The Cynic's Guide To 2017

2017 is a going to be a great year for cynics. They will have a lot of things to say ‘ told you so’ about.

England Swings Like A Pendulum Do

Over in England, the cynics will have a field day with all the fallout from Brexit and the ascension of Boris Johnson. I am comforted by this because it means that it’s not just the Americans who let the clueless make their most important decisions for them.

Land of The Free, Home Of The Brave, Yeah, OK.

In the US, the cynics are all comedians and they will have a field day with their new cartoon president. He will easily turn out to be the most ridiculed president in US history, and this is in a country that had Richard Nixon as president.
My personal cynicism will be expressed in more of a contrarian fashion in that my feeling is that Donald Trump will not be dangerous and reckless, running wild with the nuclear codes, destroying lives by taking away the American health care safety net and basically trying to con people into believing that he knows what he is doing.
He won’t launch a nuclear attack because the Pentagon won’t allow it. He won’t dismantle the heath care system because he has nothing to replace it with. And as he tries to con people into thinking he knows what he is doing, all he will do is piss them off.
It seems to me that the US government is all bought and paid for by national and international corporations and they aren’t about to let Trump or any of buttwipes in his cabinet do anything to really rock the boat. So 2017 will be a year of increased exploitation by these corporations, and control of the international relations by the Pentagon.
Hey…it’s not called the Military Industrial Complex for nothing,
Bottom line here is that 2017, for most Americans, despite the posts many wrote about how awful 2016 was, will be pretty much the same. The only real difference will be in the quality of the comedy that results from Trump’s presidency.

Oh Canada

Here in my country, Canada, now officially the greatest social democracy on earth, we will be going through some changes.
Having a real human being as Prime Minister, (as opposed to a total asshole as President in the US) will help us in negotiating trade deals with other countries. In fact, it’s already started.
Justin Trudeau is the polar opposite of Donald Trump. But he is no slouch and will not allow this country to be taken to the cleaners by the US. He said so much in an interview with CTV’s Lisa LaFlamme, (who sounded like one of those bitches from Fox News).
Trudeau is slowly but surely informing the world that Canada is a good place to do business, and I personally think that towards the latter half of 2017, we will see the fruits of all that effort begin to manifest.
Certainly this country is running a rather large deficit. But in order to compete for business in today’s world, your infrastructure needs to be in good shape, your workforce needs to be well trained and your ability to offer real incentives needs to be well organized.
I believe all this will happen. And I believe that because this country is not being run by an asshole.

The Middle East

The Middle East situation has not really changed since the formation of Israel nearly 70 years ago. These are tribal wars. And all the international interference in these tribal wars are all about one thing and one thing only. Oil.
Nobody wants to start World War III. The only country that can afford to fight a war like that is China and they prefer the much more passive aggressive approach to taking over the world. If it takes a couple more centuries so be it.
The best way reduce international meddling in these tribal wars is to do what countries like Germany, Sweden and Norway are doing and that’s to simply reduce your dependence of the little fossil fuel pot of gold that everybody wants to control.
Sadly in countries like the US, the big oil companies have a stranglehold on the economy, and since they own the government, very little will change in that regard. But we can do this in Canada. And they can do this in a lot of countries. And my hope is that as the storage technologies develop for these alternative energy sources, it will become a reality in many more places.

And What About You, Jim?

Well, I guess this is a good day to think about 2017 since it’s already here.
My sister, Sharon Twidle, has already solved one of my main problems. That being good coffee.

She bought me a beautiful Keurig machine and one of those little filter baskets so I don’t have to use the little non-biodegradable packages that are clogging the landfills these days. I have, after relatively little experimentation, found the right amount of coffee to put in my little basket, and am having a great coffee experience every day.
Another main issue in my life was getting out of Toronto. Over the past year or so, I have been finding living in Toronto to be a total pain in the ass. The infrastructure has not kept up with the population growth. The murder and car accident rates have grown substantially. The air quality sucks and the cost of everything is through the roof.
So out we got.
I am now a happy camper in St Catharines Ontario. Soon to be connected by rail to the Big Smoke, and only an hour away by car if you time it right. I have kept all my clients. And look forward to helping some of the local businesses with their communications as well.
Finally, there’s the issue of aging. Sorry can’t do anything about that. But fortunately, and maybe it’s thanks to all the bike riding I do and the fact that I’m descended from one of the hardiest Scottish Highland clans, I feel anywhere from 20 to 30 years younger than my actual age.
And besides, I’m a writer for fuck sake. As long as I can sit in a chair and think straight, very little will change in that regard.
Lastly, I want to continue to build my following on beBee, which I think has a very bright future in the social media realm. I want to continue telling the truth and working on op/ed pieces with my pal, Phil Friedman to keep people aware of the issues that are affecting us all.

Bottom Line

All in all, I think that 2017 will be a year of transition. One in which I hope a lot of people will make it their business to deepen their understanding of how the world works. Because it really is a different world and many of the ‘old school’ opportunities that used to be so plentiful are not so much.
My wish for everyone is that you get yourself educated in the new ways of the world. Because your understanding of that is going to be the key to your success going forward.

If your business has reached the point where talking to a communication professional would be the preferred option to banging your head against the wall or whatever, lets talk.

Download my free ebook, Small Business Communication For The Real World, here:
 https://onwordsandupwords.wordpress.com/2013/11/24/small-business-communications-for-the-real-world/

All my profile and contact information can be accessed here:

https://www.bebee.com/producer/@jim-murray/this-post-is-my-about-page



All content copyright 2016 Jim Murray

"""