It was past midnight and I was running as fast as I could in the near pitch blackness, other than the stars of a summer's night. Suddenly, I fell and was unable to stand, my leg awkwardly snagged, a coldness pressed hard on the sole of my foot.
I reached down with my hand and tried to feel what had stopped me and what was cold on my foot, to discover the prongs of a pitchfork carelessly left in the grass. One tine had pierced through the thick rubber at the the point of my sneaker, through my sock and had come to rest against my skin, the point sticking out the back in a perfect skewer.
I knew, an inch higher and I would have had a limp for the rest of my life. Small variations in position matter a great deal.
Currently, we seem to be socially testing how close we can get our nose to the passing train without it ripping off our face, how near we can get to disaster without being covered in gore. It is like we are goading ourselves into plunging over the edge - but will we pull back in time?
It is hard to recognize how close to the point of no return we are, but I think we are heavily flirting with it. I wonder what the social tipping point was in the past, at what point did a political movement become preparation for war, a social movement for revolution. I am guessing the seeds were sown and grown before any official declaration was ever made. I kind of feel like that is where we are in the world now - the growing phase, the seeds of economic disparity, societal polarization and social disconnection, were planted long ago.
We never really know how many near misses there have been, as we tend to count the strikes. We don't know how many times a car accident was close, but was narrowly avoided. Or the occasions a finger was on the trigger with the target in sight, but didn't squeeze back. So much of our lives are am inch away from losing or gaining it all. The loss probably more prevalent than the gain, as we ourselves are fragile and are never far from the end.
But we experience and create experiences as a species too, communities of varying sizes that subscribe to one view or another, drive for one change or another. We are incentived to push the boundaries to get what we want, but each step takes us closer to the place where return is impossible, toppling over inevitable.
We seem to be playing political chicken, with all sides seeing how extreme they can get without being hit by the speeding train. And with the rapid spread and monetization of information, misinformation and disinformation, the ramp is steep and the incentive to keep climbing is high, with none willing to back down; all or nothing - whatever the cost.
We have created a world where polarization is the norm and there is no space to discuss and no avenue to reverse. Public discourse is handled by companies driven by advertising revenue, politics driven by the same. When politicians are asked what platforms they are running on, the answer should be near invariably, Twitter and Facebook. Platforms monetized through clicks and impressions and nothing drives transactions and shares as well as drama and anger. When people joined Facebook in 2017, did they recognize it as a tool to start WWIII? Perhaps in history, it will be considered a turning point, a digital Franz Ferdinand moment.
But life is full of close shaves and those that were not - an inch forward or back, an inch right or left - and everything would be different - A bullet whistles by or ends a life. We cannot count the number of bullets we have unknowingly dodged as individuals or a society, but it seems that the absence of hits has given us an undeserved confidence and belief that we are invulnerable, that we can keep firing without at no cost. Perhaps from behind the safety of our screens we feel that we cannot take a hit, but the digital world is bleeding out onto the streets of reality, to keep pushing us closer to the edge and that position of no return, where damage is guaranteed, pain and suffering unavoidable.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Uhhhhhh. That pitchfork story gives me the willies. I hit a sprinkler in a park onetime running full tilt. It broke my big toe and did ligament damage. I was at a High School leadership conference and there may or may not have been a girl and some alcohol involved. I limped on (the girl went on scott free) and didn't report it for hours, until after the sun was up.
I do have some ideas about how close I've come a few times. And probably hundreds that I don't know.
I am concerned. My friend Erv predicted current behavior quite accurately in his book written 5 years ago. I've seen bits of his continuation (we are each other's first editors) and know that he is very concerned about the tipping point. He sees it as happening in 2020 and did so before the Pandemic. That hasn't done much to stabilize the world.
I just read a LONG piece about international money laundering and the way the US (and other governments) turn their back on it so long as the banks make money. It's not pretty.
Is it going to guns? If that's the case then it has happened too soon for the people that turned the genie loose in the first place.
It will be interesting in the way that not all interesting things are good or helpful.
I don't even have the excuse of a chasing a girl - it was playing a game of "murder in the dark" - KP style :D
It is the unknown hundreds that are the most interesting. I have always imagined a scenario where after death I can see all my stats - "almost died" might be surprisingly high.
It has been an issue for a long time and those paying attention have read the signs and noted the patterns. What indicates a lot to me is that people who weren't talking about any of this a year ago are now joining the conversations at the coffee table.
What is worrisome about the idea of civil war in the US is, what are the sides? It isn't North or south, left or right - it will be a near free-for-all with thousands of factions acting like tribes. It might more closely resemble the middle east a thousand years ago, than WWII.
Where does the military go? If it moves as one unit the answer is easy. If it fractures it's warlords.
There are at least 600,000,000 functioning weapons in civilian hands. The implications for the US and the rest of the world is staggering. How's your Russian?
The difference between the Middle East a thousand years ago and the US now is one guy had to kill one person at a time. Not the case, now.
