The Train

 

   To Begin:  

An Extended Quote:  I will footnote the hell out of this thing just so you are doubly-tripley sure you know who wrote it:

 He slowed and stopped as we rounded the northeastern limb. “Did you know that we live in a beautiful place?” he asked.

“How could I not know it?” I demanded. “Every day, I go into the Mynster, I see the chancel, we sing the Anathem—”

“Your words say yes, your defensive tone says something else,” Orolo said. “You haven’t even seen this.” And he gestured to the northeast.
The range of mountains leading off in that direction was obscured during winter by clouds and during summer by haze and dust. But we were between summer and winter now. The previous week had been hot, but temperatures had fallen suddenly on the second day of Apert, and we had plumped our bolts up to winter thickness. When I had entered the Præsidium a couple of hours earlier, it had been storming, but as I’d ascended the stair, the roar of the rain and the hail had gradually diminished. By the time I’d found Orolo up top, nothing remained of the storm except for a few wild drops hurtling around on the wind like rocks in space, and a foam of tiny hailstones on the walkway. We were almost in the clouds. The sky had hurled itself against the mountains like a sea attacking a stony headland, and spent its cold energy in half an hour. The clouds were dissolving, yet the sky did not get any brighter, because the sun was going down. But Orolo with his cosmographer’s eye had noted on the flank of a mountain a stretched patch that was brighter than the rest. When I first saw what he was pointing at, I guessed that hail had silvered the boughs of trees in some high vale. But as we watched, the color of it warmed. It broadened, brightened, and crept up the mountainside, setting fire to individual trees that had changed color early. It was a ray coming through a gap in the weather far to the west, levering up as the sun sank.

“That is the kind of beauty I was trying to get you to see,” Orolo told me. “Nothing is more important than that you see and love the beauty that is right in front of you, or else you will have no defense against the ugliness that will hem you in and come at you in so many ways.”

Neal Stephenson

(Anathem)

Seriously, Go and Buy this Book

Folks, consider the possibility that, maybe, just maybe, what you are seeing whizzing by you is the view from the inside of a train that has left the station.

Now, this is going to be unpleasant, and the questions I am will ask may very well make you feel uncomfortable, but, since I am a churlish sort, I will blithely  plow ahead despite current hurt feelings.

It's the usual question:  at what point in a cycle does one decide to get off the train?  If it is too late, you are stuck baby.  If it is too early, people look at you like you are a dumb-ass.  The trouble is that not guessing right on this might turn out to be damned bad for your health.

The reason that I put up the above quote is because there stands a decent chance of the different flavors of ugliness are going to crowd around us.  I think that it is going to be important as hell to keep a firm grasp of the beauty that may well  be the only thing to sustain you.

The "Premature":  (exit prior to 2015)

OK:  Thats me.  I'm am just tickled pink that the damn thing has held together as long as it has.  I thought that 2015 would be the kickoff date, but that didn't work, did it.  Cost me five ounces of silver to pay off that bet.

But truthfully, it didn't really hurt me all that much when I lost that bet.  Truth be told, paying it was a touch of a relief.  Having the ability to be fat, dumb, and happy beats the hell out of not having that option, and the last five years have given me just that.

So, if you were premature like me, all you are missing out on is status and its accompanying social bullshit.   You just aren't as "rich" as you could be if you would have stayed in the game, so I don't see things as too bad of a loss

The "Right on Time": (exit 2015 to 2016)

These are the lucky guessers, they have the ability to spot a train wreck and have the resources to get off.  There really aren't that many of them.  'Nuff said.

The "jump off before the train builds up too much steam" (Current situation)

I think that we are starting to see this now. I think that the kids see it better than us geezers manage to see it.   Most of the liberals are plotting their dark plots to get rid of the clown at the top, but the rank and file are starting to wonder if the plan will suit them even if they succeed.  One of the most important things in the world to remember is that change does not always benefit those that desire that change.

Folks are starting to look around for an out.  You are seeing younglings beginning to desert the bigger cities and move to the hinterlands.  I see this as hopeful, but I will withhold judgment due to the fact I watched something similar when the hippies tried.

The "Train isn't Moving"

Unfortunately, this one is the most common of the reactions.  By a long shot.  They just don't see it.  It doesn't exist.  The most common reactions are either either a blank look or a slow escalation to anger.

These folks will simply not see.  They have either deliberatively chosen a narrow world view or are so caught up in the purported "benefits" that any mention of change will send them into a tizzy.

Where are you, where am I?