RED FLAG WARNING: Assessment and Predictions
Assessment and PredictionsM.R. Bradbury, The Watchman
It is the end of the
first fifteen years of the new millennium. The human condition remains about the same as when
the clock ticked past twelve those fifteen years ago. We still have widespread
poverty, hunger, greed, corruption, barbarity, and hate. At the turn of the century there was hope
that maybe, maybe, we’d passed into a new age. One that would usher in a global
community where one man respected another and all would rise to meet the
challenges confronting our world. Alas,
perhaps, it was but a misbegotten dream, a folly of hope, and blind ambivalence
to the true dark nature that mankind still harbored deep within the realms of
his soul.
I remember the night of Y2K. My daughter and her husband came to our house
in case the feared meltdown of the PC world actually came about. We all stood outside and having previously
procured some fine cigars and bourbon, we proceeded to watch the sky come alive
with fireworks and the sounds of many pans being beaten with metal spoons as
the time approached. When the clock on
the TV banged out the countdown we held our breath, clutched our drinks, and
steeled ourselves for the TV to go black.
But nothing happened. The TV still blared out the Auld Lang Syne as
always. Relieved that we were not
relegated to the 1800’s, we toasted the New Year and New Century. Then we noticed the old dead pine tree in
the yard behind our house had caught fire from fireworks. Such a great metaphor for the next dozen or
so years hence, the old burned away with nothing to replace it with.
I share that story in light that life and love continues
onward for each individual and despite the ways and waves of the world, we tend
to live as we always have depending on our own efforts at survival. Looking at the past year with that
perspective, not much really has happened to affect how most humans live out
their daily lives. This is very true for
Americans. We have continued in 2015 to
rack up every higher amounts of material stuff, that we use occasionally, but
not necessary for our survival. The
amount of waste still being generated by the average North American household,
including from those of the so-called environmentally aware, is
staggering. Our, myself included, rate
of consumption of every possible natural resource from Al to Zn and every
compound imaginable can only be seen as catastrophic for the long term
sustainability of Earth and our existence.
In 2015 humans continued to kill one another. And be not mistaken, it is not the guns,
bombs, knives, clubs or whatever tool used that is the cause of these deaths,
but the true source of motive remains the angry hearts of the Cains against the
Ables. Boiled down it still comes to
the basic premise that came between two brothers; hatred generated by greed,
envy, jealousy, and the need to be honored over another. In this past year we have seen one Islamic
group rise to commit horror upon horror, all in the name of their god, sadly
expending their resources and energies in a level of barbaric savagery not
witnessed since Nazis gassed and burned Jews or the rape of Nanking. And in so doing, not one bit of improvement
in the lives of their own people have occurred, still living in mud huts with
poor sanitation and hunger lurking just at the doorway. The community of free nations with the power
to stop the savagery has done little to nothing. And like a metastasized cancer, this
barbarity is spreading abroad in other Muslim nations, where the Muslim majority
hide fearfully in their homes while the beasts run wild to destroy and extort
fealty to their illegitimate cause. The
civilized world ignores this plague to their peril.
The year of 2015 also brought into focus the tyranny of
thought. Who would believe in a nation
wrought from a revolution that resulted in the most free society in world
history would have children begot who disavow the liberties that so many have died
to protect? The rise of ‘safe places’
within institutions of “higher learning”, where unpleasant thoughts can be filtered
out and no one must critically think about contradictory theory from their own held
misconceived ideas, is a display ignorance, superstition, and bears resemblance
to the dark middle ages of Europe where true progressive thought was crushed by
petty tyrants only desiring to protect their personal fiefdoms. The irony of the ‘safe place’, totally missed
by those who clamor for such protections, is there is no safe place. None. Zip.
Nada. The minute one exits the ‘safe
place’ they will be bombarded with civilization’s crushing realities brought on
by the intolerance of human against human.
And those who champion the ‘safe place’ where they segregate from the
mainstream of society, only further isolate themselves from reality and thus
limit their ability to affect the very change they desire. The word engagement is lost on this
generation. The new word is withdrawal. They are abandoning the quest for
change and hermit like hiding away in a filtered, digital game unreality. Such leads those with corrupt hearts left
unchallenged to grow as tyrants.
Lastly, but not necessarily in any greater importance than
the others listed above nor those not commented upon, we saw in 2015 the
continued practice of infanticide through the abortion of human children. Planned Parenthood alone proudly proclaimed
to have murdered 323,999 infants. How honored they must feel at such a ghoulish
feat. We have in effect conducted a WWI
each year since 1972 with the same economic and cultural impact that the war
had on all nations involved at that time.
It is pretty safe to conclude given such on going rate, we, and those
nations that practice abortion, will never economically recover nor ever gain
the moral greatness they once experienced.
