The Double Rainbow

 

And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

A double rainbow appeared in the sky as Queen Elizabeth died. As a monotheist, I must believe this is significant. While many things look grim, we may be on the verge of a golden age.

One cheerful note: Ukraine seems to be succeeding in their counterattacks. Imagine them pushing the Russians out. Then imagine the possible consequences inside and outside Russia. Imagine this as a civil war, between democrats and autocrats. Imagine Russia going democratic, as did the other countries of Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of the Iron Curtain. Isn’t this the inevitable march of history? Imagine a Europe that includes Russia.

Britain has a new prime minister. For all we know, Liz Truss may turn out to be an especially good one. Margaret Thatcher wasn’t Margaret Thatcher either, before she became Margaret Thatcher. She is making the right noises.

In a day or two, the Canadian Conservatives will have a new leader, almost surely named Pierre Poilievre. Poilievre has stirred up a lot of excitement. Remember Trudeaumania? We are seeing something like that now. This means people are hopeful again and full of energy for Canada’s future. We saw such an outburst of hope too in the Freedom Convoy. Since we have a minority government, an election might be forced at any time, and the worst rascals swept away.

King Charles III is not immediately popular. People blame him for the breakup with Diana; I have always thought he got a bum rap. His relative unpopularity may give him the humility to shut up: the sole necessity to do a good job at his peculiar post. If he can do this, people will warm to him. And the transition after so long a reign feels like a new beginning.

The American midterms are coming up, and the Republicans stand a fair chance of taking both houses. This could end the mad inflationary spending we have been seeing. Investigations could be opened into the corruption of the Biden family, the FBI, and the Deep State. In the days of Watergate, with the Presidency diminished, even before Nixon’s resignation, senators and representatives took up much of the role of leading the public debate. That may happen again, and Biden fade into irrelevance. 

The media landscape is shifting quickly in the US. CNN is firing all their ideologues. Warner Brothers and Netflix seem to be awakening from wokeness. New “woke” movies and TV shows seem to be bombing badly. Fox News is dominating the airwaves. Daily Wire is growing daily more powerful. Joe Rogan is moving daily further to the right. There is a tipping point, and things can change suddenly once “everybody knows” something new.

Things are crumbling in China. Many are alarmed at the effect this could have on the world economy. But if this causes the CCP to fall, the longer term geopolitical effect could be much better—like the fall of the Soviet Union. And I expect it to fall. Over the longer term, there is no way central planning can do better than market forces.

If it does not fall, it is going to stall. The magic of development will move on to Southeast Asia, India, and Africa. Where now it is more needed, and can do more good.

We are facing energy crises in Europe and in California, and no doubt other places. Bad as this may be over the coming winter, it may also discredit the “global warming” hysteria and usher in more sensible energy policies.

And if the world is desperate for oil, we have lots in Canada. This ought to be good news locally. The energy crisis is entirely artificial, and so it should be easily fixed. Now maybe we will build the GD pipelines, the refineries, start fracking in the UK, build new nuclear plants, and stop wasting money tilting at windmills.

There seems to be a housing crash in progress. While this is destabilizing, housing prices have grown unrealistically high. It is a good thing if they come down. Speculators have been investing in real estate when it would have been better economically to invest in productive industries. 

We seem to be through the pandemic. I have said from the start that, once this happens, we will quickly forget all about it as though it never happened. I think we are already starting to do so.

Since the pandemic was an extraordinary event, it should have little lasting economic effect. The bounce back should recover the lost ground, over the next few years. This seems to have been the case after the Spanish flu. That it has not yet is a measure of the incompetence of current governments. Incompetence, or malice.

If our governments and elites have been showing incompetence and behaving badly, they have probably always been incompetent and behaved badly. What is new is that we are seeing it clearly, thanks to improved technology. The first step to solving a problem is seeing it. Things may not be getting worse, except for the elites—they are getting better. The leviathan is thrashing about; but these may be death throes. The Freedom Convoy suggests that we can run things better without them.

Pope Francis has been hinting at retirement. Cynics are saying this would make no difference, since he has chosen most of the cardinals who would vote on his replacement. But historically, conclaves elect someone the opposite of the previous pope, particularly if their papacy seemed troubled. Even if the cardinals are cynical careerists, this would make sense to them. They will want someone who is convincing on doctrine.

Unfashionable as it may be to say so, our route out of this or any mess is spiritual revival. We need to recover our bearings. That means, for most of the world, Christianity. There are glimmers of a spiritual revival in the American pop culture. There are rumours that, if the lid came off, there would be massive conversions to Christianity in China, as there have been in Korea since the lid came off postwar. There are rumours of massive conversions to Christianity in Iran. There are massive conversions to Christianity in Africa. From a distance, it is obvious to these cultures that Christianity is the key to everything.

When the spirit descends, dramatic changes can be almost instantaneous. Situations that look hopeless can turn around. 

That may be what the double rainbow promises.