Quite a number of times I've read & heard indigenous people say that "no-one" owns land, it belongs to all. So, how is something that doesn't belong to anyone 'stolen' ? Neglected children being taken into care are not 'stolen' , they're saved & cared for. Those who violate against them are not dealt with until much later by those with the authority to do so when it's too late. These offenders are largely members of those authorities.
Another lesson of history is the fact that those who put in the physical effort are invariably exploited by the intellectual elitists, the same ones who perpetually bleat fairness & equal Rights. To sum up the lessons of History, Hypocrisy reigns supreme !