Pork Chop Eating Muslim

During my time - Back Home Again in Indiana - I was fortunate enough to enjoy a few amazing conversations with old friends. As usual the topic ran the gamut; politics, oil, religion, crime...nearly geo-social-politico-eco-economic-everything. As a particular friend and I have grown older, our lives have distinctively diverged in terms of religion. I have veered towards science to explain much of the history ON earth. However, I have yet to make any conclusions regarding the very beginning of Earth or life on Earth. As time has passed for my friend, his faith has become stronger and confirmed by others. He has also become more - what I would call - socially conservative. Perhaps it is that his values have formed into something more defined since his youth. Regardless, his faith is an integral factor in his value set and perspective on policy. Furthermore, I respect his perspective, regardless of whether I agree with where it leads him.

Despite our obvious differences - mainly on inane wedge issues the propagandists from the left and the right cram into our face - I was shocked by how much we agreed on. Specifically that we both loved our country, but that it was certainly headed in the wrong direction. Rather than debating semantics on how liberal or conservative our value set need be, we looked at obvious foolishness; overspending, over-promising, overprotecting and under-delivering at many existing self-appointed government duties. We also agreed on many of the bad decisions undertaken by the American people. What he called "suicidal." I knew that he didn't mean it in a literal sense, but rather; self-destructive. For instance America's citizens obsession with overspending. America's obsession with buying things of questionable value (both monetary and moral) that they don't need with money they don't have.

As we talked and talked about the direction of the United States and the world, I couldn't stop thinking of the elephant in the room; What will be the catalyst for change? War? Famine? Economic Collapse? Inflation? Disease? Many have been lulled into believing we as a civilization have invented a means to prevent all such disasters. That rationale is precisely the reason why the "unknown unknown" will have such far reaching and dramatic effects on the population.