United Nations:

Is it time to re-think the United Nations idea? It's a concept that has lasted far longer than its predecessor, The League of Nations.

It was the horrors of World War I that spawned the League. That lasted about 20 years before the island Nation of Japan gave it the middle finger, making its decisions inconsequential. 

Suddenly, the world was ready for another slugfest. Japan's Tojo, Italy's Mussolini and Germany's Hitler were poised to change the world each to their own specifications. 

The United Nations was spawned at the end of World War II when the horror of massive human exterminations was still a raw wound in people's minds. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

And it was. The time was ripe for a lasting peace. No more killings. No more scanning the daily casualty lists to see if some father, brother or neighbor fighting at the front was still alive.

That worked more or less for over 70 years, but it appears time to review what is happening once again. Is the UN still performing a useful function in a world that has changed so much since 1945?

It is uncertain if we've reached that point now, but we do have to look at the evidence. Urban crime spinning out of control, young people joining the jihadis overseas, going to fight over fuzzily-defined third-world causes. 

There is a dispersed war going on in otherwise civilized societies as people go about killing each other almost casually on a daily basis. With what's going on, it won't be long before we won't need a war to improve our perspective.

Fractured into countless gangs each promoting special causes, our (otherwise) civilized societies appear to have lost their ability to recognize what's right, what's wrong and the concept of innocence until proven guilty. That concept has been replaced by ill-conceived human rights legislation that's cleverly designed to lead straight to litigation.

Displaying very limited success in promoting international peace, the UN is now engaged in promoting causes through the media. These appear to be designed to relieve successful societies of personal wealth in support of third-world causes. Third world beneficiaries appear to have grown used to such charity and show signs of feeling entitled to it. 

The UN's recent announcement to the effect that we are the final generation before world collapse due to climate change is fear-mongering at its worst. Clearly, it is designed to stampede taxpayers in successful societies to accept limitless taxation chasing carbon dioxide, a vital component of our atmosphere. 

The UN has taken to promoting loosely-defined theoretical disasters such as global warming and climate change. Global warming was too easy to disprove, so it morphed into climate change, an on-going natural planetary function that is probably totally unresponsive to human activity.

US President Trump appears to be aware of the intent of this kind of propaganda. Ditto the Chinese. Nor does India seem to be a terribly enthusiastic participant.

Among the developed nations, the most compliant with the UN's propaganda machine appears to be Justin Trudeau's Canada. Our leader does not hesitate to commit us to contribute, albeit unwillingly, increasing slices of our personal revenue. 

That's not charity. That's extortion.

So, does the UN still serve the purpose it was intended for away back when the idea that war was hell was still fresh in our minds? 

Maybe not, but who is going to tell them? Who has the guts and the political clout to do it? Is it going to be Donald Trump? Xi Jinping? Vladimir Putin? Angela Merkel? Or some other leader from the developed nations who's grown tired of playing Santa Claus with the money of all those who get up and go to work in the morning?

Maybe our own great leader??  

Naah. To him, the UN is hallowed ground.