Neil Oliver on the New Year

Here’s part of Neil Oliver’s weekend monologue to ring in the New Year:

In a few hours, we welcome 2023, but as far as our leaders and their lackeys are concerned it might as well be Groundhog Day.

I look at the headlines on this last day of 2022 and what do I see? Covid, Ukraine and Climate Change. Folks nuttier than anything found in a selection box are talking about bringing back face masks. God help us. Let’s remind everyone for the umpteenth time that Covid is now no more dangerous to most than the common cold. But still, the talk is of the pandemic, same old, same old.

. . .

I honestly feel the relentless push to keep us down, with fear of pestilence, fear of war, fear of the ending of the world, is the equivalent of a sustained beating designed, once and for all, to knock the last of the spirit out of us so that finally we shut up and do as we’re told.

But here’s the thing: that spirit is not vanquished. Instead, and on the contrary, in the hearts and minds of enough of us, that spirit has been ignited into flame.

. . .

The more each of us speaks to out in the world, the better. The more we share, the more reassurance we provide one another, and the stronger we are. That’s where the hope lies, and the promise of brighter days sooner or later.

. . .

The Hobbit Frodo Baggins feels all but overwhelmed by the enormity of the task ahead of him and tells the wizard Gandalf,

“I wish it need not have happened in my time.”

“So do I,” replies Gandalf. “And so do all who live to see such times. But it is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

Happy New Year, to all dear friends and fellow travelers.

Read the rest of the transcript here.

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