It was in 1963 that Bob Dylan recorded the song by this name. It was the era when many white people in the USA could not grasp the concept that black people were people of equal value. It was the era when the USA was fighting a war against a small country in Southeast Asia, in the belief that winning that war was essential to preserving freedom and peace in the world. One of the tools used in that war was Agent Orange, a chemical defoliant used to uncover trails used by opposing soldiers. In the process, millions of Vietnamese were exposed to that chemical, causing health problems which endure to this day. I was 21 at the time and agreed that the old ways of thinking and doing had outlived their usefulness.

Well, the times did change, and we went roaring down the road of endless progress. In recent years many have begun to worry that what we call progress is not producing the desired effects. I am probably poking some people’s sacred cows, but after years of accusing CO2 of being the cause of global warming, there is now research indicating that CO2 is not capable of absorbing enough radiation from the sun to act as a greenhouse gas. Could that be why the humungous amounts of money spent on alternate energy sources have had no discernable effect?

What really seems to be going on in the climate change hype is that nebulous global forces are attempting to usurp the sovereignty of nations. This also became very evident during the COVID crisis when all countries were pressured into masking, mass vaccination and social isolation. A lot of people are looking back and saying “We’ve been had, the cure was probably worse than the disease.” We went along with the measures at the time, there didn’t seem to be a viable or peaceful alternative. But there was something dehumanizing about many of the measures. The worst was denying families access to people who were hospitalized. We have a suspicion that the isolation and loneliness may have done more harm than the virus.

The election of Giorgia Meloni in Italy, Javier Millei in Argentina, Donald Trump in the USA, the collapse of Germany’s progressive coalition, the popularity of Marine LePen in France and Pierre Poilievre in Canada are symptoms that our world is once more changing direction. The elites in universities, government and the media have lost touch with ordinary people. The ideals of globalism do not connect to the down home concerns of such people.

All of this is to say that Donald Trump is not the cause of what is happening right now, he is a symptom of the wave of malaise that many people feel. He was able to ride that wave to electoral victory. Will he be able to deliver on those people’s expectations? Are we heading for an era of increased personal freedom, and with it increased personal responsibility? I can’t answer that, I’m not a prophet of the future. What I have written is what I believe is happening today and it appears to portend some kind of major change in our world.