And so the drive forward through history continues, only that certain sections are driven in reverse. And there are more and more of them.

Voja Zanetic

In order to make the situation in the global vicinity regarding abolition of the right to abortion clearer, we will – on a completely different note – briefly stop by Somalia.

At the end of September 2020, Somali radio Dalsan broadcast news that seemed to have come from the distant past: Ahmed Kusane Hassan was shot dead in the small town of Jilib, after having been taken to court by the terrorist organisation Al-Shabaab and “admitting” that he engaged in witchcraft. This was the fourth public and trial-based removal of witches in just one decade. In the 21st century, on planet Earth.

This new age we live in has returned to “traditions” we thought had ceased: Barbara Zdunk, a Pole from Prussia, was accused of witchcraft and sentenced to death at the stake back in 1811. And so the drive forward through history continues, only that certain sections are driven in reverse.

And there are more and more of them.

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And now for a little fantasizing.

A few days ago, in a capital city of one of our regional vicinity states, demonstrations took place demanding abolition of mobile phones and the construction of a large number of telephone booths. Together, these two measures would enable an optimal, more natural continuation of long-distance communication for those who are far from their houses and workplaces. Those more radical among the crowd also demanded the return of telephone exchanges with operators who connect interlocutors manually, because the procedure of establishing a connection would then be even more harmonized with religious writings in which there are no mobile telephones (though there are no other phones either). It’s complicated, as the Facebook status would say.

This, of course, did not happen. Among other things, because the abolition of mobile phones would make it impossible for participants in a rally against the right to abortion in our vicinity- which did happen on May 15, in the twenty-second year of the twenty-first century – to snap some selfies. A memory of protesting against something that, like mobile phones, can also be considered historical progress. No one left this gathering in a steam-powered vehicle or in a horse-drawn carriage; news of the protest was not spread through drummers, but appeared in the media, which also produce and distribute content with the help of some kind of electricity. This is happening all over the globe, which stubbornly refuses to become flat again like it was back in those beautiful times when abortion did not exist. Not to mention vaccination.

Historical technological and communicational modernity, therefore, surprisingly brought with them the fashion of re-visiting issues that were considered unmodern and outdated until yesterday. Alongside the reconsideration of the right to abortion, there are also considerations on the right of countries to imperial status: either the right to abolish secular states, the right of capitalists to unpaid exploitation of labor and non-taxation of profit, the right of oligarchies to abolish freedom of speech and opinion. This area is being inhabited possibly because the fighters for “traditional” rights have moved to fight for some new rights, living in belief that the new freedoms will further strengthen the old ones. So, for example, fighting for rights to sports competition for transgender swimmers further promotes equality in, say, compensation for work between the male and female workforce. And it’s not like this is true or even possible.

Because, again, it’s complicated.

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A more astute reader will notice that this is a column about the right to abortion and everything that has been happening with that right lately, in which only the right to abortion is almost not mentioned and is not supported by any arguments. So it should be noted that the same methodology will be used when commenting on initiatives for legalization of slave labor, return to feudal management of agricultural holdings, violent religious and national conversion, as well as the use of direct current only. Whenever they appear in our future past.   Which is imminent, it seems.