Ready or not, we are all in for a very wild ride in the near future.
Although I’ve wondered about the turn of the millennium for years, my
two-year stint as editor of a monthly newsletter for late-night radio
talk superstar Art Bell really brought it home for me. I had the
opportunity to interview many people deeply involved with advanced
technologies, earthquake prediction, drug-resistant super-microbes,
Marian apparitions and other supernatural phenomena, “near death
experiences,” extreme weather patterns, the New Age, UFOs and alien
“abductions,” virtual reality, and other exotic, paranormal, or just
plain weird stuff.
But here’s the weirdest part. Although they represented every
conceivable paradigm, virtually all of Art’s guests were convinced of
one thing. Drastic things — “earth changes” (earthquakes, volcanoes,
hurricanes, tornadoes), pandemic plagues, convulsive social upheaval,
and even an explosion of supernatural phenomena — were in store for
around the year 2000 or shortly thereafter. Christian, New Age,
scientist, and psychic — all pointed with appropriate fear and
trembling toward the time we are now approaching as a giant vortex of
unprecedented world transformation.
So where does Y2K fit in? Seems that even if we experience only minor
“best-case-scenario”-type problems during the century rollover — very
unlikely, by the way, given the interconnectedness of our world systems
— we’re still in for a wild ride. Well then, if the
turn-of-the-millennium is a spiritual lightening rod, a giant “magnet,”
just what is this magnet attracting?
- There are groups actively planning to commemorate the new year by
such merry-making as blowing up the Al Aqsa mosque on Jerusalem’s Temple
Mount, which would no doubt precipitate an all-out “Jihad” involving a
hundred million or so Arabs versus a relative handful of Israelis and
their allies (if America is still an ally). Their object? Force God’s
hand and speed up the Second Coming of Christ. But wait, there’s more. - Cyberterrorism has become a major threat capable of inflicting
worst-case Y2K-type cyber mayhem — electrical power, transportation,
communications, banking, the works. Sound familiar? It’s Y2K’s evil
twin, infrastructure destruction with a malevolent intent and an unknown
detonation-date. Osama Bin Laden and other foreign and domestic
terrorist groups are known to be actively pursuing cyberterrorism.
According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in
Washington, it would take only 30 people and a $10 million budget to
wreck America’s cyber-infrastructure and all that goes with it. And a
great time to strike, obviously, would be on or shortly after Jan. 1,
2000. Nobody would know if it was a cyber-attack or a Y2K computer
glitch. Talk about attacking the “Great Satan’s” soft, vulnerable
underbelly! - Even under a best-case Y2K scenario, our government will still be
totally preoccupied with “helping” us poor citizens solve our Y2K-caused
problems by every means possible, including major military deployments.
So there will be no chance that America could simultaneously mobilize
its armed forces to protect, oh, let’s say, Kuwait. In fact, is there
any chance at all that Saddam Hussein will not seize this golden
opportunity to try and take over the entire Persian Gulf — including
its oil — in a few months? I mean, really, if you were Saddam and
wanted to make your move, for keeps this time, what better time to
strike than at the turn of the millennium, under cover of worldwide Y2K
chaos and confusion? Ditto for countless other rogue nations, warring
ethnic and religious groups, and clandestine movements of every
conceivable (and some inconceivable) sort. - The federal government, which never fails to increase and
consolidate power when faced with a real, perceived, or self-created
crisis, will go hog wild. For the depraved Clinton administration,
always eager for distraction from its many sins, as well as an easy
opportunity to expand its reach, Y2K is a dream-come-true. For Bill
Clinton, it promises to be pure ecstasy.
These and many other events are tied specifically to the Year 2000
date change just a few months from now. Adding to the bumpiness of our
ride, however, will be a multitude of other rapidly accelerating trends,
such as:
- The demonization of Christianity: If you haven’t noticed the
growing anti-Christian movement in America — well, as the bumper
sticker says, “you’re not paying attention.” Many of the blossoming
political and cultural phenomena we see today — the relentless and
ever-expansive Gay Rights movement (including “Hate Crimes”
legislation), radical environmentalism, the New Age Movement in its many
guises, and so on — have their roots in a spiritual battle that has
been raging for decades, some say for millennia. I’m talking about a
direct assault on Judeo-Christian values and institutions. The fact is,
many of today’s political and cultural “leaders” are increasingly
hell-bent on discrediting, demonizing, or just plain shutting up anyone
who dares to champion what they consider to be the outmoded,
superstitious, life-denying, and repressive values of traditional
Christians. - The war on gun ownership: Predatory lawsuits against firearms
manufacturers for crimes committed with guns severely threaten
Americans’ right to armed self-defense. If the Second Amendment goes,
history says you can kiss the other nine good-bye. Although a pile of
evidence the size of Mount Everest proves beyond doubt that firearms in
the hands of private citizens deter far more crimes than they cause,
lawmakers, the establishment media, and special interest groups
constantly work to undermine and even eliminate this fundamental
American right. - The resurgence of infectious disease: Now the world’s third
largest killer, infectious diseases are staging a spectacular comeback.
