My heart grows so heavy every time I try to think about what next year will bring for us. I can only see darkness. No glimmer of hope. And I can’t pinpoint one thing, selectively, that I could point to as being the cause of that.
Could this be the end? For me personally (because I can’t see through it)? For most of us (our rock bottom, end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it moment)? For all of us (nuclear Armageddon or natural catastrophe)?
Or is it possibly because so many disruptions await us next year that they are inseparable, their effects incalculable and their resulting destruction inescapable?
I don’t know. Believe me, I would tell you, if I had any clear idea. I just know that there are so many acute possibilities for life changing/ending events accumulating at this time and any one of them, any grouping of them, or all of them together, could make life difficult, untenable or downright impossible for any and all living things on this planet.
The large threats remain as the usual suspects. Those things will never go away until we reform our social structures and personal expectations and get out from under the regime of greed, exploitation and animosity that currently define us …but there is little sign of willingness to alter any of those things. Maybe a little cosmetic adjustment here and there, but nothing materially affecting the way we live.
Most of us in any case have little or no understanding of how the way we live is endangering our capability to continue living.
And so, unbridled climatic reactions will continue unabated, transmuting from the merely annoying and inconvenient events that we have tasted so far, to truly terrifying, destructive and epoch ending catastrophes that will snuff out our lives like so many candles in a gale, through storms and floods and fires and unbearable heat and cold and upheavals in the ground on which we walk and the mountains above us and the eruption of molten magma from volcanoes and ground fissures and the throwing of billions of tons of rock and dust into our atmosphere to create perpetual darkness and winter, ending countless lives through asphyxiation or in agonising pain of slow starvation which could also result simply from extended drought and lifeless soils. These things are not in question. The trigger has been pressed. The ball is rolling, and gathering momentum. Like it or not, there is little we can do to prevent it, despite the fact that we are about to be asked to pay for massively expensive but worthless attempts to do so. Who can tell if the speed of events will overtake us in the next decade or two, or whether it will play out over this century or into the next? But it will come, and the signs are there for a fairly rapid escalation. Only an ice-age will stop it, and we wouldn’t really want to be around for that either, I think.
And so, …I can’t go on explaining the other major options for civilisation-ending events. I have said these things so many times. I can’t go through it all again about why. Just take it as read, and imminent, and just think about how your world would be without money, job, home, welfare, health service, pharmacies, supermarkets, restaurants, any means of powered transport, electricity, gas, running water, telephone, schools or day care, police to protect you, cleaners to clean up after you, sanitation, a defense force, prisons, eyeliner, blush, waxing or tanning treatments, clothing or shoe shops. And without hope of any of those things ever being restored to how you have relied on them (some maybe unknowingly or unrecognised) so far in your life. Now, what are you going to do? How will you cope? How will you survive? Will you survive? Have you the will to survive? There will be no anti-depressants, no drug-pushers to allow you a means of escape from reality. It will be a case of get real or get out. And real life can be extremely difficult without the trappings of a modern, cultural, society to molly-coddle you. Enough said.
There is one thing though that I want to mention more specifically as being (or becoming increasingly so, in my mind) a potential cause for the darkness that I see surrounding the prospects for anything good coming out of the year 2016, and that is the prospect of global warfare erupting at any moment during the year. The risks are once again very high for an escalation of such a conflict to the level of a nuclear exchange that would, or could, end life on Earth. Let me explain the reasoning.
The United States, or at least its leaders, the ruling elite (as distinguished from the ordinary folk, who are mostly just like any other folk anywhere), want, plan for, and have the expectation that it is their destiny to rule and govern the world. It’s a thing called US Hegemony, and everyone else around the world is supposed to accept that, agree with the concept, and live with it, like it or not. It’s why they have the largest military force of any nation, bigger than that of pretty much all other nations combined. That doesn’t mean a thing of course, because they know that they can’t move without the support of all of their allies and other Western nations not within their immediate inner circle, known as ‘The Five Eyes’. All of the native English speaking nations in case you were not aware.
Now, that’s all well and good, from their perspective, and no-one ought to have any problem with accepting the concept of being a US vassal for ever, should they? That’s a rhetorical question. I don’t need assistance with the answer.
