Thoughts On Where We Are, and Where We're Going

[Bob Butler 54]

There are a couple of points in the opening post that seem worth an answer.

(08-18-2018, 08:01 PM)justpassingthrough Wrote: 3. If we are in the 4T, and 2008 was the main Catalyst, has there been a Climax? The recent elections in the West, from Brexit to Trump and others, while a decided break point in a new direction, don't seem sufficient. On the other hand, if the 4T began earlier, say on 9/11/2001 as I have long suspected, the present could be, very simply, the beginning of the 1T. Perhaps 9/11 was the Catalyst, and the 2008 crash the Climax?

I see the "Cut and Run" resolution of Iraq and the economic collapse of 2008 as the failure of Bush 43's mini crisis.  He attempted serial preemptive unilateral nation building in the Middle East, failed, tried to fight a war without raising taxes, and thus brought down the economy.  September 11th would be the catalyst.  The surge was a climax of sorts.  The lesson learned was a vast reluctance to put US boots on the ground.  The US might win such a war, but the cost in blood, iron and gold would be very high, and neither the victims of the war or the international community would say thank you.  An aggressor nation must be contained.  We got contained.

If the economic crash were the catalyst, Obama would be the Grey Champion for having laid the economic problems to rest.  Instead, it is semi forgotten, in the past.  Obama flipped the see saw in his Obamacare program, and the middle of the country rejected him.  Thus, no Grey Champion title.  You might call his presidency a failed crisis in that he tried to press progressive values, but his policies were immediately reversed after.  We will see how many come back if the progressives win in 2018 and 2020.

(08-18-2018, 08:01 PM)justpassingthrough Wrote: Given the extreme and hostile suppression and persecution of Christianity by the Radical Left during the 4T, I wouldn't be surprised to see a resurgence among the next Prophets. One can imagine the horror Millenial parents would react with if their kids suddenly became outspoken Evangelicals. Since the Prophets usually have divided camps and competing visions, I could see some other alternative being a "singularity"-like quest for "transhumanism" on the part of the next Prophet Left, impatient to push even farther into insanity as the Boomer Left did.

I see it as American that the government is not supposed to force religion or religious values.  That is an Enlightenment idea.  Thou shalt not establish a state religion, and all that.  Religion should have a strong place in the culture, should be protected from any sort of interference, but it should not use the government to force anything on those who do not share a religion's doctrine.  The government, admittedly acting from the Left, acted properly in resisting the idea that the Evangelicals could force their dogma to have force of law.

I think your claim of extreme and hostile stuff is therefore backwards.  It is the Evangelicals who are being aggressive towards people who do not share their religious values.

I do not fear a surge of evangelicals or transhumanism.  Religion seems to be fading in influence.