New comment from Bill Nelson on his Facebook page:
'I know this is said often, but my generation was so fortunate, so privileged, to grow up in an age when some of the greatest creative, cultural shifts in art and society were taking place. We were so lucky. Now we endure, in our twilight years, the dumbing down of virtually everything, a new dark age where Americans vote for an ignorant bigot and the world descends into hatred , warmongering and chaos. Such sad times. But things will change, a new voice will arise, a new direction will come, and a new generation, not yet born , will pick up the torch and shift the balance back to a better direction. It will take time, but it will happen. Keep the faith!' (https://www.facebook.com/bill.nelson.54943600)
I always appreciate it when Bill takes the time to comment on wider (political/social) issues. Several years ago, I think he called it exactly right on Brexit, Boris Johnson, Trump, Liz Truss, etc. And before that (2010) he predicted correctly on the coalition between David Cameron's Conservatives and Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrat's. At the time nobody knew how that would turn out - some were optimistic, others pessimistic. To Paraphrase Bill's comments from back then, he said he thought they (Cameron and Clegg) would end up being universally reviled. Pretty good prediction (long before Brexit and David Cameron's role in it were known)!
McLuhan (or Ezra Pound - I can't remember which, perhaps both) once said artists were "antennae of the race", early alarm systems. And we see great artists such as Bill as ahead of their time in many ways. (Btw, he recommended David Lynch's Eraserhead long before Lynch was well known, and he recommended Robert Anton Wilson way before Wilson established his reputation as important counterculture author, etc... there are many examples like this that I can think of, where his early recommendations of something turned out to be gold).
Good to see most of the comments on FB in positive agreement with Bill on his remarks. Another day, another ray of hope!
"I would say that the Republican party are no longer a legitimate political force but have become, under Trump's control, vassals of a neo-fascist dictatorship of the kind that we were warned about in the novel '1984.' Truth no longer seems to count for anything, along with decency, compassion and progressive, thoughtful solutions to America's problems." (BN, 11 Nov 2020)
Meanwhile, Trump has said he'll ignore court rulings and that he should have a 3rd term. Lists of forbidden words are now in force, with government agencies purging their public websites of "forbidden" content - terms such as "climate", "inclusivity", "feminist", "confirmation bias" (the terms seem to differ for each gov't agency). It's Newspeak straight out of '1984'.
Tip for those who (like me) don't use Facebook but occasionally want to view certain FB accounts: Create a skeleton private FB account with the minimum info, and login to that account to view public accounts. You don't have to interact or send friend requests, etc, but you get to see most of it without the hassle of those login boxes preventing you viewing (although with some accounts, eg Bill's, you won't see the embedded media in posts).