But I don't know that I'm necessarily anywhere nearby.

I had one of those epiphanies this morning. 

The times have been emotionally troubling for Ms V. Well, hell, they've been emotionally troubling for you too! Who isn't troubled right now? The "aware" among us are worrying about whether we'll be able to buy food or deodorant this time next year. The "unaware" are worried about...I don't think I'll speculate on that...mainly because I don't think a genuinely "unaware" person exists in America today. 

Ever hear the song from the sixties, For What It's Worth? The lyrics describe you and me, maybe not on a conscious level, but somewhere inside each of us, this is where we are right now: "Something's happening here, What it is ain't exactly clear, There's a man with a gun over there, Telling me I got to beware."

Well, I was actually alive when that song came out, and I was old enough to "get it." It was "our song" for my first husband and me. Then it was "my song." I think I kept it in my life, in my head, for over forty years so that I'd have it when I needed it. You and I need it right now. 

There's something happening right now and we aren't sure just how far and how deep the something goes. We're teetering on the precipice of something. We have been for a while now.

People will tell you, "The world changed on 9/11." No, it didn't; things have continued  rocking along the same way they did before 9/11. They continued rocking along as they've rocked along since the beginning of time. What changed was our awareness of what it was, exactly, precisely, that had been rocking along.

The thing that happened was that a whole bunch of us got collectively traumatized. Trauma changes people. The world didn't change; our perception of it shifted. And most of us bore the burden of that trauma, that Post Traumatic Stress, for quite a while afterward. Which is as it should be, given that we're human beings, not grains of sand being rearranged by the desert winds.

But, we incorporated the change, we became more aware of men with guns, over there, telling us to beware. The president of the US was the first to point that out to us. We've incorporated the fear of men with guns, over there. We are being wary. 

But, you know what? There were always men with guns, over there. Witness the song lyrics above. They're from over 40 years ago! Here are more lyrics from that song: "Paranoia strikes deep, into your life it will creep, it starts when you're always afraid, step out of line, the man come and take you away."

Over 40 years ago, that's what was rocking along. The US National Guard mowed down four college students at Kent State University in May of 1970. With their guns. Men with guns, employed by the US government, shot to death four US college students, on a US college campus. 

Believe it or not, that was traumatizing to most Americans, in the same way and for the same reasons 9/11 was traumatizing: We thought we were safe if we stayed right here in America, and we kept on living our drab American lives. You can say the same thing about any other country, just change "America" to the country of your choice. 

A while back I wrote about "Kent State" and some goober said it was an anomaly. Oh really? 

In the 21st century, cops (government employees) are tazering grannies and kids to death, but "Kent State" was an anomaly? American government employees have been, are, and will torture alleged terrorist sympathizers at secret prisons around the world, but "Kent State" was an anomaly? The US government (since the early fifties, that we know of) has repeatedly performed medical experiments on groups of unaware citizens, ranging from small groups to entire cities, but "Kent State" was an anomaly? Apparently the US is some sort of Bermuda Triangle of anomaly production. Go figure.

Now we're all worried about how we're going to economically survive, just like we did back in my grandparents' day. Might be your great-grandparents' day. Doesn't matter. We're scared for our futures and our children's futures.

And, of course, we're being told that this depression is gonna be worse than Depression 1.0. Well, naturally, it would be. After all, this one is OUR depression. We are special.

It's like 9/11 all over again. We're traumatized. We've become aware of something that has been going on forever. Our perception of who and what we are has shifted again.

But, wait. Hadn't the US been down that road before, the 9/11 road? Yeah, it had. It went down that road in December of 1941 at Pearl Harbor. Of course it was worse with 9/11. Well, naturally it would be. After all, 9/11 is OUR attack by foreigners on the integrity of the US National Identity. 

In 1941 it was an attack against our military, our defense. In 2001 it was an attack against our "World Trade." And, big surprise, in both cases, the US and its citizens were compelled to "go to war" to get the evildoers, the ones who attacked us. 

Is there some point at which we will all become aware that these things are not anomalies? No, there won't be. Oh sure, some of the old farts will see it, they've lived through it before. But will anyone else? Nope, not as long as TV, and the internet, and video games, and whatever "new thing" comes along next, keeps us isolated from anybody who does see it. 

Yes, I'm talking to you. It's your life being stepped on, twisted, manipulated and shoved into unending cycles of oppression, war, struggle for survival, then a few years of prosperity, before the merry-go-round starts up again. 

As long as we have our bread and circuses, we will be what we've always been, scared and traumatized. You will be worried. You will feel helpless. You will look for a way out. You will seek distraction. You will seek help. You will seek strong leaders, gurus and wise men, of every persuasion. 

You will put your faith everywhere except in yourself. Pick up a history book, read it, and what do you find? You find that this is what humans have always done: look everywhere but inside their own selves for solutions. 

You are here. I was here, on this same spot of shifting sand back in May of 1970. My father was here in December of 1941. My grandmother was here in October of 1929. You and I come from a long line of people who have already been here, right here, where you are today. 

