The Beginning Is Coming! The Beginning is Coming!

by Donald Croft Brickner

A New Beginning for the inhabitants of Earth really is headed our way. It absolutely is.

Problem is, it's dragging its feet. The longer we (specifically, as an American culture) continue
to push away the inevitable Changes-To-Come, the longer we'll all have to kneel, grovel and
slop around in the (really stinky) muck of greed, cynicism, nihilism and anarchy.

Still, if that's the way our consensus is determined to go ... well, so be it. We can, and will,
bear up. We're Americans. That's what we do.

Nowadays, in particular.

*****

For several years now I've made some predictions that, from my perspective, continue to
stand up pretty well. That several prognostications haven't manifested as yet is of little
concern to me (as one who's making these predictions). Where I've mostly made errors is in
getting the specific time frames right.

For instance, about a year ago I (confidently) proclaimed that, by this spring -- i.e., right about
now -- we, as a nation (and perhaps as a planet) would have hit bottom financially; and, as
well, thumped it pretty damned hard psychologically. Neither have yet occurred -- although I'm
convinced they are sure to, in their respective probable time frames. Just not anytime soon.

(This fall would certainly seem like a better bet -- although let's just not go there for now.)

Getting the “probabilities” correct is very similar to the practice of logic. The “ifs” in the “if-then”
formulas not only have to be sound, but they pretty much have to prove to be all-inclusive.

Two of the then-hidden probabilities, in relation to the above prediction, were (#1): the gigantic
employment buffer provided by the 2010 U.S. Census … do you guys realize just how many
temporary jobs the once-every-ten-years-(ending-in-a-zero) has created?; yee-gads -- a
kazillion, at least! And failed diagnostic #2?: the preposterously-successful manipulations (at
this writing) by Wall Street higher-ups who are determined to convince our congressmen and
much of the nation that we're experiencing a consumerless recovery!

At least two-thirds of the finances from any recovery from a recession must -- must -- include
consumer participation. To date, ours hasn't (although that may temporarily change this
summer as our rather-well-remunerated U.S. Census enumerators will have lots of money to
spend). The American consumers are still likely, to some degree, to continue to stand back,
though -- not so much due to lacking “confidence” in this economy (which they do), but rather
because they simply don't have extra money to spend frivolously.

“Frivolously” is an adverbial reflection of what's going to become our materialistic past.

Our economic experts don't appear to get that. You just can't keep downsizing, and expect the
two-thirds-plus of consumers needed for recovery to remain on board. At some point -- and
this is another prediction of mine, published well over a year ago, whose time frame was way
premature -- the Detmer Curve must kick in: http://www.groundreport.com/Opinion/Profits-in-
Collapse-the-Detmer-Curve/2863703

A New Beginning is coming, yes -- only it's arriving the only way we're permitting it to: by way
of a massive economic and cultural bottom-hitting. It won't be pretty -- but most will survive it.

*****

Regardless, once the smoke of cultural collapse clears, the future is going to look pretty cool:

Capitalism, as we know it to be practiced today, will be overhauled beyond recognition. Many

of its finest points -- for example, the built-in inducements to excel as an individual, which are
usually absent from socialism in all of its guises historically -- will remain.

We are going to slow down, as well -- way down. Stress will be proven, once and for all, to be
the number-one cause of the majority of our health issues, major and minor.

Popping pills as a means to “achieve” health will all but disappear from our global landscapes.
Preventive health care -- the mirror opposite of our “modern”-day addictions- and profits-
driven medicinal approaches -- will grab center stage. And the mind-body connection will be
irrevocably (which is to say, empirically) established.

The “good” emotions -- love, romance, charity, humility, etc. -- will make gigantic comebacks.

Reasonably well-behaved not-of-this-Earth aliens will also live openly among us (!) … only we
won't permit them to get married here.

Just kidding.

About the only downside I can “foresee” is that the Chicago Cubs will still be without a World
Series championship.

