Sanctions

Does sanctions make people more merciful?  My thought would be no.  When things get tougher and people have less they might be less likely to give.  If you have had trouble you might be more or less likely to give when the going gets tough.

Sanctions can reduce access to weaponry or other tools of oppression.

Sanctions might divert funds from healthcare, schools, and support networks that might reduce the jadedness of some individuals from being oppressed.  This might stabilize a status quo which could be good or bad depending on the regime.

A man in an oppressive regime might see that others in the world have more and those in charge might fuel the rhetoric that those nations are to blame.

So instead of the sanctions protecting against the regime they can end up just fueling a narrative that perpetuates more wars.  Not how it always is I would think though many times could be.

Maybe sanctions are just meant as a slap on the wrist in some cases.  A way to say we disagree but we don’t want to risk war.  Is the slap on the wrist enough, is the slap on the wrist worth more than the damage it does to the lowest class of their people?  Could enough sanctions start a war? Maybe so, might be wise to pay more attention to who we have sanctions on, the extent, and why.  Having a clue to how things might play out in the future might give insight albeit imperfect way to help plan.  I am not speaking on a presidential, or government level here.  This could have major impacts on people’s families.  

Of course by just preparing this could shift the way it is perceived nationally or internationally.  Everyone is likely looking for constant indications and insights on how to protect their family.  Those that know more than me thus might have a harder time sharing that information effectively.  This could be akin to not wanting to yell panic in a crowded theatre.  I truthfully haven’t thought much about it until now.  I have relied on the small amount of information I have received in the news.  

Listening to the news as I have grown older it has been easier to pickup on biases.  Thus if the news is biased how do I effectively infer how to live my life.  We live in a global economy, people from all around the world travel and work in the United States.  We learn a bit in school but understanding international politics is hard and not all people myself included have the right words or the right perceptions of everything going on.  

In today’s world this could mean the difference between food on your table and being on the street.  So as far as I can see if this is very difficult for a college educated man like myself, we are likely dramatically failing the underprivileged in our country.  That is bad for our future.  “Just keep swimming” worked out for Dory.  Not what I would really want to have to tell my children and family nor my friends.

Just the realization of this gives me pause to post it.  If I do it might make people worry.  Worry can be a snowball that causes a greater problem than the one that actually existed.  Yet if it was me, I would want to know.  Instead of slowly watching myself and my friends lose jobs and resources year after year until we wake up and say how did this happen?  If I feel like this now, maybe the snowball is already a Boulder, yet saying this could scare people even more.  Maybe it is all a test on my life and not others so no need to worry except to help make my life better.

I am in a weird position.  I am not sure if my voice carries weight or not.  It is hard to know if I am just the guy you talk to with good conversation or if I have an ear with higher authorities.  I am a Christian yes.  I am not a priest nor preacher.  I have written leaders yet I have received silence.  I have worked with multiple companies though I haven’t had long term contacts.  I used to write on Facebook but do to the increases in surveillance and my own computers being hacked as well as other life problems I left.  So given all that do I post or not?  I appear to be in some sort of virtual box or proxy so maybe even if I do post it is not getting out.  I assume that the government is blocking me, though they might not be, or certain portions of what I say.  Or possibly corporations with certain policies or political leanings.

Truthfully the way I have been treated I am not sure I am not hooked up to some kind of virtual environment in a lighthouse.  Maybe it is actually 50 years later and computers have advanced to the point that they can completely simulate life.  Maybe 1000 years later and I had been frozen after a coma or a stroke.  I realize with the right combination of drugs and a military or organization this kind of effect could be possible as well.  To make me feel as though things were no longer real.  All I know is that while I am writing this I perceive that the year is 2021 and there is a pandemic going on in the world.  While I would like to know what happened in 2021, if this is a different year like Vanilla Sky.  I would like to wake up.  Maybe waking up to realize your much older is heartbreaking, yet I would like to know the truth.

I will not post this at this moment, yet I do want to wake up

Thing have been different since Oregon, maybe the oil spill on the road before we left, thought I missed that semi.  Maybe not.  Maybe when I drove out in the woods in Oregon.  Maybe I am actually younger, and they are using some kind of drug to speed up my brain and train me.  Make it seem as though years have past when it was only moments.  Regardless I want to know the truth and wake up or at least be let out of the cage.  Something feels off about this reality.