Hope and despair in nearly equal parts
I've been observing and listening to what people around me are saying concerning recent events. It's been interesting.
I've heard people say that they never thought tyranny in America was a possibility... until the pandemic. Now they see how easily it could happen.
Since the beginning of the pandemic I've heard the laughter at preppers be replaced by "show me how" and "I wish I had listened".
I've seen people who never cared about liberty suddenly start to pay attention.
I've seen more and more people getting their kids out of kinderprison.
This all gives me some hope.
On the other side of the coin, I've also seen people watching and waiting, anxiously, for that next "stimulus check" from Uncle Scam.
I've seen people calling the socialistic nihilists in big cities "anarchists" as if that's what they were.
I've seen people looking at events and stupidly saying "this is why we need police" and emphasizing how helpless and useless they are to take care of their own lives without a master to do it for them.
I've seen "libertarians" arguing for re-opening the government schools on schedule and/or using the stolen money to fund other forms of schooling.
My latest newspaper column offended another sort of person. The sort of person who doesn't want to see anything which might disturb his dreams.
He began his one-run-on sentence email by saying this is his home town (OK... I was born here too, but how is that relevant?) and he hasn't seen any higher prices (I have and so has the person I mentioned in the column and if you check gold, silver, and Bitcoin prices you can see them right now with your own eyes) and that to him, the dollar "hasn't lost anything".
I could show him charts, but the trick he plays is in the "to him". The dollar is still worth what it was-- to him-- because he believes it is. No evidence will convince him otherwise because he believes what he believes. I wonder if he has ever once in his whole life complained about a higher price for anything. Because that would falsify his claim.
He ended by saying "God is in control" and knows what's going on.
I probably shouldn't have replied, but I did.
"I'm glad for you.
I'll tell the person who had started noticing higher prices in Clovis stores that you say she must be imagining it.
I'll also tell the gold and silver sellers that they have to sell their products to me at last month's prices because you say prices aren't going up. I wonder what they'll say.
God knowing what's going on doesn't mean God wouldn't let humans suffer for doing foolish things. Actions have consequences."
Am I wrong?
As always, there are reasons for both hope and despair. The shining examples, the mistakes in human skin, and the self-deluding.
I feel like a SHTF event is imminent. Notice I don't say I think it is, rather it's just a feeling. Possibly triggered by the upcoming election.
I don't have a crystal ball. I'm almost definitely wrong.
If you can see it coming, it's not going to happen. That's almost a guarantee.
Just like the Coronapocalypse came at us out of nowhere, triggered by unexpected government overreactions to a fairly normal virus, a more serious event will also be a surprise. Consider the Coronapanic a practice run. It should have shown you the holes in your preps if you were paying attention.
I lucked out with the panicdemic because I was ready. Well, maybe it wasn't completely luck; I've prepped for years "just in case", and it finally paid off. I was pretty sure I wouldn't see it coming when it finally happened, and I didn't. But it didn't matter because I stay ready all the time-- and I have done so since well before the Y2K fizzle. I intend to be just as ready, if not more ready, the next time something ...
Sometimes it's good to just listen to people's stories without interrupting, even when you know the stories are nonsense.
My 2nd wife used to tell of a ghost that lived in her house when she was a kid. It was an interesting story even though I didn't believe it. I learned quickly that her family was very prone to believe anything as long as it fit with their magical worldview.
Other people tell me stories about beneficial things political government can do. These stories are no more true-- in the sense of being objective reality-- than ghost stories, but they can still be informative if you want to know which particular superstitions a person is living under.
Interrupt and you'll never hear the whole tale. Listen and you might be entertained by some fantastical tales of magical realms. Just don't bet your life on them being true.
My nature is such that I simply can't see government as a solution to anything. This puts me at odds with most of the rest of my species.
Yes, I think "social media" has become a horror. This doesn't mean I want government to regulate it; it means I think people who don't like it (or are too dumb to know not to take it at face value) should probably stop using it.
The same is true of so many other things I don't like.
Litter/pollution, scammers, sexual predators, abortion, animal cruelty, Hillary Clinton, poverty, drug abuse, pandemics, crime, and all manner of awful things.
I may hate them, but that doesn't mean I want government to step in. Look how often that has the opposite effect anyway; making the original problem worse-- or at least not solving it-- while also creating a host of new problems that never would have existed otherwise (anti-gun legislation being a perfect example).
And even if government intervention doesn't make this specific problem worse this particular ...
