I never really bought into the whole concept of the Rapture or Armageddon. Society has been through many Armageddons over the space of millenia.

It's just that in the times we're living in there has never been an era quite like ours - where one action can trigger another into spelling d-i-s-a-s-t-e-r for not only one country, but the world.

I, for one, do not have much faith in our leaders to serve and protect our best interests. They're going to do what they're going to do. I do hope and pray there are sane voices guiding and overseeing the process. In the climate we find ourselves in it is absolutely necessary.

Since we're all in this journey together, for better or worse, what gets you through each day - wondering if or when the touchy powers-that-be makes a wrong move, causing a chain reaction that could trigger a nuclear Armageddon?

Like do you have an "escape plan?" One sleepy little country town I've been looking at to retire to for the past several years has had a very sluggish real estate market for the longest time. Houses stayed listed for months, sometimes a year or more before selling.

In the past several weeks they are selling like hotcakes. It's the kind of place some might find respite - if they're looking for a getaway from mainstream society. The sort of place comparable to Thoreau's "Walden Pond." I'm not ready to retire yet or I'd be joining them.

I don't think there has never been an era quite like ours. What I do see is that our era as we know it is coming to an end. Not an apocalyptic end but a transformation.

The post WW2-era has been a period of remarkable growth and prosperity for "the west" but all good things must come to an end. Much of our prosperity is based on ever-extending credit, the unwinding of which has now begun. There will be winners and losers. There will be major geopolitical shifts. The petro-dollar will lose terrain. The dollar itself will have to devalue (already going on, encouraged by Trump who may be an oaf but has a keen understanding of the mechanics of debt), decreasing your standard of living in the short term.

If I may recommend a book: Signals by Pippa Malmgren. It will help you navigate through the anxiety you're feeling. It outlines what is going on on a global scale and how you can recognize it by the small signals that are all around you.

Despite the scale and gravity of the changes that are happening, and their associated risks, the book will also leave you hopeful and optimistic (well, at least it did that for me).

The best escape plan is to keep investing in yourself and your skills. That will see you through the hard times and help you take advantage of the opportunities arising from change.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2017 09:26AM by rt.

Good questions that got me thinking! We really don't have much of a plan, except to meet at our daughter's house because they have the ammo and we have the food. I don't know how we'd lug food over there,except to use a wheel barrow (if vehicle transportation is not available) and that would make us stick out like a sore thumb! Of course, I'd rather use a wheel barrow instead of a hand cart anytime! ;-D

so are you becomming a prepper ?

It's like an amusement ride. Hold on tight and enjoy the loop-de-loops. We all have the same final destination.

Maybe it's old age, but the current world situation is not nearly as scary as it was to my teen-age mind in the late fifties and sixties.

It was very grim doing drop drills, hearing air raid siren tests, seeing fallout shelter signs all over town, seeing ads for backyard shelters promoted like backyard swimming pools, civil defense triangles on the radio dial, etc., etc.

World War I, the "war to end all wars," was a period of great upheaval. Note that 4 empires were dissolved, and the British Empire doomed from that. Then there was the rise of Fascism and the expansion of the Soviet state, and the Cold War.

Sometime ago, the NY Times Magazine ran an article about various Doomsday projections: religious, financial/economic collapse, environmental (back then they feared an impending ice age!), chemical ("Silent Spring"), over population, nuclear, military, etc. etc. etc. There are a number of unifiers, especially people (politicians, publishers, entrepreneurs, preachers both secular and religious) who seek to capitalize for the sake of power and profit. Couple that with people's allegiance to their belief system to "prove" they're right. ("If the rest of the world does not do/believe/obey what we say, WE'RE DOOMED!!!")

From "Cockeyed Optimist," a song from "South Pacific:"

"When the sky is a bright canary yellow
I forget every cloud I've ever seen,
So they called me a cockeyed optimist
Immature and incurably green.

I have heard people rant and rave and bellow
That we're done and we might as well be dead,
But I'm only a cockeyed optimist
And I can't get it into my head.

I hear the human race
Is fallin' on its face
And hasn't very far to go,
But every whippoorwill
Is sellin' me a bill
And tellin' me it just ain't so.

I could say life is just a bowl of Jello
And appear more intelligent and smart,
But I'm stuck like a dope
With a thing called hope,
And I can't get it out of my heart
Not this heart."

I take this as a good sign. They don't think brown people are scary anymore, so now they're trying to scare us with yellow people.

+10 :)

A lot of people don't really understand the situation and freak out. If war broke out between North Korea and the United States, the United States might lose one city, like Anchorage or Honolulu. North Korea might be utterly destroyed.

For the average American, little would change.

America gets a lot of flak for having bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The stain on the American reputation would be a lot worse if North Koreans were genocidally exterminated in a single day.

