Wolrdwide Helter Skelter

Helter Skelter ride, Brighton

The dizzying speed and intensity at which events, and governments, are passing around the world is breathtaking.

Tunisia and Egypt. Bahrain and Yemen. Libya and Wisconsin. It's impossible to make sense of this whirlwind of history just as it is impossible to tell which way the wind is blowing inside a tornado. But there seems to be a few common threads.

The global price of food has skyrocketed this past year. It is up by 25% overall but grains have risen over 40%. People around the world are literally being priced out of the ability to feed their children. 2011 may well be the year of worldwide food riots, perhaps even food wars.

Also, leaders from Mubarak to Gadhafi to Walker share a complete deafness to the voices of their own people. Each believes he is loved like a god and each believes he has godlike infallibility. Compromise, even listening to opposing viewpoints, is unthinkable to them. Each would rather die, or kill, than admit being wrong.

Intransigent inevitably leads to conflict.