Predictions and Prophecies

I was going to discuss sweet potato pie, a Thanksgiving favorite, but the media is so taken with the Mayan Prophecies that I thought they deserved mention.
Once again we have reached a time when the Internet is flooded with dire predictions of future misfortunes, namely The End of the World.

The ancient Mayan Prophecies prediction that their fourth calendar year will end December 12, 2012 is gleaning a lot of attention lately because they were remarkably learned about a lot of things, and their predictions were uncannily accurate. You can learn more on the Internet.

Remember the “experts” who would, for a price, prepare us to survive the change to the Second Millennium and avoid disaster? There were predictions that computers would crash.  The electronic cash register in my store was an older model unable to handle a year date ending in a double zero. I had an employee scared almost to death to come to work the first day of 2000 because she thought it would explode. Not to worry. At midnight, Jan. 1, the machine simply posted the date as 1949 and stayed that way until 2001.

This blog is about the remarkably accurate predictions of the North American Hopi Indians. They also use the 2012 date and, so far, have accurately told of events on this continent. I describe them in my book, Accidental Alien. The premise of the book is that the Supreme Creator is so disgusted with the way humans have evolved that He has decided to order a sixth mass extinction on Earth and start over with new life. When humans appeared they were designed to become the caretakers of the Earth. Instead, something went wrong and they evolved into killing machines with no regard for any life, including human. My newly germinated plant alien, Daniel, learns this while maturing into his human persona. He would like to find a way to change things.

Here is an excerpt from the conversation he and his companion female, Aine, are having with their mentor, Professor Masters. He is speaking.

"This sounds like the Native American Indian Prophecies, borrowed by the Hopi from the Mayan. They had a vast knowledge of the heavens. Their calendar divided time into 'Worlds,' of about 5,000 years. This is the Fourth World, due to end by December 21, 2012, after certain 'signs,' or predictions are fulfilled."

"And these signs," Daniel asked, "What are they?"

"For one thing, the Hopi predictions are surprisingly accurate. Most of the prophecies have been fulfilled. We are waiting for the last.”

“Tell us of that one,” Aine said.

“They foretold the coming of the white man, the covered wagons of the Western migration, the introduction of longhorn cattle, the railroads, the highway system, and recently, the Seventh Sign, which says the sea will turn black and many living things will die because of it."

"That's already happened," Aine said. "What are the rest?"

"The Eighth sign predicts that many youth, who wear their hair long, like the People, will join the tribal nations to learn their ways and wisdom. Some scholars believe it describes the ‘hippie’ movement.”

"And the last? The Ninth Sign?"

"As I recall, it says something like: ‘You will hear of a great dwelling place in the heavens above the earth, that will fall with a great crash. It will appear as a blue star. Very soon after this, the ceremonies of my people will cease.’"

"The Mass Extinction of the Second Millennium," Daniel whispered.

"Yes, you might be right," Wally said. "The prophecy ends with words something like . . . um, 'These are the signs of the Great Destruction. The world will rock to and fro. The white man will battle people of other lands.'

“I remember a prediction about white columns of smoke like those the Indians have seen in the desert. I can only think of an atomic bomb. ‘They will cause much disease and great dying.’

“The summation, as far as I'm concerned, is that the earth will go through a great purification process. How drastic it will be depends on humanity coming to its senses before it's too late. It seems every day there is a new disaster to warn us."

Daniel accepts this prediction. He has already decided that extinction might be a good thing. Something went very wrong when humans emerged from the primordial mist. Instead of fulfilling their role as caretakers of life on the planet, they evolved into monstrous killing machines with no regard for any living thing including them. They enjoy human slaughter.

The book has a happy ending. We’ll have to see about 2012.

Wha' Happened?

This is an opinion piece so, if you don’t like opinions that might not agree with yours, don’t read it. Wait until next week when I’ll get poetic about sweet potato pie, or some such thing.

The dust has settled on the last election and half the population is happy because their guy won, and the other half views with trepidation the next four years

The truth is that the Romney campaign was the most mismanaged campaign since McGovern, so badly run his advisors owe the public an apology. He should have fired everybody at the get-go and hired two very good speech writers and a drama coach. That campaign was classic 1980 political strategy; the trouble is that this is the second millennium. Back then negative campaigning was a no-no. You remained polite. You didn’t respond to outrageous accusations, no matter how slanderous. You remained quietly steadfast. This strategy today, unfortunately, makes you look like the little kid being tormented by the schoolyard bully (meaning the Dems) and not knowing how to fight back. Your classic wimp.