Yipe.
I would suspect fracturing - especially once getting paid becomes an issue.
It would get messy very fast, with most people completely unprepared - even if they own a gun or three.
Yep. Most of the gun owners will be carcasses because they have the impression that the weapon does the killing. It doesn't.
!ENGAGE 25
ENGAGEtokens.No matter how many near misses there has been or what chances are in percentage that we could die. It would not even come closely to a chance percentage that we had to be born. What were the chances? No chance really and yet we did.
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Yeah, we are each little miracles of life - at least in the configuration we have :)
Indeed, it's crazy when you think about it. thinking GOD now lol
Chaos rules.
I think it started before that too, Vene is just one of the expressions of it. More will follow.
Yeah! too well I've already feel it and so well I know what will follow.
I'm sure your texts are a clear example of how analogies can be used in an effective way. As I was reading, I was reminded of how the whole disaster began in Venezuela: everyone was waiting for just one person to transgress the line to go out and transgress it as well. Too much resentment held. The day-to-day was a razor's edge that could be felt. Now it's the same thing. People are waiting to throw themselves at each other, waiting for the other to say something to refute it, to attack it. We feel that some of us walk along a line, like a tightrope walker, so as not to arouse the fury of the people, while others are fire-breathers, who enjoy seeing the world burn. Greetings, @tarazkp
I am unsure about this as while yes, there are the people who want to see the world burn - they don't have an understanding of what that means and when it does, they are the ones who are the first to complain when it doesn't meet their expectations and they are the ones harmed. People are idiots.
DX bet if you weren't awake before that you definitely were after!
It was a bit of a wakeup call at least. I was pretty young and already felt the potential consequences of a slightly different outcome.
I'm glad to hear that you avoided fork impact lol. I think that "almost close" can be quite frustrating. Almost close to happiness, almost close to change, almost close to a revolution, almost close to a win. There is also the other side: almost close to dying, to suffering, to pain. Almost close is almost never good enough to produce a change. There is indeed a sweet spot where almost becomes full. It is dependant on internal and external pressures. But usually the internal pressure exceed other factors and produce the outcome. Good or bad. Almost is denial. Full is acceptance. It is a matter of perspective.
!ENGAGE 20
Yeah - we tend to discount the proximity and only look at the luck side of it. We were unlucky we didn't win, lucky we didn't lose.
I almost got married on my first visit to Estonia, two weeks after coming to Europe. It was to a girl working in a jeans store and I think if she got to know me, we could have been happy together - I almost talked to her! ;D
Hahahahaha I get what you're saying. There are so many possibilities but if we don't get it done past "the almost" we will never know what's on the other side
oouu...maybe i have hemophobia but seeing blood scares me so much.
But I'm glad you pull through because I read post and I'm motivated
The phrase "an inch more or less" has so many meanings when you think about it.
Infact i just remembered the story of a young man who bent to knot his shoelace and by the he got up there was a hole in the cloth that hung behind him.
This was a stray bullet and i thought for a second if he had not knot his lace he would be dead.
I might not be too interested in politics but the polarization between people of different tribes, religions, customs and even their way of thinking has affected a lot of us and the many young ones yet to be born.
The actions we take only makes or mar us
But when i think of whatever that might have caused this social tipping, i feel the underlying effect of ignorance
Because we do not have exposure to the whole truth but only on one side of the matter
I am not a fan either - but this is cherry juice, so we are both okay :)
Clickbait in some regards ;D
We are always ignorant of something, there is just far too much to know, much of it still is unknown collectively. The problem is when we think that the narrow view we have is the one correct view.
I think I could use the whole System Of A Down discography to reply to you...
With the video and all.
About the tipping point...
Imagine a pile of rocks, balls, or cans. When a really shocking thing goes to the top, it rolls down and is distributed somewhere along the base of the pile. Our tolerance for bullshit has increased. We're impartial to what happens on the street. We're impartial to what happens next as long as there's a way to convince ourselves that it might not happen.
Also, assimilated stuff is so much easier than thinking. Thinkers and speakers are laughed upon by those who have not yet taken a hit.
Is that the Humanity you want to save, Batman?
The bullshit base is getting wider, so the peak bullshit can climb higher?
I like the visuals of that :D
I think there are some people hoping for it to happen, without knowing what they are hoping for. I don't know why anyone would hope for circumstances where they have the potential to see their loved ones torn physically apart.
For sure. There are a lot of people laughing - for the time being.
The good with the bad - there is always a spectrum, no matter how narrow the set. Currently, the spectrum seems narrow as the polarisation points are so high.
And I like the visuals of that. I mean it's well said, despite not looking pretty.
About laughter...there's this necessary side that heals, too. Unless we have to be absolutely quiet, it's nice to be able to laugh. Or unless there are stitches to be torn. Or it's going to be perceived as rude. Or...
— from another song that I quoted today ;)
!ENGAGE 20