The world will work better if we try to see things as they are, not as we would like them to be. We have to tackle our tasks conscientiously and fairly, not try to lead the people back to Eden and make the lion lie down with the lamb.
When police and political representatives colluded with and covered-up systematic child sexual exploitation for fear of being seen as racist, the problem grew to a scale beyond calculation. Had the authorities acted early and firmly a huge amount of suffering could have been prevented. Instead the scandal is tempting many people to tar most of the Muslim population here with the same brush, so that community relations are far worse than if responsible parties had acted impartially.
Similarly much of the fire devastation in California could have been headed off by proper attention to basic precautions - clearing away flammable underbrush, ensuring adequate water supplies. This could have been done before (not instead of) winning virtue points for affirmative employment practices and nature conservation projects. First things first.
Perhaps the theme for our time is to reframe political disagreements. They should not be a matter of Left versus Right but of limited, practical and achievable good versus well-meaning fantasy and over-reach.
This theme is everywhere now, even in something as basic as internet search engines.
Take Google for example. If you say things their shadowy ideological teams and computer algorithms don't like, you can have your Blogger account cancelled altogether - sometimes containing many years of content. Or they can find ways to 'shadow ban' you to make you hard to find.
It has got to the point where Google's core function as a data finder has been hampered. Yesterday I sought a funny Spectator piece from 2012 by Melissa Kite about her crazy spaniel Cydney; I put in the names and other key words, in several different ways: nothing. Why? Is it because she's 'right wing'? Yet when I switched to Bing.com - bingo!
Similarly two days earlier I looked for a sexually frank poem by the Middle Scots poet William Dunbar. Too sexy, even when it's half a thousand years old? For again it was Google 0, Bing 1.
It's worrying when the world's leading search engine can't search.
I thought it might be just me, but apparently the way Google's algorithms hamper its service may be causing it to lose market share:
"Google's algorithm updates have been well documented, starting out sporadically with one in 2000 and another in 2002, then becoming increasingly more frequent over the years. In the present climate, hundreds of search algorithm changes are made every year, ranging from minor changes to far-reaching broad core algorithm updates that shake up the search engine results pages (SERPs). By contrast, Bing algorithm changes are rarely spoken about in the SEO community.
"Although Google still dominates the global search market in 2025, Microsoft has seen some incremental gains in recent times. Google retains an 89.73% share of the global market, although this has fallen from 93.47% since February 2023; during the same timeframe, Bing's share has risen from 2.18% up to 3.98%."
Ironically, I found that article without trouble!
Away with grand schemes and attempting to remake humanity by force and propaganda. Let's have openness, humility and mutual respect.