Flagrant overuse of antibiotics and other factors have led to the
emergence of new, drug-resistant strains of once-“conquered” bugs like
TB, as well as brand new lethal pathogens never before seen. Add to this
the very real threat of biological terrorism featuring such lethal
organisms as anthrax and even smallpox. And let’s not forget AIDS,
officially considered non-infectious, which is consuming the continent
of Africa.
Official estimates are that more people will die of AIDS in Africa in
the next few years (about 34 million) than perished on all sides in
World Wars I and II, and the Korean, Vietnam, and Persian Gulf wars
combined.
There are so many other ominous trends — rampant government
corruption and even treason at the highest levels, ever-increasing
serious crime committed by children, including mass murder, the
outrageously corrupting fare offered by today’s entertainment industry
— the list is seemingly without end.
The point is, friends, regardless of how bad Y2K is or is not, we are
going for a ride. So get ready. Denial just makes it bumpier.
Denial? What’s that?
Terminal denial
As the Nazi Holocaust finally came to an end, Allied soldiers led the
horrified German population — the everyday, law-abiding,
government-believing people of the day — through the concentration
camps. Newsreels of this guided tour shows women crying convulsively,
stunned men with heads bowed low in shock and dismay.
Filing past piles of emaciated corpses, the stench of death
everywhere, an unspeakable horror permeated their souls. For all at
once, they realized that the nagging doubt in the back of their minds —
the secret fear that the rumors of genocide might actually be true, but
which they had disbelieved, thinking such negative thoughts to be from
the demon of disloyalty, weakness, or lack of patriotism — those doubts
had actually been the desperate cry of inner truth. The soft, velvety
denial they had lived in vanished instantly, and in its place, the agony
of guilt and betrayal.
Don’t look down on these people. At least they faced their sins of
omission and tacit complicity, having believed their leaders and ignored
the urgings of their own conscience. They were forced to acknowledge the
horror they had previously denied.
What about us? Will we one day tour through the wreckage of our own
culture of death and weep? A few years ago an anti-abortion group
discovered an abortion clinic that had warehoused in a large storage
room dozens of late-term aborted babies in bell jars. The room and its
contents were photographed and distributed nationwide by this group
under the title, “The American Holocaust.” It was truly shocking. Yet
little has changed. Today we have polite debates over the relative
merits of “partial birth abortion,” the ultimate euphemism for
infanticide. If you lined up a thousand Americans at random and showed
them a video of a partial birth abortion, virtually every single one —
after recoiling in horror, throwing up, and screaming hysterically —
would register their clear disapproval of this barbaric, murderous
practice. And yet, it’s legal.
That’s denial.
Hitler knew that people have short memories, and this knowledge freed
him to be ruthless and outrageous without fear of opposition. What about
us? How is it that the American conscience can so easily be wiped clean
of its memory of Juanita Broaddrick? Remember her? Or did the war in the
Balkans, the mass murders in Colorado and Atlanta, and the Kennedy
deaths wipe your memory clean? Allow me to remind you. Juanita
Broaddrick went on national TV, dripping with credibility, accusing Bill
Clinton of brutally raping her. The next day, 62 percent of Americans
polled said they believed her. Almost two out of three Americans
believed that Bill Clinton may have been guilty of forcible rape, a
crime that used to be punishable by death. Two out of three! That, in
the same country where, when citizens at random are polled regarding a
question like “Does 1 plus 1 equal 2?” there are always about 17 percent
who are “undecided” or “unsure.” So what happened to us? We forgot!
That’s denial.
The truth is, asking the human race about denial is like asking a
fish about water; he doesn’t know what you’re talking about. It’s his
element, he’s swimming in it all the time, and he’s never known anything
else. If we didn’t have our denial, we’d probably gasp for “air” and
die.
So let’s summarize: Point A, a whole lot of stuff is about to hit the
fan. And point B, many of us have our heads buried so deeply in the
sand, we wouldn’t recognize the truth if it kicked us in the rear.
And that brings us to Y2K.
Y2K reality check
Will the lights stay on? Will I have a job? Will the stock market
crash?
