It's a hobby. I certainly wouldn't want to make a profession out of it - although I used to say the same thing about playing music... my concern being that by being forced to do something every day I would learn to hate it... Which is a valid worry.
When you truly, deeply Love something, however - inevitably, you will come to a fork in the road of your relationship with this thing, and you will have to choose either commitment or abandonment...
For Music, I chose commitment.
For the Study of Reality, we will have to wait and see.
After these 5 years of study, and a couple short months of published commentary, I feel I am ready, if not entirely qualified, to make a few predictions. Keep in mind that most of the people who make decisions in our country are not qualified in any way to do so...
Maybe that's why I feel my predictions are as worthy as most people's - and possibly more informed.
2009 - 2012
I think that we are going to see simultaneous, paradoxical developments in many areas of interest, including social structure, community development, economics, armed conflict, trade, infrastructure, finance, distribution of goods, agriculture, and the black market.
When I say paradox - I mean that we will see things happen that seem to indicate the emergence of a trend - and we will see things happen that seem to negate the possibility of this trend ever playing out. These things will be happening together, at once, and it will be up the Beholder to determine which Reality he or she would prefer to subscribe to.
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
The Cities are going to become literal concentrations of misery. Real-World economics are alreday dictating that the cost of shipping goods - including food - is impractical in today's world. Globalism has failed in practice, and that is because it's principles are not in harmony with Reality: It simply does not make sense to truck bluberries up from Mexico when we grow them here in BC. It is not our job as citizens to accept massively inflated prices at the supermarket because it somehow means we are providing jobs and growth to Mexican truck drivers....and excessive profits to those who make and sell the gas.
They, in turn, are sick of having to work 80 hour weeks for a few bucks an hour so that the Company can Stay Competitive.
Blueberries: 1.99/pint or 3.99/half-pint. This is also the New Reality. Which will you support?
Paradox: I predict that we will see a 'Divestment' of human resources out of the Cities, at the same time as we will witness a mass influx of starved-out small town populations into the Cities. Basically, many people will simply leave where they are to try to find hope elsewhere. Those who are suffering on the bottom rungs of the urban reality will move out to the abandoned suburbs, the towns, even the bush, to try and eke out an existence away from the violence and vulgarity of the City. Some will band together and lay the foundations for new (old) self-sustaining agricultural communities, farms, co-operatives. Some will not have the ability to conceptualize a new way of living, and nomadic or sedentary tribes of unstable, substance-abusing, outcast citizens will flourish. There will be beautiful, self-sustaining communities and there will be decrepit, desperate, savage communities - likely within miles of each other.
The flip side to this will be the influx of small-town people who, facing falling revenues and few options, will feel that their best hope to find more economic opportunities would be a move to the City.
ECONOMIC STRUCTURE
In the event of a currency failure, alternatives will immediately become available within the more organized communities. Barter will become very common and we will see a return to common-sense valuation of items. This is a necessary and natural progression after financial catastrophe due to the predominance (and worthlessness) of non-sensical "products" like Collateralized Debt Obligations.
Paradoxically, as these grassroots economies take root, we will see the entrenching of current economic power and policy at the Federal and Corporate level. In the event of a currency failure, the Corporate Government will issue a new currency, likely the global currency that has been in the works for some time. The Corpogov will then declare as 'unsafe' or 'unstable' any new economic models/currencies being used by the communities, and demand that the 'pessimists' stop undermining the economic dictatorship (still run by the Fed, of course.) This will be a defacto declaration of war on the citizenry, and should the Corpogov decide to start using force to break up these new economies, violent raids and subsequent resistance will become standard.
To be continued...
