Josef Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister, famously said that if you tell a lie a hundred times it becomes the truth.  Those were strange and abnormal times. We are reliving them today.

Vladimir Putin is a throwback to those sinister times. An ex-KGB officer, he is a master of intrigue. A master of spin. His is the ultimate macho-image, a bare-chested leader on horseback for the cameras.  The billionaire oligarchs are part of this Mafioso culture sworn to do his every bidding. The interference in the US elections and the poisoning of the ex-Russian agent are straight out of a spy’s playbook. Even the shooting down of a Malaysian passenger plane by a Russian missile and the outrage which followed was met with a shrug and a raised eyebrow. His popularity in Russia is huge- after all he is bringing back the glory days of the Soviet Union.

The Russian Boss also has some hold on Trump. The erstwhile reality show host is a purveyor of blatant lies, lies and half-truths. But he is a saviour to his core constituency. This master of deal making has filed for bankruptcy four times (Or is it six times? Does it even matter?), and not released his tax returns. Sex scandals, shady financial deals, racist comments, and the Russia probe – nothing sticks to him. He is made of Teflon. You can fool some of the people all the time and Donald J Trump is a hero and an unfairly targeted victim to his voter base.

Three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the world has become a dangerous place. Despots like Erdogan from Turkey, the Filipino Duterte and Kim Jong Un of North Korea are now described as “Strong Men” and featured in a TIME magazine cover story. Right wing and ultra-nationalist parties have come to power in Italy, the Five Star Movement, Hungary and made big gains in Germany and France. Brexit is another assertion of sovereignty and nationalism. The BJP’s rise to power in India also is partly powered by this same undercurrent. Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its invasion of Georgia have led to sanctions but no solutions.

China’s strongman Xi Jinping – Supreme Leader for life-has imperial ambitions. His adventures in the South China Sea have raised alarms. The grand initiative of resurrecting the old Silk Route with the One Belt-One Road project is one with this dream. It will drive many poorer or smaller countries into the Chinese hegemony and debt. The Chinese Empire is taking shape.

Elsewhere, Saudi Arabia and Iran are fighting proxy wars to achieve dominance in the Arab world. Yemen is one such cursed country, which seems to have fallen off  the world map. Nobody seems to be interested in resolving this acute humanitarian crisis. The Syrian war has gone on for 7 years but the numbing impact of the TV images has not led to peace. Who is fighting on whose side? It is a veritable jigsaw puzzle. The actors in this inhuman conflict fill a big round table.

True, in the 90’s the Balkan wars dragged on for nearly a decade. Remember  Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia and Serbia of the former Yugoslav Republic? But international efforts for a resolution were genuine and consistent. It was finally the NATO bombings that ended the war. Also many at the forefront of the genocides were dragged to the International Court at Hague.

The massacre of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar reeks of ethnic cleansing. The silence of the Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is baffling. The rise of Hinduvta fundamentalism, the Chinese crack-down in Xianjing province, the perennial African hotspots all point to a disturbing trend. A world simmering with tensions.

Geopolitical, religious, ethnic, ideological, racial issues keep the pot boiling. A more globalised and connected world should have been a better place. Instead it has only become more complex and insular. We are not learning our lessons from history.

Compounding matters is the growth of both global and home-grown terrorism. Recruits for the cause are being brainwashed on the internet. The ISIS may be on the back-foot in Syria and Iraq but it has expanded to East Africa as Al Shabaab and in Indonesia as ISIL. Boko Haram holds sway in parts of Nigeria and the Philippines has also been battling the terror scourge for the last decade. Al Qaeda and Taliban are familiar names in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Egypt. Deadly individual terrorist attacks have taken place in many European cities, a vehicle replacing the bomb as the weapon of choice in some instances. Chilling!

And meanwhile the media, the Fourth Estate, has lost its venerable status. Fox News and Sean Hannity openly champion the Trump agenda. “Deep State”, “Fake News”, “Witch Hunt”, “Liberal Conspiracy”- the new phrases are lapped up by the conservative core base. The rest of the media is tying itself into knots trying to come to terms with this new alternative reality. In their attempt to be fair and neutral no one is calling the bluff. In their misplaced efforts to analyse the latest Twitter tirade, the real issues of health-care, DACA, immigration, racism, tax-cuts are relegated to footnotes.

In India too, the media channels and news outlets have aligned themselves with either the previous Congress regime-the Opposition or the BJP led government. There is no attempt to seek the truth or present facts in a balanced manner. No commitment to present an unbiased narrative. In their quest for the sensational, the worst stories and soundbites are being played out.  Social media has followed suit with each party presenting its version of the truth. A negative, divisive atmosphere is being built up with each power-broker thinking this will work to their advantage.

Duterte the Filipino strongman comes across like a mob-boss. So does the secretive Putin and the Trump team. In your face. In the US, well- meaning politicians, news anchors, business leaders, academics are struggling to wrap their heads around these new situations. No tough questions are asked. Only the Late Night hosts have got it right, having the gumption to call out this bull-shit. But are they being taken seriously?

You can see how weird the world has become when the US President shares the stage with the brutal North Korean dictator, who commands a nuclear arsenal, and calls it an honour. Trump’s only agenda is the Nobel Peace Prize. Kim Jong Un aka the Rocket Man walks away with most of the spoils. What is wrong with the multilateral Iran Nuclear agreement which the USA has walked out off?

As for the Strong-Men! Well, we have, the world over, bought into their lies and their megalomania. Being corrupt, tyrannical, ruthless, repressive, immoral, manipulative and even incompetent does not matter anymore if you have a loyal fan-base.

This is then the New Normal.  Bizarre, unpredictable, erratic, unstable, scary. And we are all adapting to it instead of trying to confront, change and correct it.