Hello Sonya! These are some thoughts that were running through my mind after watching last night’s debate…

Divisions run deep. Divide is not red and blue anymore. Fragmentation has taken over the division as the shaky center is flanked by the cantankerous fringes. The notions this nation was built on are lost in commotion. Conversation is allowed no accommodation. Decency is allowed no constituency. We are in a zero-sum game. Team spirit is an obsolete term.

The prevailing sentiment is “What can you take from your country?” Profit from blood, sweat and tears is the new business plan. The golden goose will be sacrificed and golden eggs will be supplied no more. Benjamin Franklin said that there is gold underneath this earth, as long as you dig it one till at a time.

In the 1770s, Thomas Payne said “These are the times that test the soul of men”. Those times are back again.

China presents a threatening paradox. Over the preceding several decades, the Chinese government have homogenized a country of 1.3 billion. In contrast, however, we have a deeply fragmented country of 330 million people. The West hoped that financial emancipation would find an echo in political emancipation and facilitate democracy in China. The reality has unfolded in a thoroughly unpredictable manner, and is sadly rich in irony. The virus that originated in China has wrecked the Main Street economy, deepened existing cultural chasms, further poisoned political discourse, stressed the voting process and corroded democracy. Blame is not confined to COVID, though. The virus afflicting US is not singular.

These times should try souls of men.

What’s been on your mind, Sonya?

-Brij