It really is a mad, mad, mad, mad world

I can never remember how many "mads" there are in the title of the film It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World but, whatever the number, it is not enough for the world we currently inhabit. All the old certainties have been turned on their heads in the topsy-turvy lunacy in which we live. In the United Kingdom the Conservative Party, which had always been non-ideological and blindly supportive of all branches of the Establishment, is now fervently ideological, whatever the cost to the country. The party of capital and the bosses throws its weight behind the workers (at least, it says it will). The young, who were supposed to be frivolous and not care about the future, now adopt an air of concern about housing, jobs and debt. While the elderly, whose experience of life used to make them masters (and mistresses) of good sense, throw caution and everything else to the wind, blow their money on frivolous living and don't give a fig for what happens to the country they profess to love. Then there is America. For the whole of my life, the Russians (or Soviets or Russkies as they were variously called) were The Enemy, with China not far behind in the hatred stakes. What the Americans could rely on was being defended by the branches of their security services, especially the legendary FBI, and their magnificent tradition of judicial independence and strength. But in today's mad, mad, etc. etc. the president and administration of the United States cling to the Russians as their best friends, with China hugged to the bosom, too. While the FBI and CIA are vilified, their leaders undermined and kicked out, and judges treated like simpletons and minions. The lessons which were assumed to have been learnt from the first half of the 20th century and implemented through the second half are casually jettisoned. The USA and UK were believed to have the strongest political systems and constitutions in the world. They were monuments to civilisation. Who can seriously still believe that in the age of Trump and Brexit?