In 2015 the climate change acceptors rallied to foist off
their doomsday predictions of a 1.7 degree C (3.06o F) (1) increase in
global temperatures in 120 years from now.
Their view is nothing less than the catastrophic end of all living life
on the planet should this increase come to pass. The hysteria was ratcheted up to a foaming
frenzy at the big Paris enclave of climate change worshipers. The result was another, yet another,
agreement that could not be seen for all the smoke and mirrors that reflected a
big fat nothing. The real message was
from those who have to those who have not, and in the end greenhouse gases will
continue to pour forth every bit as much as it has from day three. The truly tragic aspect of this wasteful
attack on the windmills of climate change is missing those environmental
disasters that are here now and must be address since anyone of them could
result in far greater destruction occurring before we reach 2136. Things like
ocean pollution where trash islands as large as Texas float about diminishing
the life giving UV light critical to plankton, the keystone source of food for
all sea life; Water sanitation throughout the world; Elimination of disease
bearing insects; Soil fertility to improve crop production; Cures and antidotes
for HIV and a host of other terrifying human diseases. These and others are far
greater threats now, today, to humanity than a slight temperature rise far into
the future. If these current challenges
are not resolved now, there may well be no one around in 2136 to read the
thermometer.
So what holds for
2016’s for citizens of the Earth? Tragically,
humanity will experience more of the same we’ve seen in 2015. We will still see
brother against brother, nation against nation, and one civilization against
others. Instant communication will
continue to stir the caldron of fear and envy, pitting humans against one
another. Instability in economic,
politics, religion, scientific, and cultural affairs is rising globally. It is as if the tinder is dried and primed
for the spark to ignite an all consuming fire, sweeping the good along with the
bad and only after it has raged to a smoldering remnant will we know peace once
again.
For us in America, regardless of who wins or loses in the
great presidential race, not much will change in our daily lives. Birth, taxes,
and death will continue to be the order of life, with material accumulation and
consumption dominating the years in between birth and death.
We no doubt will redouble our efforts to watch what we say
lest some sensitive being is offended and we are ‘outed’ as some kind of
disgusting dirty thing to be banished from society. Feeding at the federal, state, and local
trough will continue, unabated, with treats and freebies doled out to whomever
is the winning side. Americans will continue
to squander its inheritance with nary a thought to tomorrow or even the next
generation. The multitude of special
interests will selfishly fight for their slice with accusations and
recriminations, growing more discordant, radical, ugly, and coarse with each
volley. We will find the perennial
victim classes continue their efforts at dragging down all to their sniveling
level, denying those who can critically think and therefore flourish remain
well within the clan, daring not to go against the victim tide, lest they too
be “outed” or ‘Tom’d”.
We will at a year from now still be scurrying about like
frantic ants trying to buy, buy, buy, buy, and buy more and more and more. All because we’ve become so big, so massive,
so gargantuan of an all-consuming hive of sloth, addicted to the next technical
gizmo that sucks down resources like a black hole. Will anyone stop in the middle of the world's
largest outdoor store and scream out, ‘When will it stop?”
Well it will. Just like a baseball that is thrown hard will
speed toward its target until inertia fails against the pull of gravity and it
hits the ground, so will our human systems ultimately crash. Reality has this nasty habit of occasionally
rearing its ugly head and crushing the dreamers and apathetic. Since we continue to fail to learn the
lessons of the past, not only are we doomed to repeat them, but with each cycle
the process become more horrific, with outcomes that numb the human conscious.
In 2016 we stand just at the very near edge of something like this occurring.
The stars and planets seem to be aligning in such away that the history we have
wanted to avoid repeating is about to dump us into the next do-loop. We will be
sucked into the great abyss with the rest of the global community, to slosh
around in the blood and gore until we too are spent. Those that survive will say, ‘Never again’,
as once was said in decades past, only to do so again and again.
However, there is one
outlier that could change everything. There does remain some reason to hope the
future predicted will not come to pass, at least not yet. Hope remains in Christ Jesus. Despite the trials and travails being born by
Christians around the globe, even in the face of on-going persecution there is
light in the darkness. It is the light
of the faithful to pray and obey. The prayers
of the righteous avail much and so by the millions we pray for the staying of
the hand of evil by the power of God. We
obey his call to pray unceasing for the least sheep of the pasture who are hungry, cold, unprotected, and wounded. We can pray for the peace of God to
come upon those misled into evil, to sooth their savage souls and to turn their energies toward aiding their fellow citizens. We can pray
the eyes of those who are blinded by their ignorance and selfishness will see
the light of what is right and true, then make their decisions based on
righteousness. And Christians must
pray for courage to stand and be known for who we are, sinners saved by grace
and blessed to share the good news of Christ’s offer of salvation, honored to
help restore the greatness of our people, and by our action lead them from
repression, through redemption, and to restoration.
Unto The King!
(1) https://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/spmsspm-projections-of.html
