Showtime’s Vice, Making Sense Of A Chaotic World

July 6, 2020,

Making sense of life in a modern world that increasingly appears to make no sense is a continual challenge.

Out of the corner both eyes, there’s a feeling that danger lurks. If you follow the news and travel to many countries in the world, they are in turmoil.

The strife in the United States regarding race, politics and a strong right wing insurgence is well documented. If a person lives in America, given the country’s seemingly once stable past, there may be a feeling that the civil unrest is unprecedented.

Yet when you stop looking out of the corner of your eyes and look straight ahead, around the world, there is unprecedented chaos unilaterally.

There appears to be a team that is following the violence and madness like a dogged detective in a Packard running out of gas.

Vice is a documentary TV series created and hosted by Shane Smith of Vice magazine.

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Produced by Bill Maher, the show often uses CNN journalist Fareed Zakaria as a consultant, and covers topics using an intense journalist’s boots on the ground style of documentary filmmaking.

Subjects have included political assassinations, young weapons manufacturers, child suicide bombers, Indian and Pakistani border politics, the Chinese one-child policy, climate change, and bonded laborers in Pakistan's brick kilns.

It premiered on April 5, 2013, on HBO. The show's second season aired in 2014 and won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Series or Special.

On May 7, 2014, HBO renewed the series for two more seasons.

The show's cancellation was announced on February 1, 2019, making the sixth season its last season on HBO.

Fortunately on September 24, 2019, the series was picked up by Showtime and resumed on March 29, 2020.

For those of us who have faithfully watched the penetrating series that brings us the insights that main stream media outlets do not, it was a welcome relief.

Their services are sorely needed.

This modern world is a virtual powder keg where either war is in process or about to start.

Take India as an example.

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Vice expresses, “With India's leaders ramping up Hindu nationalist rhetoric, correspondent Isobel Yeung investigates the growing fear that the nation's 200 million Muslims are being systematically targeted.”

That was a crisis that we certainly were not aware of. Perhaps you as well.

Despite being the country's largest religious-minority, India's Muslim communities have been frequently subjected to violent attacks and assault by right-wing Hindu nationalists.

In the past, these attacks were along the lines of sectarian violence and characterized as communal conflicts between Hindu and Muslim populations. However, with the rise of Hindu-nationalism post the demolition of Babri Masjid, the attacks have become more systematic, taking the shape of state-sanctioned pogroms.

The roots of anti-Muslim violence can be traced to India's past– resentment towards the historic Islamic conquest of India during the Middle Ages.

Then there is the situation in Yemen.

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Yemen is a country at the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia.

It is the second-largest Arab sovereign state in the peninsula, occupying 203,850 square miles.

It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, the Gulf of Aden and Guardafui Channel to the south, and Oman to the east.

Yemen's territory encompasses more than 200 islands.

The most important current description of Yemen is that it is a failed state.

Since 2011, Yemen has been in a state of political crisis starting with street protests against poverty, unemployment, corruption, and president Saleh's plan to amend Yemen's constitution and eliminate the presidential term limit, in effect making him president for life.

Yemen's constitutionally stated capital is the city of Sanaa, but the city has been under Houthi rebel control since February 2015.

VICE takes us there too.

“A coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been fighting for four years in an attempt to defeat the Houthi rebels, who they see as Iranian proxies. But there is no victory in sight, various efforts at a peace deal have failed, and the war, being waged with U.S. supplied weapons and equipment, grinds on. Airstrikes, landmines, ragtag militias who use child soldiers, and widespread blockades of food and aid have made this the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

VICE News travelled to Yemen in October 2018 to report on the civilians who are being hit the hardest, the brave volunteers risking their lives to save them, and the motley crew of U.S.-backed fighters who want a fight to the finish, regardless of the costs.”

We could go on. Sadly.

What do we make of all of this? Can we make sense of all of this?

Trying to understand why the world is in this crisis can range from difficult to impossible.

The first culprit is the world’s surging population.

Global human population growth amounts to around 83 million annually, or 1.1% per year.

The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 7.774 billion in 2020.

It is expected to keep growing, and estimates have put the total population at 8.6 billion by mid-2030, 9.8 billion by mid-2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100.

The irony that is consistent with what some would say is common sense, many nations with rapid population growth have low standards of living, whereas many nations with low rates of population growth have higher standards of living.

Now on top of all of the global conflict, we are challenged beyond recognition by a deadly virus.

The new strain of coronavirus, first reported to the World Health Organization in late December, has infected more than 11.4 million people and killed 534,825 globally to date, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The latest update from CNN reports, “The virus is carried on droplets that come out of people's mouths and noses. Larger droplets fall onto surfaces and can be picked up, then carried to the eyes, nose or mouth. That's why regular hand washing and surface cleaning is crucial. Smaller droplets, however, can stay in the air for longer and be inhaled deeply into the lungs.”

It appears that the virus is even more insidious than we thought.

One more thing.

At cnbc.com they add, “Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London, said immunity to this thing looks rather fragile — it looks like some people might have antibodies for a few months and then it might wane, so it's not looking like a safe bet, It's a very deceitful virus and immunity to it is very confusing and rather short lived."

We didn’t say it was going to be a good thing. Just one more thing to contemplate.