Tuesday, November 23, 2010

How Long?

How Long Before TSHTF? [More]

Got this one late Friday--since I don't post much except for GRE columns on weekends, I almost lost track of it.

It's a question worth discussing: How much time do you think we have?

My own answer would have to be you can never tell because we have no idea what the catalyst event will be.

Maybe that's another discussion to have--what do you think will be the likely irrevocable event to set things off?

My guess would be something we don't come up with, but as my kids will attest, I've been wrong before. And how.

6 comments:

zach said...

As long as the dollar is the reserve currency, probably awhile yet. It's hitting the people on fixed incomes like social security first. Even with people now getting angry, less than 1% understand that if there is one thing the market should control, it is the supply of currency and credit. I'd be mildly surprised if the currency wars don't lead to real wars/revolutions within 2-4 years. Big wars. Then again, who knows?

Kevin Wilmeth said...

I'm with David on this: who knows? The only certainty is that it will happen.

I'm well aware that each succeeding generation seems to fear the immediacy of the same thing, going back quite a ways, and somehow we motor along despite it all. (Given my view of human nature, I suspect this is actually an unintended consequence of (real) people being so inherently peaceful that they don't want to "start some shit" even in the face of what has become perpetual atrocity.) Somehow the adaptability of man keeps us going--which is ironically one of the things I find so endearing about human beings.

But history shows cycles, and we're nothing if not "due". Just as a river may be "late" for its thousand-year flood, or a volcano may be "late" for its next major cyclic eruption, so we happen to find ourselves in wait for the real change that is a-comin. The only questions are when, and how messy must it be?

As much as I can manage it (and it's tough, some days) I try to live by the principle of: Be ready, but live life. I'm in Condition Yellow already, right?

Same thing.

(Actually, one could argue that it's Orange, not Yellow--after all, we know it's the state that is coming for us--but we still don't know which arm it will be, nor when. Even in Yellow I can be ready at a moment's notice.)

Mack said...

The Atomic Scientists have a Doomsday Clock.

Maybe we should have one of our own.

Defender said...

A lot closer than it was yesterday. The Obama administration has directed the TSA to collect the identities of anyone who refuses backscatter naked-scanning or enhanced patdowns, or encourages others to object and protest. The names will be turned over to the Threat Assessment department of Homeland Security as probable "domestic extremists." There's a clause in the memo that would seem to include websites -- the "alternative media" -- who criticize the new procedures.
I don't think they've thought it through, really. Do they REALLY want TALKING time to be over?

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/30286

sofa said...

It seems that the nation has accepted the chains, and just adapts to each new outrage and moves on.

It would go on forever, except the long train of abuses has so weakened America, that external forces (islam and china and many other thugs) now see opportunity.

Internal forces within the country will not trigger anything, as they have not.

External forces, pouncing upon the weakened corpse, will be the catalyst.

The pace of internal rot is accelerating. The pacing and nature of external events is impossible to predict. It may be the long slow grind to endarkenment, without a delieneating event. Or it may the 1st or the 5th cataclysm that snaps our back.

Interesting times...

Sean said...

Beats me. You'll know it when you see it. Over the lips, past the gums, look out stomach, here it comes. As an aside, there are some people in Europe, promoting the idea of cleaning out all bank accounts on Dec. 7. The idea is to start some kind of panic amongst the bankers, and teach them a lesson of some kind. More likely, if they carry anything off, it'll be a panic amongst the depositers. Oh boy, THAT'LL be fun.