New Year 2008
I'm not putting the "Happy" in front of "New Year" this year. I've haven't been paying much attention to the ticking over of the new year for a few years now, but still, this one seems the most anti-climatic I've ever experienced. This is probably because I was paying attention to it this time and wondered where all the year-end summaries and celebrations were that used to be everywhere on tv counting down to midnight. With all the cable stations it was hard to find anything in the local tv listings except ABC and FoxNews. The rest were ones I found surfing through the channels.
For most of the evening though, I've been watching The Twilight Zone Marathon--something I haven't done in years. Rod Serling was indeed a prophet providing much needed social commentary and criticism about the direction our society was/is heading.
I, among others, believe this year, 2008, will be the year of reckoning. The financial situation is melting down and has all the hallmarks of the onset of a major depression far worse than the 1930s.
In its own way, I think this will actually be a good thing since it precedes the onset of true diminishment of the oil supply which peaked in 2006. With conservation the oil supply will last longer. Without conservation, it will diminish rather quickly. But, because of the economic depression people will already be learning to live with less which is what the peaking of global oil supplies portends.
Unfortunately, this will also have the effect of setting our society into disarray worse than the previous depression. I'm not sure what will happen in general, but I do know what I'll be doing before it gets really bad. I will be working to rebuild community in my small town and revamping the local economy so that we may weather what is to come.
As a result of just these two things, the corporatocracy that runs the squashes the life out of most things on this planet is facing bankruptcy. More importantly, the moral bankruptcy of the system is becoming ever more evident and people are beginning to wake up and look for alternatives.
I suppose in many ways I am actually more hopeful about the future than I have been in the last several years. There's only one thing that really bothers me though. It is the totalitarian nature of the American government. They are on the cusp of wreaking untold havoc on everyone, not just in the Middle East. I don't the money or the oil will run out soon enough to prevent that. And because the politicians are all part of the deluded and actively anti-spiritual nature of life in the U.S., they have become all but irrelevant except at the most local levels of city and county government. These are places where the most good can done to provide much needed leadership in rebuilding community, restoring its spiritual dimension, and making the local economy work again.
Anyway, may the new year be one of true renewal into a new paradigm that values life and treats people like they really matter. For that I shall welcome the New Year 2008.
For most of the evening though, I've been watching The Twilight Zone Marathon--something I haven't done in years. Rod Serling was indeed a prophet providing much needed social commentary and criticism about the direction our society was/is heading.
I, among others, believe this year, 2008, will be the year of reckoning. The financial situation is melting down and has all the hallmarks of the onset of a major depression far worse than the 1930s.
In its own way, I think this will actually be a good thing since it precedes the onset of true diminishment of the oil supply which peaked in 2006. With conservation the oil supply will last longer. Without conservation, it will diminish rather quickly. But, because of the economic depression people will already be learning to live with less which is what the peaking of global oil supplies portends.
Unfortunately, this will also have the effect of setting our society into disarray worse than the previous depression. I'm not sure what will happen in general, but I do know what I'll be doing before it gets really bad. I will be working to rebuild community in my small town and revamping the local economy so that we may weather what is to come.
As a result of just these two things, the corporatocracy that runs the squashes the life out of most things on this planet is facing bankruptcy. More importantly, the moral bankruptcy of the system is becoming ever more evident and people are beginning to wake up and look for alternatives.
I suppose in many ways I am actually more hopeful about the future than I have been in the last several years. There's only one thing that really bothers me though. It is the totalitarian nature of the American government. They are on the cusp of wreaking untold havoc on everyone, not just in the Middle East. I don't the money or the oil will run out soon enough to prevent that. And because the politicians are all part of the deluded and actively anti-spiritual nature of life in the U.S., they have become all but irrelevant except at the most local levels of city and county government. These are places where the most good can done to provide much needed leadership in rebuilding community, restoring its spiritual dimension, and making the local economy work again.
Anyway, may the new year be one of true renewal into a new paradigm that values life and treats people like they really matter. For that I shall welcome the New Year 2008.
posted by NeoLotus at 12:56 AM
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