SPEAKING INTO THE FUTURE

…A DAY (OR TWO) LATE

   As you can maybe guess, I’m writing these articles (and podcasting) for the future, a fancy way of saying I put some content “in the can” so to speak. Then I load the content into WordPress with a publish date. This is a handy way of giving myself some time flexibility lest the uncertain vagaries of life should stop my creative time. It also allows you, dear reader (or listener to Anomie Patrol), to have a consistent expectation of scheduled and engaging content. It can also be a bit jarring, like your reading something I’ve put out about, I don’t know, the dangers of living in normal times; after a catastrophic event like an alien invasion (or a pandemic?)

    Now maybe an article about boredom would work really well in this situation, with everybody willingly locking themselves up for weeks. Or maybe my pearls of wisdom will be so far out of touch you’ll just think Ranger has been out in the bush too long.

But maybe this also provides an opportunity, albeit a dangerous one, to make predictions. 

   A lot of writers and pundits avoid making predictions, I mean, what better way to make people doubt your ability to think and analyze, than to make some way-off prediction that doesn’t even come close to coming true. But I think I am fairly safe in making a few general predictions. I truly believe that this ongoing event (its end of march 2020 as I write this) is going to impact the way people think and live. It’s not so much that there will be a giant instant before/after divide, more like a bunch of little changes that will cumulate to changing the way people view things.  A different view has the effect on everyday decisions that will also accumulate into major transformations over time. Many of these developments will be negative, but some will be unforeseen and positive. If there is some shadowy group using this pandemic to whip up fear and influence the population, on say, the next US election; they may end up with some unintended consequences. It is possible, however, that this crisis is a “dry run” to condition the population with fear (real or imagined) so as to slowly continue turning the screws toward a “new world order” totalitarianism; only time will tell. I will concentrate mostly on the positive “possibles”, the lame stream media seems to be ramping up just fine on the “run away screaming in terror” negatives.

   Alright, let me stare into the fire, and see into the future by about two months; maybe further. I’ll start off with the bad news first

The bad stuff

• You’re being conditioned. Yes, I know this is an epidemic of sorts, but therehas been other epidemics over the years, with the same level of spread and total deaths. Always governments gave all the same warnings about hand washing, isolation, etc. But this is the first time a “lockdown” has been initiated. Maybe it’s warranted, maybe not, but if so why not with say; H1N1 or Hong Kong flu? Now the precedent is set, anytime the media blows the fear whistle it’ll be “stay in your homes, listen to government officials, just like before”. Fear is a great way to herd the masses if properly used on a conditioned people. Any person who questions the narrative will be beat down by the rest of the herd. Prediction: after the passing of this crisis, the government officials and their toadies will crow and pat themselves on the back to a nauseating level. Their dictatorial predilections will be what “saved the world”. The hard work and dedication of frontline workers, truckers, farmers and, especially, the bravery and dedication of the health workers; will get a passing mention
• The economy will neither “bounce back” nor “implode”, but it will not be the same. This prediction is the one I feel the weakest on, I don’t understand economics very well; I’m not sure “experts”really understand economics. I’m basing this on the fact that our economy mostly runs on how people “feel” about it. Confidence is king, our fiat currency depends on confidence for its value. The population is fickle on this because we have a media and an “elite” that really want a “bad” economy going into the 2020 US election, but the population will desire “normalcy”. I’m hedging my bets on this one. Prediction: Some sectors of the economy will bounce back, like say the restaurant business; the ones that didn’t go bankrupt at least. Other sectors will languish a long time, like the airlines. People are going to want to get out, but not go too far away. I guess I’m saying that the economy will start back up, but it won’t be firing on all cylinders.
• The politics of this whole thing will make every normal person sicker than any pandemic could. Prediction: The finger pointing and lies in politics after the Wuhan flu dies down will absolutely suck. A VERY safe prediction
• The media industrial complex will become more obnoxious. They are not showing this directly, but the media moguls are feeling very powerful right now. The heads on the screens told you to be very afraid, and you were. The screens told you to shut down your life, stay at home, and most of you did. Now the lame stream media has Trump between a rock and a hard place. If Trump looks at the #’s and decides America needs to get back to work, the ghouls in the media will show every crying loved one and every coffin that appears after the back-to-work policy is in place. The media will spin all the misery of the disease into a “Trump fault”moment. If the POTUS keeps the economy shut down too long, it will just make it that much harder to get going. Gaps will appear in the supply chain, parts for infrastructure will disappear, the system will begin to shut down; water, electricity, food, and ultimately healthcare will be threatened. Misery and despair, the media LOVES misery and despair, all socialist revolutionists do; the more misery, the better chance of controlling the collective. As far as Canada’s snivelling Prime Minister “funny socks” goes, he will probably keep the country locked down for a year and sulk in his house thinking up ways to further screw the western half of the country. Prediction: The trump administration will pull something out of their hat that will (again) tie up and gag the media. It could be this new drug regimen being talked about, or something else. Anything that will shine a light on the media ghouls, so the people can see what they are. Any shade throwing-heart-tug-misery stories will just bring a snort of derision from the common folk.

