Shock

Looking back at the past is a very useful thing to do.  We don't do it nearly enough.  By looking back at the past, we can't get templates or checklists to allow us to predict, but we can get grand vistas to allow us to better guess what come next.

But the world is a complex place.  Looking back over a sweep of history in order to attempt a better understanding of the world we live in is like looking into a simmering pot of stew.  The top looks fairly simple and straightforward.  The ingredients that one sees are identifiable.  What lies below is still there, and is unknown.

Give the pot a stir, and let it settle down again.  You get a surface that kind-of looks like what you had before, but the details are different.  You might want to announce the pot of stew is different post-stir, and on the surface, that is certainly so, but the truth is is is the same pot of stew.

Welcome to complexity.  The difficulty faced by many claim the ability to understand the surface phenomenon equate this supposed knowledge of intricacy and complexity with intelligence.  It is because they only see the surface.

Most everyone tries to see into the future.  Above any other super-power, I do believe that this is the one that people would choose first if they were offered a menu of choices.

Everyone want to know where the river goes.  There are few who want to study how it flows.  There are even fewer who do not only look for that which wish or even that which they can accept or believe.  There’s much to be seen, if you only look. Most people don’t see things that are right before them because it goes against what they believe or what they want to believe.