Reply #63: In a way, it reminds me of the First World War [View All]

[hatrack]

I can't remember the author, but the endless windrows of bodies in the opening months of the war were referred to, in the setting of predictable imperial ambitions and the usual dreams of conquest, as "how God teaches the law to kings".

Setting aside any and all potential metaphysical/religious context in this phrase, the conclusion I've come to is that it'll be something like this - a vast and irrefutable turning, a moment of absolute and bloody clarity to which there will be no response. No amount of tut-tutting or calls for blue-ribbon panels or tax cuts or TV fundraisers or market forces or any of what's worked in the past will work, and those who "lead" us will stand mute and stunned, a batallion of tongue-tied naked emperors.

And by then, of course, it'll be too late, for all but a few of us.

And then Nature will pick up the pieces and come up with something else.