Has the parrot started confusing himself with Dr Who ? And his cage with the Tardis ?
One thought here is that – post computers and social media etc – we are settlers in the new country, the new world, which these discoveries have made for us. Essentially, we are still strangers in it and adapting to it – or trying to. In the meantime, our surrounding psychological, social and legal frameworks are still essentially of the world we’ve left behind. We seek to apply them to present conditions and behaviour, but they don’t fit and therefore don’t work. They haven’t kept up. They were anyway perhaps unfit for purpose by now, due to overuse and natural wrinkliness.
So the link is to the proverbial Wild West. A new country where the hoodlums and outlaws are in control and having an easy time, running the main street. Wyatt Earp hasn’t arrived yet. Or he is slow on the draw. Whatever the case, the hoodlums and the maniacs are ahead of the game. They are so sure of themselves, they don’t bother to hide. On the contrary, they are running nations, smearing constitutions, despoiling temples.
When is our High Noon ? We may have passed it.