Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Apocalypse now

I have a new apocalypse theory, and here it goes. The world is not going to go out with a big bang, flooded waters, or as a salt lick. We’re going out slowly and painfully. And the downturned economy is going to be our demise. We are going to get poor, then poorer, and finally so deprived that we have nothing. Then we’re going to start killing people for their cars, or their houses, or their wide-screen TVs. Maybe their food. Eventually.

It is the privileged who are going to suffer the most. Just like Jesus said. Camel and eye of needle stuff. They aren’t going to handle being poor very well at all. They won’t be able to afford gas for their airplanes and helicopters, so they can't fly to their vacation homes in the south of France. They’ll have to sell their cabin resorts all together. And their boats. And their third Humvees. They are going to be in a sorry state.

The middle class, like me, also will suffer. No more eating out. We won’t be able to afford the symphony or opera anymore (yea!!!). No more buying that second pair of LL Bean wide-leg jeans. Or maybe even the first. Movies are out. Netflix too. Red meat and organic vegetables will be history. In fact, we might have to grow our own food.

It is the poor who will be blessed. The 800 million people in the world who already suffer from hunger and malnutrition. The ones who have never even felt their foot on the gas pedal of a vehicle. Who have never owned a TV. Or a radio. Who wouldn't have the electricity to run them if they found them in a dump. They will barely feel the apocalypse. They’ve been living it all their lives.

Just a thought that came to me in the night.