The only problem is, some nations leaders do have a problem with it, and will never accept the US as vassal overlords for their people and lands. And who could blame them when they take a look at how the US treats its own people, where 50% of the nation’s wealth belongs to the top 1% of the country’s population. Not only that, but the US has the largest proportion of its people incarcerated in overcrowded jailhouses of any other nation on Earth. Not to mention that they tend to shoot each other more often than anyone else and most of them can only make ends meet by living off a food stamps handouts because they don’t have a means of income at all or can only find demeaning part time jobs. It’s not a pretty picture by any set of standards. The surprising thing is that the US can find anyone to be their allies or friends.
So, who are these upstart world leaders who will not submit to US Hegemony? Well, the largest of them are Russia and China who together with a number of economic partner nations (the BRICS) are forming an alternative bloc (defined as: a group of people or countries that are connected by a treaty or agreement or by common goals) for mutual economic benefit. I can foresee that as interest wanes across the world, in being associated with the US, either economically or militarily, this bloc could well grow in strength.
As it stands, if both Russia and China stood together to oppose the US in a military conflict, with or without the support of current US allies, they could beat the pants off their enemies with no trouble. The major problem with that is that a wounded and losing US military would be very likely to escalate the conflict to a nuclear war status, and that would not end well for any of us or our innocent other planetary life-forms.
The US must be aware of all these facts, and yet they are so caught up in their obsession to rule the world as overlords, that they continue to push Russia in particular to accede to the hegemony that they see as rightfully theirs. That is the reason behind NATO expansion into Eastern Europe. That is the reason for the troubles in Ukraine and the setting up of a US puppet government in that country. That is the reason for the bringing down of flight MH317. That is the reason for them setting turkey up to shoot down a Russian military aircraft. Goading, goading, goading. All aimed at irking Russia into starting something. Having failed to stir up a war over Ukraine, they are now trying the same thing in Montenegro. They will never stop, until they get their way or until Russia bloodies their nose, or their allies desert them after seeing them as the lunatics that they are. That last, may not be that far away. But they may then become desperate lunatics, and such are pretty dangerous both to themselves and everyone around them.
I offer this article from Dr. Paul Craig Roberts as supporting evidence for my assertions above: War Is On The Horizon: Is It Too Late To Stop It? It makes very interesting and revealing reading. Dr. Roberts credentials to speak on these matters are considerable. He was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy in the Reagan administration and has a host of other worthy accolades.
This YouTube video also offers a useful perspective:
Another commenter, James Howard Kunstler, seems to be of similar mind. The Story Line Dissolves I wonder what his year-end predictions will be for 2016?
And what of Russia? Are they being pushed too far? How much more pushing and pressure will President Putin and his advisers take before they react other than in the calm way that they have hitherto? Mr Putin is on the brink, I think. A renewed flare-up in Ukraine (which the US has just funded through the IMF), one more incident with Turkey, a step too far in Montenegro, or even just a passing insult from US leaders, may push him that once too far. I would rather he held firm and steady, waiting for the next crack to appear in the Western alliance shaky foundations. European nations and Canada are already beginning to distance themselves from the US/NATO position especially in Ukraine and now also in requests for further support in the Middle East. But such movements and weakening in bargaining positions only serve to heighten tensions among the major contenders.
Listen carefully to Predident Putin’s words on this short clip from his comments at the Valdai Club in October 2015:
“If The Fight Is Inevitable, Be The First To Hit”
A fight does appear to me to be inevitable, unless the US backs off. But they continue to push for a fight with Russia. They will not back off. Such a step is not in their plans, but even so, I’m not sure they would have recognised the gravity of Putin’s statement, if they even cared to listen.
We live in dangerous times. I repeat, my heart grows heavy at the prospects that await us next year, whatever they may be.
My slogan for 2016? Based on the above, it could be any of:
- 2016 – The Darkness Grows
- 2016 – Could This Be The End?
- 2016 – Hegemony or Bust
- 2016 – Cruisin’ For A Bruisin’
- 2016 – Clash Of The Titans
- 2016 – A Goad Too Far
- 2016 – Last Out, Turn Lights… Oh, They’re Already Off!
- 2016 – If Collapse Don’t Get Ya, The Nukes Just Might
- 2016 – And The Skies Shall Fall (title of an appropriate book I am reading)
Not Something Else 