     The good stuff:

•  Nobody will ever look at grocery stores the same. The site of empty shelves will become indelible in people’s minds. Prediction: when the pandemic dies down every household in North America will have a shelf or closet with a few sacks of rice, beans and flour (and a couple of extra packs of T.P.) This is a good thing, independence is always a good thing.
• The amount of first time gun buyers in the US was phenomenal. That means even the more “liberal” love-your-neighbour types felt vulnerable. Deciding to take control by independently defending the right to safety is a good thing.  The anti-gun crowd just lost even more traction, it will become a dead end controversy, even in the face of a loony-shoots-up-a-crowd action. The loonies may eventually dry up if the “liberals” start packin’ heat. Prediction:  The anti-gun rhetoric will be desultory at best in the near future, a non-starter. The loony left will never stop talking about it, but it will be a spent force.
• The death of globalist thinking was almost instantaneous. Suddenly countries with borders mattered. The years and years of globalist “citizen of the world” propaganda was smothered in the sudden fear of an invisible enemy coming across open borders carried by “others”. The numbers of infections came in hand-in-hand with the media stories of “openness” and “anti-racist” propaganda. Even the lunatic media first labeled border closings as “xenophobic” one moment, then criticized governments as “slow acting” or “not serious enough” if action to prevent movement was not implemented. The lightning realization that all our goods (especially the vital ones) were manufactured in a hostile country (that was ground zero of the pandemic), made all the globalist preaching short sighted at best; traitorous at worst. The world got bigger, nations more important, and local control paramount. The “keep your distance” admonition of the wuhan flu outbreak suddenly didn’t just apply between friends and neighbours; but nations. Prediction:  The normal everyday people will realize that just because you want some control of borders, less people from other countries moving through your neighbourhood, and take pride in local production; doesn’t make you a “racist” or a “hater”, it makes you prudent. The calls for a slowdown in the movement of people will increase, the idea of the nation state will grow, and world production will diversify away from China.
• With the “work from home” experiment running large scale there will be some realizations made. While putting families together in a house for a long period of time will cause some stress, it won’t be as bad as some thought. The parents will get some work done, the kids will still learn some schooling, and nobody will miss the morning explosion of families and long commutes. The parents will get a first hand look at the useless garbage the kids are being shovelled, and the kids will learn that they can actually get work done without the peer distraction. Not all experiences will be the same, just like all the parents won’t necessarily be able to work from home; there will be some trying times. On the whole, however, the germ of an idea will start to form in the collective mind of the population. Why do we have to commute if we don’t have to, and why are we paying so much for overeducated baby sitters in the school system. Expect attacks on “home schooling” as the “crisis” dies down. Our present brick and mortar version of schooling is an inefficient dinosaur protected by an educational bureaucracy and teachers unions. A combination of community programs and computer programs could do a better job, at a tenth of the cost; and half the time. Kids would need to get together for some things (lab work, shop, sports, etc) but a learning curriculum tailored to each individual child via computer/virtual class is certainly within the realm of possibility, and better for the individual student. Driving to a school (or an office for that matter) to work at a computer is stupid and expensive. Prediction: Families spending time together will spark an interest in finding time to be together even after things return to “normal”, for the most part. Folks will start getting ideas about how to use the virtual world to do less commuting. The “magic” of the education “system” will lose its glitter, and those expensive teachers/teachers unions will begin to sound like the charlatans they are, however, the talented teachers will be more valued, and need a new platform so they can influence a greater number of students. 