Uh huh. The Democrats came out swinging months in advance. They accused Romney of everything from being a felon to preying on the helpless old ladies. He remained silent, not saying a word while the public pleaded for some sign that he was a leader. Was this presidential? If he couldn’t slap the Dems upside the head for lying, how would he handle the Middle East despots? Would he just roll over and beg them to be nice? Newt Gingrich would have hit them like a freight train. We were looking for a leader and got nothing. Somebody who could make Iran behave.

Times have changed. These days voters elect a carefully visualized personality no matter how unqualified they are for the job. Did we not prove that in 2008? They don’t care about qualifications. They’re scared. They want a hero who will make everything better and they want to be told that in plain words. With writers it is called ‘building a platform’. Don’t even think of approaching an agent without one.

First comes the image: man of steel, resolute in the face of adversity, don’t-mess-with-me demeanor that bodes ill for you if you even dare to bully. Think 007, not Adam Sandler. Establishing a no-holds-barred persona by giving inspiring speeches a must. Demonstrate without doubt superior knowledge in everything, hopefully diminishing your opponent This is guerilla warfare.

You need the obligatory book about leadership, published about two years before declaring. Consider what great stories the truth about Bain Capital or the Olympics would have been in the hands of the right writer. Include heartfelt testimony about his belief in God.

Do not put up with debate commentators showing partiality. Humiliate their professionalism.

A hysterically laughing vice-Presidential opponent? Attack! Refer to them as laughing boy or Bobo. Very soon the word is out that this is a man to contend with.

And, of course, by all means, avoid sex. That’s the one thing both candidates did right. Will these men never learn?

One more thing. If you must hire advisors, make sure they studied politics either before Reagan or after 1998.

It Was Different Back Then

     I've heard that so many times but never thought much about it until a few weeks ago when I received a free-lance assignment for an article about growing up a teenager in the 1940s. For me it was a no-brainer. I was essentially interviewing myself.
The article covered 1940 to 1949, the year I graduated from high school and included World War II, but even before the war there were huge differences between childhood then and now.
     Last evening was Hallowe'en, with the traditional trick or treating. In my day we went with friends. Even the grade schoolers went unchaperoned, never imagining being kidnapped or attacked, or worrying about being poisoned by tainted candy. In my small hometown such things didn't happen, or if the evil existed, we didn't hear about it. Did we not have such a vast number of perverted individuals in the 40s, or did they suddenly begin appearing later on?
We didn't know. We didn't have TV and the Internet to keep us informed about such stuff outside our comfort zone. It was a time of innocence and freedom from fear. We had newspapers that only adults read, except for the funny pages, and radio, but who knew that playing with water in the gutters during a rainstorm could bring on disease, or that there were evil men lurking in doorways, or driving around in cars, (nobody owned a car),waiting to pounce? Definitely, some weird adults lived in the neighborhood, but details were scarce. You instinctively avoided them. Sex, rape, and perversion were mysteries left for later years, unless you personally knew someone, then the gossip went wild. Dire rumors of the grim consequences of indulging in sex, the worst being that somebody might find out and you'd be branded, like The Scarlet Letter, kept most of us chaste, even in high school.
      For amusement we rode our bikes to the stockyards and chased the cows until we got run off, or read comic books. I learned math by playing cards, and about money with a Monopoly game. We talked. Every neighborhood had a place where we all gathered, after dark, to talk. Does that happen anymore? Texting is hardly talking, nor is tweeting.
     So, I was writing furiously, not really thinking too much, until I came to the question: What expectations did your parents have for you when you graduated from high school? Wow! The difference between then and now smacked me in the libido. The answer was, absolutely nothing. I was a girl, stupid. Girls weren't expected to do or be anything. You got married and had children. If you worked, it was until you got married, then you didn't work. It simply wasn't done. If you went to college, it wasn't to learn anything; it was to meet men with better job prospects, or who came from money, so you could make a better marriage. The accepted wisdom was that the money for tuition would be wasted on a girl because she'd just get married and never use the degree.
     Since the Women's Movement, which began with World War II, and reached fruition in the 50s, women in the US and Europe have gained many freedoms. We're still learning how to handle it and society is still, like flood waters, trying to return to the way it was. Probably the greatest change is the power to choose or reject motherhood. As the role of women in directing the course of world economic and political future increases it is inevitable that we realize men have made an unholy mess of things. I wonder how long we will put up with it?