The featured song last week addressed the matter of U. S. involvement in near continual warfare, which defined almost the entirety of the decade beginning on January 1, 2000. As we look forward to the next ten years, extending to January 1, 2020, U. S. military action in Iraq persists and significant escalation is planned in Afghanistan. Future military intervention in other countries looms as a disturbing possibility. If continued long enough, the United States may well follow the fateful trajectory of the Soviet Union, plummeting into the same abyss, having failed to learn from their predecessor’s untoward experience. Continued U. S. military action and/or the eventual demise of this country to at least Second World, if not Third World status, will exert varying degrees of impact upon the rest of the world. Despite this, many nations will likely survive mostly, if not fully intact.
As we consider the decade ahead, perhaps the most critical matter of all is that of climate change. As our mother earth’s ability to sustain human life deteriorates, adverse impacts will first be noted in other areas of the world, gradually spreading like a terminal malignancy throughout the remainder of the planet. We can only imagine the accuracy with which our mainstream news media will disclose these developments to the general public, if this occurs at all. More and more people will, of necessity, be crowding into continually shrinking areas of land, thereby reducing the amount of the earth’s surface available to produce that which is necessary to perpetuate life. Those newly encroached upon by incoming refugees may not always welcome their new neighbors with open arms and may not be willing to share their meager food and water supplies with their recently arrived guests. We can imagine the results, however much we may wish not to engage in such an uncomfortable exercise.