Does the World Feel Normal to You?

“Does the world and the U.S. election feel normal to you?”

They were words uttered by Edward Snowdon at a recent conference.

"When I was a kid, presidents were people you looked up to, people you admired and aspired to be like. Do these candidates fit the bill? Do they represent the best of us? If so, wtf happened to us?"

Snowdon is a former American NSA intelligence contractor and a whistleblower who allegedly leaked classified documents revealing the existence of the US government's global surveillance programs.

He is a hero to some and a villain to others.

However you regard him, his words are thought-provoking.

My answer is that the world doesn't feel normal, or at least that things have changed a heck of a lot in a relatively short amount of time.

But maybe what we have today is the new normal, and any return to common sense, proven values and fiscal sobriety will be regarded as aberrations in the future.

Then, there is the quality of the candidates we see lining up as elected leaders.

It's certainly cause for concern, as whatever reverence for the leaders of yesteryear doesn't seem to apply to those of today.

Part of that may be because we were exposed to a different type of scrutiny of leaders in the past, where a cosy arrangement was often reached between wayward politicos and the few media barons.

That's how election-rigging, drug-using womanisers like JFK are still heralded as steadfast leaders filled with integrity by members of the Left and Right alike.

Even if the media sought to suppress some of his proclivities in the modern age, an independent operator would surely dish up the dirt on socials.

That then begs the question, is it better to know or not?