Will I be allowed to withdraw money from my bank? Will my government
check arrive? Will we have a recession or depression? Will there be
riots and social disruption? Will Clinton impose martial law? Many
people are asking themselves these questions.
Clearly, because of the interconnectedness of systems, the
“weak-link” nature of the Y2K problem, the century rollover could result
in virtually any conceivable outcome, from mildly disruptive to
apocalyptic. I don’t have to describe the possible scenarios in detail;
you’ve no doubt heard them all. Edward Yardeni, chief economist for one
of the world’s largest banks (Deutsche Morgan Grenfell) and a celebrated
Wall Street analyst, gives a 30 percent chance that Y2K won’t be too
bad, a 25 percent chance for moderate recession, a 40 percent chance for
major global recession, and a 5 percent chance for, and I quote,
“Depression lasting two to five years, blackouts, social and political
upheaval. Stock market … you don’t want to know.” And Yardeni is mild
compared to some Y2K experts.
Of course, we Americans have made it through a Depression before, but
during a very different era. With all its faults, America of the ’30s
clung to the ideals of a cohesive Judeo-Christian culture — a melting
pot of many nations, but with one set of ultimate values that cemented
our society together. Thus our parents and grandparents weathered the
Great Depression with relative dignity. That was then. How would today’s
Americans react to another Depression? At least in those days, people
desperately unhappy with the stock market just jumped off a building —
they didn’t feel compelled to shoot a dozen people before taking their
own miserable lives.
What about leadership? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a little inspired
national leadership during this crisis period? Sorry. Acknowledged by
all to be a pathological liar, a major league sexual predator, one
willing to give national security secrets to our enemies in return for
campaign donations — and these are just the things that everyone agrees
on — the president of the United States at the turn of the millennium
will be Bill Clinton.
The scariest scenario of all
No doubt the new millennium will bring with it great adventure. The
convergence of all these various trends promises a profound
transformation of our world, and there is the distinct possibility of
that transformation being for the better. After all, disasters
historically bring the best out of good people … and the worst out of
bad people. That’s why, when somebody’s store is burning down or being
flooded, you’ll find strangers taking great risks to try to save the
threatened business, but you’ll also find others trying to loot it. The
sheer difficulty of this time we will soon enter, and the necessity of
working together, could very well bring many people to their senses and
we could end up with a better country. It is possible. In fact, it is
essential.
Because when all is said and done, there is one future scenario that
is conspicuously scarier than all the rest. The worst possible scenario
we could experience is the one in which … nothing happens.
Nothing. The stock market just goes up forever and everyone’s 401Ks
continue to get fatter, continually anesthetizing them — like a
morphine IV drip — against caring about the brazen theft of their
country, culture and freedom. (Remember: “It’s the economy, stupid”?)
Hollywood just continues to corrupt the nation’s youth with films like
“American Pie.” Children continue to have sex and shoot each other at an
ever-earlier age. We continue to allow government to chip away, no, make
that hack away at our fundamental rights as a free people. Yes, the most
dangerous future scenario is that we just continue on the way we are
going, with the slow, steady, disintegration of our nation into a
fragmented, hedonistic, selfish, valueless, nothing society. And roaring
in to fill this moral vacuum, with the same force as the mile-wide
monster tornado that devastated Oklahoma recently, tyranny will overtake
this once-free country. And that will be the wildest ride of all.
“If men are not ruled by God,” wrote William Penn, “they will be
ruled by tyrants.” We are about to discover that truth — big time. It
may be that before too long Americans will walk through the
concentration camps of their own making, and see what has become of
their beloved country, their families, and their own lives.
Each of our lives has a purpose — the perfection of our souls for
God. He doesn’t care so much what we go through in the short run, but
rather that we ultimately come to Him. To that end, the wake-up calls we
get become more and more urgent. They are meant to bring each of us to a
recognition of our individual and collective folly. If we don’t heed the
warning, we get another warning even higher on the Richter scale.
Eventually, the wake-up call succeeds in waking us up — or it kills us.
I believe Y2K is an incredibly compassionate wake-up call from the
Good Lord. I believe it is meant to get us to shake off the stupor we
all wallow in for most of our lives, prod us to look around, and get
prepared for whatever great and terrible things are to come. The Y2K
analysts are telling you that the computerized life support system we
depend on is in serious trouble. It is. So developing a Plan B for you
and your family makes a whole lot of sense. But the most important
preparation is deeper still. Please don’t neglect it, because it’s the
only thing that ultimately matters. If you died today and went before
the judgment seat of God and were required to give an accounting of your
life, could you look upon the Almighty and say honestly, “I’ve done my
very best”?
Tiktok trance
WND Comics