I wish that our diplomats could communicate to North Korea that we have no intention of invading their country, and that unless we are attacked, they have nothing to fear from us.

I wish that the president would go on a golfing vacation and stay there for the next four years.

This isn't complicated from the the NK point of view.

Saddam didn't have nuclear weapons.

America got rid of Saddam.

Qadaffi gave up his nuclear program.

America and Europe got rid of Qadaffi.

America will get rid of us if we don't have nuclear weapons.


So, we should get together and just buy Kim off. Let him and his cronies live in a remote part of China free from prosecution from war crimes with all of the luxury he wants. Dennis can come visit. It could be a Las Vegas style resort in western China. America, China and Russia all agree not to base military forces between the Yalu River and the 38th parallel. The war ends, Korea is reunified, and everybody goes home.

anybody Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This isn't complicated from the the NK point of
> view.
>
> Saddam didn't have nuclear weapons.
>
> America got rid of Saddam.
>
> Qadaffi gave up his nuclear program.
>
> America and Europe got rid of Qadaffi.
>
> America will get rid of us if we don't have
> nuclear weapons.
>
>
> So, we should get together and just buy Kim off.
> Let him and his cronies live in a remote part of
> China free from prosecution from war crimes with
> all of the luxury he wants. Dennis can come visit.
> It could be a Las Vegas style resort in western
> China. America, China and Russia all agree not to
> base military forces between the Yalu River and
> the 38th parallel. The war ends, Korea is
> reunified, and everybody goes home.

Makes as much sense as any other proposed solution I've seen.

Since I can't do a damned thing about it other than to cast my vote in each election, I try as much as I can not to worry about it. It's the equivalent to burying my head in the sand, but i don't know what else to do. I could live recklessly ("Living life to the fullest" is what some would call it) except what if the world didn't really end?

I take it that you do not live in Anchorage or Honolulu.

The latest published information that I have seen indicates NK has more than one, but less than ten nukes, so more than one city is at risk.

But what cities? The latest test from NT indicate that all of the west coast, as far inland as Denver are at risk:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/10/world/asia/what-can-north-korea-reach-with-its-missiles.html

So, a possible scenario is NK manages to hit Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles or San Diego. If they have multiple launch capability, more than one of those.

I live in a small college town, no car, no bomb shelters I know of. Even if it was targeted, there's nothing I can really do about a nuke hitting here.
Although listening to this can help with fear (for those with a dark sense of humor):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_F2TcbSom4

He got that right. :/

That song was recorded in 1959. The artist, Tom Lehrer, is still living.

Now that gives me some hope! :)

That vid is hilarious ookami.

So why am I sad?

I'm on an incident management team that deals mainly with forest fires. My team just got assigned to a fire that's in the center of the eclipse path.

The under lying rumor is that we're being prepositioned to help emergency and law agencies with crowds and the possible crazy people will cause problem.

Spreading a rumor?

Seems like the responsible thing to do.

(Especially a dumb rumor with no basis)

Wow, how close to home this hits this morning !

Look at what's happening in Virginia.

Not only are 1,000 police officers clashing with white nationalists and those opposing them. Now the National Guard has been called in to quiet things down.

It's like the 1960's all over again, only going in reverse.

Then people were protesting for civil rights.

These people are protesting against them.

It strikes me as two ugly groups, each one proclaiming, "We hate you more than you hate us!"

That, and a pathetic display of inept police planing, staffing, and law enforcement. Both sides were clearly primed for violence.

As Tom Lehrer proclaims, what we need is more BROTHERHOOD!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKbMgPOvX48&list=PLGxaqBTVsgePJfGfxQm1zEnp21tKnk-_e

PS--it's in Charlotte, NC, not VA.

Actually, it is Charlottesville, Virginia - not North Carolina in the news today.

Three Americans have been murdered in the streets today by an American Nazi.

Hate filled riots are not protected under free speech when they are intended to incite violence. That's where these blokes took the wrong train to Clarksville.

They have no business being there. As the governor of Virginia told them: go home. They are not welcome in Virginia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armageddon

I wouldn't worry about things in the Book of Revelation that are about long gone Roman Empire.


I would worry about the effects of anthropogenic climate change that will cause mass disruption of human activity on this planet. It's something that is observable and quantifiable -- now -- unlike a fictional eschatological event.

And although it's not possible to predict with precise detail exactly what will happen, one thing is certain. Mother Nature doesn't give a damn about those silly lines that human beings draw on things called maps. People are going to go wherever they need to go to survive. Think mass social upheaval, terror, famine, plague, and war.

That's as close to your fictional Armageddon as we are going to get.

But only if we fight and kill each other like animals instead of working together to solve the problems.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/12/2017 06:02AM by anybody.

I have a theory that the Rapture already happened and nobody was
righteous enough except Jimmy Hoffa.