*****

Back to the present, in an unrelated aside: In our physical universe, as this Earth's scientists
continue to refute any and all “missing link” theories (as happened again just recently), it only
follows that human beings probably weren't here, to begin with. Yet, relatively all-of-a-sudden,
we were.

Other than by sprinkling homo sapiens dust, then (maybe God really did go, ka-boingo), it's a
pretty safe bet we originated off-planet.
Logic!

*****

(Oh, sure. Like I'm really wrong about that.)

*****

Returning to topic:

When we speak here of a new “beginning,” unfortunately, it's going to have its downsides.

It's a reasonable bet to suggest that a lot of us -- and I mean, a lot -- will want no part of many
of these changes. Rather, they'll (somewhat justifiably) wish to return to a past that worked for
them -- one they believe was taken away from them by “forces” from the past … and present.

We're not all going to live in peace, in other words.

Philosophically-speaking, I've long argued that our world (and, in fact, physical universe) is an
Illusion-by-Intention -- by way of an Intelligent Design. In part, that means we've opted to live
here for a time (or two times, or three times) in order to experience and to express “conflict.”

We, all of us, survive our physical deaths -- and we always return to a Setting of Non-Conflict.

You know -- the so-called “non-physical” reality we actually call “Home?”

The Twin E's: to Experience, and to Express. The Conflict part is built in to this Design, which
itself was “created” in order to play off of the conflict, which always manages to stick out like a
sore thumb in our respective lives. (Do you know anyone who doesn't have problems? Well?!)

We're living lives that non-coincidentally (synchronistically?) mirror our best novels and films.
Leave the conflict -- the “tension” -- out of a screenplay or novel, and they are likely to fail.

A pretty good question might be to ask: why? Our best music, too, has dissonances that seek
resolutions. Music can be measured mathematically, by music theory. Major thirds make most
of us happy. Augmented fourths/diminished fifths make most of us cringe. It's not an accident!

Alternatively -- in the history of humanity, has anyone (or any group) successfully concocted a
real-deal utopia?

No. And do you know why? Because that's not why we're all here. Conflict resolution is the
actual focus of all of our physical lives in this (secondary; or tertiary; or...) physical reality.

Here's the irony: an Expressed and Experienced love is always the solution to our problems --
only once you get that, it may be time to Move On... And, why? Because the conflict built into
the Design ain't going anywhere … short of our misguidedly blowing up the Movie Theater.
This Movie Theater breeds and nurtures conflict -- while all the time inviting ways to settle it.

We adore this emotional battleground, too, or we wouldn't stick around for as long as we do,
nor for as long as we have. There are outlandish highs to be experienced right next door to
(seemingly) crushing lows. Never mind those moments of Grace, when we're reminded we're
protected from the worst of this illusion ... if only we'll allow ourselves to be.

We can't change the Design Itself, because we're not supposed to. That's not why we're here!

But we are here to engender a genuine, hard-fought courage -- which is why the act of suicide
almost always proves, within its variety of contexts, to be an act of cowardice and impatience.

*****

This almost always follows, too, when the conditions allow for it: when you truly learn to love
(and have opened yourself up to receive it), it could be a good time to just “let go” ... and Go
Home. (Or not ... you've got to keep your focus on the nuances of your personal screenplay!)

“Letting go” is rarely a conscious act, by the way. But that doesn't make it any less intentional.

The very best funerals are the ones where just about everybody is crying. Someone who was
once deeply loved has been removed from the playing board of life.

Those movie sunsets one sails off into after the guy gets the girl? That's right: it's the afterlife.

Periodically, anyway.

*****

So: now that we know the underlying Primary Truths of (this) physical existence, what might
we opt to do with such arcane knowledge (...oh, yes, yes -- besides dying with it)?

Hmm, let's see; I don't know... Maybe incorporate that knowledge into our New Beginning?

Like it or lump it, the New Beginning is heading our way.

It can't be stopped.

It won't be stopped.

The overriding majority of us will see to it.

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