• The media has pulled off its mask, even if they don’t realize it. Once this epidemic has died down, and the numbers come in and get crunched, people will see the whip hand of fear that the media wielded so artfully. People will look at the rubble of the economy, the lost jobs, and see the price that was paid for a totally political hack job. When the “Kung Flu” ornament finally comes out of the forge of history it will not take a place on the shelf beside cholera or Spanish flu, it will be thrown in the same garbage can as “Russian collusion”; at least in the mind of the everyday citizen. The fear that was so artfully manipulated by the media will turn to anger from the masses. I think this process has already started as I write this on April fools day. The media are the fools, their credibility is in the toilet Prediction: The media will still hold some sway just because there are almost no alternatives, all the voices sing from the same song sheet so to speak. But I think more and more people will be searching for the alternative voices. 
• And speaking of the media, people are noticing that all the past hobby horses of the “progressives” have disappeared. Those horses were all dead, but the mainstream bounced up and down and whipped on them anyway, when a new (alive) pony appeared (the chop fluey), the establishment all piled on. Also, the “let’s scare everybody with Whuhan flu death predictions”  numbers are all generated with computer models. Computer models are what are used to scare everyone with dire predictions of “climate catastrophe”. I’m thinking that the whole pandemic thing is a tempest in a teapot, as this draws closer to the end, they will be shaving down those predictions at an alarming rate. To now go back and start wailing about global warming (or transgenderism for that matter), is going to look mighty stupid to anyone with any sense. Oh, the lame streamers will try, they’ve already started. But more and more normal citizens will see it for what it is. Prediction: The “progressives” will suddenly realize that no matter how breathlessly they try and hammer the panic button on the “old” issues, Joe and Jane citizen won’t care much. The everyday folks now know what a real issue looks, and feels like. Joe and Jane will also see first hand how computer model numbers are nothing but fodder for chicken little “the sky is falling” rhetoric.

    Maybe some of my predictions will take more time than a month or two, we might all still be in quarantine for all I know. Maybe some of my predictions are a form of wishful thinking, maybe I’m biased. I do know I’m far from cities, and I don’t participate in the culture, as a whole, very much, but let me give you a quick summary of why I think this way.

    I think this outbreak is very real, but the presentation of it was very contrived, it didn’t follow the same pattern of other epidemics that have appeared in the last decade or two (and I believe it is VERY overblown). The everyday people out there have been anticipating something BAD was on it’s way for awhile now; this is why the Anomic Ranger was started, to explain that feeling of anomie. The “establishment” harnessed this to do one job; stop the sweep of independent thinking that has been growing and gnawing at the foundation of their globalist utopia. Their calculations may just work, the push for more government control of people’s lives may hold sway. I think, however, that they may have shot themselves in the foot. The “deplorables”, those they hold in such derision, are more canny than they imagined. Once this semi-artificial “catastrophe” has been put behind, I think it will lead to even more independent thinking. The normal folk are going to be looking for even more control of their lives from the top (nations, borders), middle (communities, families) and, pun intended, bottoms (closets with two EXTRA packs of toilet paper). Make it so.

-Ranger