Signs of the Times

I spent some time staying at a friend's house recently which has given me some insight into his life that I didn't have before. During my stay we had a number of conversations relating to the state of the world and the direction it's heading.

During one discussion, I pointed out that the Signs seem to indicate this world may well be heading for some catastrophes. Things don't look good for the future of the planet.

Based on what he asked?

I gave a few examples, such as the increase in Earth-bound objects in recent years.

The idea of the "End Times" isn't new to my friend. He's read the books that describe the times of turmoil in the final days, as passed on in "stories" and "myths" from ancient times.
What he isn't aware of, and what most of these books omit, is the evidence showing periods of destruction in the past, and based on the cyclical nature of the universe, the likelihood of it happening again. Neither it seems, was my friend interested in looking.
In the past he appeared to enjoy these conversations, but things were different this time around.

Common sense, he said, tells him the world will continue as it always has. The human race has had its ups and downs in the past but we're still here.

Forgetting the Earth Changes for a moment, what about the actions of the current Bush Administration, the slaughtering of innocent civilians in Iraq, the questions surrounding the official story of 9/11, the remarkable similarity in the rise the Bush Reich with that of Hitler's Nazi party, I ask. Why did he think this was happening now and what did he think the the potential implications would be?

His answer was simple. Even if it's all true he said, Hitler was defeated and everything was okay in end.

Well, he seemed to have overlooked a not-so-small detail. That 65 million people died in the Second World War, and the lives of millions of others were thrown into turmoil by the actions of a tyrannical government which chose to impose its "ideals" on the rest of the world. The lives of these people was certainly not "alright".
The logical flaws in his thinking are fundamental.
Common sense is only useful, if based on knowledge. If it is based on incomplete data, or "false knowledge", which really isn't knowledge at all, it is useless.

Anyhow, the reason for my friend's continued ignorance is now clear. He stated it himself. He isn't comfortable discussing these subjects in any depth, and just wants to have a "good time". He loves food. He loves women. He likes working out. He likes talking about "conspiracy", all the while the unpleasant details are left out. Fortunately for him then, the Devil is in the details.
It's easy to jump to erroneous conclusions by skipping the "little" details, only for these seemingly trivial pieces of information to turn out to be critical to the understanding of a problem.
As someone recently pointed out to me. If you don't know something, you shouldn't be afraid to say so.

What is interesting in my friend's case is, despite making the choice to put his head in the sand, rather than saying "I don't want to know" and leaving his mind open to other possibilities, he chose to "disagree" with me.

"You have your opinions, I have mine. We'll have to agree to disagree", he said.
Now, I didn't respond to this since he has clearly stated his choice, and this is his right of freewill. But what has he really chosen to disagree with? Me or reality?

The following excerpt taken from Laura Knight-Jadczyk's, The High Strangeness of Dimensions, Densities and the Process of Alien Abduction sums up my friends position concisely, as it does a large proportion of the worlds population, it seems:

We see here what we Cohen has called "implicatory denial" where there is no attempt to deny either the facts or their conventional interpretation; what is ultimately denied are the psychological, political and moral implications that follow from deep acknowledgement. We can casually admit things in states of implicatory denial,which then leads us directly into "interpretive denial" where the raw facts that something may actually be happening - such as conspiracy- are not really denied - they are just "interpreted" or rationalized away. We are then more easily able to slip into literal denial, that there is no "conspiracy", and then the painful truth of our true condition is ameliorated and we can return to our sitcoms, ballgames and weekend barbeques.

We all have a choice to make. We can pay attention to the Signs of the Times, or we can continue with "Everyday Life". The decision we make as individuals will determine what, if any, future we have. And here we are not talking about our "physical vehicle", we are talking about the battle for our very soul.