Foresight

 Even if I were to triple up on the kid gloves, this would still sting. It’s not that I’m trying to be purposefully hurtful or mean-spirited, but rather, the situation demands it. I’m past hoping to shock people into wakefulness because if the past year and change haven’t done that, neither will my words.

If there is one mistake I made over the past year, I overestimated the average American’s intelligence level. I know, see, already stings, but if you’re honest with yourself about most of the people you run across daily, you’ll realize I’m right. The next time you’re driving about, just for fun, look at the other drivers, alone in their cars, and how many of them are wearing masks. That’ll tell you everything you need to know.

I heard it said somewhere that fat, dumb, and lazy is no way to go through life, but seemingly, most of this nation has set out to prove this saying wrong. It’s not like they’ll succeed, but they sure will give it the old college try, even though all they ever did in college was get drunk, get high, and well, you know, the other thing.

My job, at least the way I figure it, hasn’t been to tell you that there’s a curve ahead, but rather to tell you what’s waiting beyond the hill, a few miles down the road. I don’t know; perhaps I should have warned of the curves too, because by all accounts, even though we’re all seeing the turn, we’re white-knuckling the steering wheel, hitting the gas, and closing our eyes. Just because we refuse to acknowledge the road’s curve doesn’t mean it’s not there, nor does it mean that we won’t run off the road and crash if we don’t make the turn.

If there is a silver lining in all this, it’s that I no longer have to refer to most things in the future tense. The road isn’t going to get bumpy; it already is, but if you think this is as bad as it gets, you’re in for a rude awakening. I know, I know, rapture’s almost here, so it’s no business of ours, but maybe hold off on packing those bags and saying your goodbyes just yet. On the off chance that the writers of a fictional series got it wrong, maybe don’t make everyone you know think you’ve lost your mind because you gave your cat away and went on the highest peak you could find, waiting to be caught up.

So what awaits us beyond the hill if we do make the curve? Suppose we survive health experts trying to pump our toddlers full of hormone blockers, our homeland security bussing illegal migrants to all four corners, our elected officials guaranteeing hyperinflation, and our media stoking hatred with bated breath; what can we expect after all that?

Not to be an alarmist or anything, but if we were to look back in our history, we would realize that we’ve just created the perfect environment for a strongman to appear on the scene. When you have to strap on tactical gear just to go to the grocery store, when you are marginalized, scapegoated, robbed in broad daylight by thugs and politicians alike, when chaos is the order of the day, and you’ve been made into a shut-in by people who roam free, a strongman is a welcome respite.

Before you bristle, before you say that could never happen, just look back and see all the things that have happened even though you said they couldn’t. Just like God, the sun, the moon, and the stars, some things exist whether you believe in them or not.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.