Winds of Change -- Hot, Humid, and Smog-filled

 

In 1990, the German hard rock/heavy metal band The Scorpions released the song Wind of Change, which for me contained ideas for a truly hopeful shift in global relations and culture. Here are the lyrics:

I follow the Moskva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change
An August summer night
Soldiers passing by
Listening to the wind of change

The world is closing in
And did you ever think?
That we could be so close?
Like brothers
The future's in the air
I can feel it everywhere
Blowing with the wind of change

Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away (dream away)
In the wind of change
(Mmmmmmm)

Walking down the street
And distant memories
Are buried in the past forever
I follow the Moskva
And down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change

Take me (take me) to the magic of the moment
On a glory night (a glory night)
Where the children of tomorrow share their dreams (share their dreams)
With you and me (you and me)
Take me (take me) to the magic of the moment
On a glory night (a glory night)
Where the children of tomorrow dream away (dream away)
In the wind of change (wind of change)

The wind of change blows straight
Into the face of time
Like a storm wind that will ring
The freedom bell for peace of mind
Let your balalaika sing
What my guitar wants to sing (sing)

Take me (take me) to the magic of the moment
On a glory night (a glory night)
Where the children of tomorrow share their dreams (share their dreams)
With you and me (you and me)
Take me (take me) to the magic of the moment
On a glory night (a glory night)
Where the children of tomorrow dream away (dream away)
In the wind of change (wind of change) 

Though I was a teenager when the song came out, I was still young at only fourteen. In the 1980s -- the last decade of the Cold War -- the tinge of communism still stained the air we all breathed back then. Despite my youth, I knew this sense of anxiety that permeated the era. Movies like Red Dawn, Rambo II and III, The Hunt for the Red October, etc. were big hits that showcased the tensions that existed between the communist world (USSR, China, and Cuba mainly) and the West. The Cold War was as normative as waking up. And I was intrigued, even at a young age, with nuclear war. Movies like The Day After, By Dawn's Early Light, and Miracle Mile took the the threat of being nuked deep into the psyche of 1980s subconsciousness. 

Then, by the time The Scorpions released Wind of Change, the world had witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Tienanmen Square Massacre, and the unraveling of the Soviet Union, which was complete within a couple of years after. The Scorpions song was almost a seal on the deal. It was the mark of a new epoch in human history. The old enemies were dying and peace seemed to be on the horizon.

Though nations made headway in nuclear de-armament, sadly new enemies arose, like Iraq in the early 90s. By 2001, Islamic terrorism would become the primary enemy of the west. It was the unknown that was the threat in terrorism, but it was hardly existential. Life went on.

Then steps-in Donald Trump. Trump seemed to be the world's greatest political wedge, essentially splintering the Republican party. There were still classical American-Conservatives like Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney, but voices of an anti-intellectual and unhinged autocracy also arose, like Marjory Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert. The Republican party has become the party that stands against climate science, civil rights, and one that constructs its authoritarian bent on a skewed understanding of evangelical Christianity and liberty. They have become a party that welcomes populism, protectionism, and fringe ideas -- including conspiracy theories and historical revisionism. And in some ways, they enact traits akin to fascism. It has completely jumped the shark.

That's not to say the Left has no errors, but in the grand scheme of things, it is the Right that has lost its moral compass, even while lauding moral precepts like anti-abortion. Abortion seems to be the prime issue for Republicans, and so long as that is key, ideas as loony as a surreal cartoon can carry the day. 

On the other hand, there's a cultural shift that is fleeing the toxicity of the Right in popular culture. It is toxic in its own right. It elevates moral relativism, post-modernity, and its own self-centered initiatives. Sexuality is redefined, gender is fluid, and a social/ethical laissez faire approach undergirds everything. It doesn't care about existential threats as much as it cares about threats that challenge its narrow ideologies. 

Then, Putin and Russia invade Ukraine. A nuclear power pushing us backward toward a renewed Cold War and the threat of mutually assured destruction. Yet, despite the bipartisan claims made by both political wings in America, there are many who are almost complicit with Russia in tone and wordage. Madison Cawthorn calls Ukrainian President Zelenski a "thug," Right wing commentator Tucker Carlson has taken sides with Russia, and former President Trump just likes Putin as his non-gay man crush. The Left is politically responding, and thoughtfully so, despite Right wing accusations of being impotent. It's a sociopolitical mess in the West, while people are dying. Yet, we have hypocritically accentuated death in our national policy for decades, applied to not only our wars, but immigrants, the marginalized, the working poor, refugees, the unborn, and many more. 

In this time of existential threats from a backsliding Russia and a faltering climate, we concern ourselves with insular infighting, ideological brow-beating, and self-centered navel gazing (or genital gazing for some). We have lost our broader humanity for ignorance. Winds may have changed in the early 90s, but now they blow with smog and sulfur.