What's the answer? I'm not here to lead you anywhere. As I said when you and I started this mini trip down MY memory lane, I'm not necessarily here at all. 

When was the last time you asked your great-grandparents about Depression 1.0? Are they even alive? I haven't *tried* to talk to anyone who lived through The Great Depression (Depression 1.0) since the sixties. I never found anyone willing to tell me. They didn't want to think about it. That's how they described it, as something they were still trying to forget. My mother and father, who weren't even born when it started, didn't have any happy early childhood memories, so they didn't want to talk about it.

So, you are here. You have no wise guides who are still living. You could do your own research. There's a wealth of information out there, freely available to you. It wasn't like that in Depression 1.0. Information wasn't available. 

You *could* trust the government to fix it. They fixed Depression 1.0 with WWII. Of course, they didn't have nukes and all the other nifty war paraphernalia we have today. God knows, FDR's WPA projects didn't fix it. Nothing short of a big juicy war could save the US from Depression 1.0. Mimicking FDR isn't going to save us this time either.

What I do remember, and, keep in mind, I'm a Baby Boomer, is the TV commercials about the tough economic times in the 1950s. I don't exactly remember the commercials from the standpoint of wording, but I remember being terrified out of my tiny pre-school mind that we were all gonna die. I bugged my parents about it something awful. They soothed me. 

But, I still remember the food that we ate wasn't the sort of stuff I eat today. I remember my mom would go look in shop windows downtown, and then come home and sew cheaper versions of what she couldn't afford to buy for us. She'd knit copies of expensive sweaters. She sewed her own slipcovers for the furniture. Uh, it was a frugal time, to say they least. But, it wasn't so frugal that we had to have a garden. 

Although, my grandparents did, and they hated gardening. They just weren't gonna get caught again. My grandmother canned (my mom didn't.) Oh, and they owned their own business, no more working for someone else. And they kept lots of cash in the house. Banks aren't safe, you know. They didn't have a mortgage, not gonna lose the house. My parents always had mortgages, they weren't the great planners my grandparents were. My parents were little children during The Great Depression. 

Keep in mind that this was how we lived more than 20 years after The Great Depression, AKA Depression 1.0. Frugal. Yeah. Depressions drag on forever, then there are the lingering aftereffects. Fortunately, the Vietnam war came along so that, by the time I was on my own, the economy finally became capable of supporting mortgages, credit cards and car loans. 

And that's all I know about economic depressions: I know what they're like 20-30 years later.

 

We planted a garden last year. It failed gloriously. I'm planning on canning this year. I'm researching canning. If that fails too, I guess we'll just have botulism on our death certificates. We'll do the best we can, considering how ill-suited we are to sail blissfully through Depression 2.0.

If you don't know how to garden and preserve food, get on over to YouTube. There are a lot of young Americans who are finding out how to survive without things most of us have taken for granted, and they're sharing the information all over the internet. There are blogs about all the old ways, the ones that my grandparents knew and practiced. The ones my parents' and my generation didn't "have to" consider necessary. 

I see a lot of people today who are worried, rightly so. But, I also see a lot of the young people making themselves and their families as prepared as they can be for the hard time coming. And they're sharing what they know. 

So, yeah, there are some greedy ***** standing on the backs of people everywhere, doing their best to profit off of our misery. That's nothing new, not even in America. There will be fascism, and oppression, and dictators, and police states all over the world -- just like in Depression 1.0. Mainly because poor people have a tendency to get all "selfish" in their thinking when they wake up to the fact that the money is  concentrated in a few hands at the top. That's nothing new either.

Yep, there will be riots, famines, rebellions, revolutions, wars and all the rest of the nasty stuff that goes on during times of accelerated and widespread human suffering. But, maybe the labor unions will come back strong, and raise the standard of living for some of us. Maybe the prepared will help the unprepared. Maybe communist goobers will find some takers for their ersatz solutions. Hell, maybe your grandchildren will grow up in a world with pensions for workers, and food, shelter and healthcare for the poor. 

Maybe the economic problems of the world will actually be solved: We'll tax anyone making over $1,000,000 at 50% of their income each year. They'll all move offshore, then we'll make it illegal for foreign residents to take more than a million dollars a year out of the country, in any form, including investments. Yeah, that would make for some mighty tough years until we got things stabilized! 

Stranger things have happened.

Have you ever thought about what life "could be" like for your children and grandchildren? Sure, you, "may not get there," with them. But, that would be a dream worth fighting and sacrificing for, wouldn't it?

 

So...I'm up here on this mountain top of shifting sand. The wind is howling. I'm fighting the sand in my eyes. But I can see it, off in the distance, there. I can see your grandchildren raising your great-grandchildren, there, in the Promised Land. I can see you smiling at them.

In the meantime, you are here: X.

And there's still a man with a gun over there, telling you to beware. It's time to think.