Aweh, My Dearly Beloved Fellow Ruminants & Groupies,
Forgive me, dearly beloved ruminants, it has been three weeks since my last ruminations. I have also harboured some impure thoughts about municipalities and service delivery. On the bright side, we enjoyed a wonderful, blog‑free holiday.
I confess to a severe post‑holiday melancholy as we drive home tomorrow. Monday marks the real start of the year, and the task list looms. This is chipping away at my legendary mirth. I’ve also neglected the essential self‑improvement ritual of New Year’s resolutions. But dearly beloved, I eagerly await your suggestions on how to tackle my many known and unknown deficiencies.
So, what is in store for 2026?
From a personal perspective, I officially reach my sell-by date this year, although there are those who rightly suggest I have reached this milestone quite some time ago. In May this year, I reach the official mandatory retirement age of 65. So, I will retire for the second time. There are part-time offers, suggestions from some that I write a book and thoughts of becoming a hermit to study the meaninglessness of the universe. I will approach all of this with my customary indecision learned from my role model, Cyril Rum and Cola. Decisiveness is overrated anyway and is often the hallmark of the impulsive and ignorant who might do rash things like abduct foreign leaders.
Are sell‑by dates a good thing? Some say that, unlike food, people don’t have sell‑by dates, something reflected in US and European employment law. Down here in darkest Africa, we don’t subscribe to that. Maybe we could teach our more enlightened northern liberal elites a thing or two about biology and objective reality. Of course, I consider myself part of the liberal elite, but what’s a bit of cognitive dissonance anyway?
If you think it would be refreshing for a POTUS to string together unwoven, complete, vaguely factual sentences in something sort of resembling English, then yes, you’re probably pondering sell‑by dates too. I freely admit to suffering from a mild case of Team Biden Syndrome™, symptoms include wincing at every public sentence and pretending it’s just a stutter. But let’s not forget the classic strain of Trump Derangement Syndrome, where the cure might be worse than the disease. Truth is that both these political shelf‑warmers have long outlived their sell-by dates. America, it seems, is choosing between expired goods one frozen, one flaming.
But this isn’t just about two past-their-prime politicians. It’s about what or who allows them to linger on the shelf so long. Cue the larger existential crisis and a reflection of a larger part of American society. Which brings me to some thoughts about 2026.
Are we witnessing the beginning of the end of American exceptionalism? What might this mean for the year ahead? Once again, I am wracked by indecision. Overthinking, anxious pensioners fret about investments. It’s what stands between a second‑hand Corolla and a new BMW. Oh, woe is me.
My belief in American exceptionalism is starting to fray a bit at the edges. The narrative that our exchange rate would continuously deteriorate is not looking so robust anymore. The global economic order is starting to shift. The global financial flows into the USA are reversing.
I heeded my brother’s advice, he’s an asset manager who costs roughly the price of a free lunch or two, and I sold some US assets, paid annoying capital gains taxes, and diversified into other parts of the world and different currencies. Very surprisingly, there were no Bloomberg headlines about my rebalancing. I’m not skittish, just slow and methodical, and that has served me well. I’m ruminating about further diversification in 2026. Dearly beloved readers, what are your views?
My actions as a lone lunatic may seem insignificant, but I’m far from alone. In a couple of decades, will historians write about the 2020s as the start of the end of the American era? A highly polarised society with sky‑high debt, anti‑science inward‑focused populism, and cruelty and xenophobia emerging as political tools is simply not the America I know and love. It is not great.
Or am I wrong? Maybe US democracy is self‑correcting, and this is just a blip, not the end, but a painful wobble in the broader story of American exceptionalism. I don’t pretend to know. My best guess is that real damage is being done and won’t be easy to reverse. The slow erosion of the rule of law, extreme polarisation, and the emergence of a Gestapo‑like military and law enforcement environment is not encouraging.
Meanwhile, here in sunny South Africa, aside from crime and ongoing infrastructural decay, things might slowly improve, or not. Democracy is working, and there are some encouraging signs… though I still can’t decide.
Expired Goods, Melancholy Ruminations & Other 2026 Forecasts
In conclusion, or maybe not, indecision remains my guiding principle for 2026. Why commit to one thought when you can flirt with five and offend three? I might change my mind about all this tomorrow, but then again, I might not.
I hope that helps.
Yours, indecisively
Bruce
Ruminant Pink Friday 