It started not with a bang, but with a sizzle. The people living in shantytowns, 3rd world slums, the crazy survivalists living off-grid in some little cabin didn’t even realize it till they tried to use the Internet, or watch TV, or turn on a radio. They flipped through the channels to find nothing but static, no dial tone on the phone, an “unable to connect” message on every web browser.
The people in suburbia thought it was just a power outage, and stayed indoors, waiting for the grid to kick in again. But within a few days, they began to venture out in search of food, clean water, a functional Wi-Fi hotspot. The kids took it the hardest, wandering through neighborhoods with their cell phones in hand, searching for a signal, searching for some way to connect.
It took a while for people to notice the intensity of the sun, the odd radiance that seemed to linger well after the sunset. It took much less time for them to notice the stars, which pierced the sky like spotlights, their light undimmed by electric lights, neon signs, fluorescent-lit billboards.
Within a week, looting had spread from the dense urban areas to the suburbs. At first, the strip malls, Wal-Marts and Safeways tried boarding up the windows, locking up the doors, but the numbers of desperate housewives, angry teens with faces oily from lack of acne cream, screaming children were too many. A few organized militia/gang types tried to secure the fast dwindling resources, but ammunition was too limited, and targets too numerous. Within weeks, every shelf was stripped bare.
The ones most reliant on the conveniences of modern times were the first to go, the first to turn on their neighbors, the first to turn on themselves. Without their cell phones, they had no way of reaching out for help, without Google and YouTube, they had no way of acquiring the skills necessary to sustain themselves. They wandered aimlessly, searching for sustenance, searching for input, searching for something to fill the void now that the digital world was gone.
Yes, this scenario is imagined, but the idea of a massive solar flare that knocks out the grid is not that far-fetched. The sun sends out much more than light and heat to our planet, these solar flares contain massive amounts of electromagnetic energy which, if intense enough, have the ability to disrupt electronic devices across the globe. Beyond affecting the digital world which we have come to take for granted, imagine the way our own individual electromagnetic fields would be disrupted. I’m not talking about some “new age” concept like our auras or chakras, but simply the electromagnetic signals that travel through our brain.
Whether or not you believe in astrology, the teachings of the Bible, the Hindu Rig Vedas, the Mayan calendar, the whole 2012 phenomenon, climate change, or simply read the news on a regular basis, you can’t deny that there is something very powerful and very intense going on in the world these days, a tension that is building and building towards some kind of tipping point. A change is on the horizon, and all of humanity will be affected.
I say this with certainty because of what I feel in my gut, because of what I have seen in my dreams, my meditations, my research and my overindulgent information intake. We are on the brink of something unprecedented in human history. What it is, I have no idea, but something tells me that the center of our universe, the Sun, will play a central role (no pun intended). Perhaps it’s just a product of an overactive imagination or a byproduct of past psychoactive drug use, but I’m keeping my eyes open and my head clear, my body healthy and my mind sharp…
The universe is infinite, complex, seemingly chaotic at times. To rely on science, on religion, even on our own intuition (this one is a little more debatable) is to deny the multitude of other forces at work that we haven’t even discovered yet. But for some reason, cultures throughout history, across the globe have pointed at this time as a time of major change, and they can’t all be wrong…can they?
Although I really enjoyed the scenario at the beginning of your post, I don’t share the feeling that something is simmering on the horizon. I just think that we humans are always looking to the end of life as we know it, whether it’s 1900, 2000, or 2012. The older generations are always certain that the current youth are an abomination. And still, the wheels keep turning. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
The scenario I laid out is very improbable, to be sure, its more of a fantasy than an actual prediction. But I’ll stick to my guns when I say we’re on the brink of something. As to the abomination of modern youth, I think that the youth are much less to blame for their apathy and reliance on technology than the homogenized culture of in-your-face advertising and media monopolies in which they were raised.
Like Leftover Crack says: “They figured out a long time ago that its much easier to control people when we’re all watching the same tv shows, listing to the same radio stations, reading the same billboards, eating the same food and speaking the same language”
Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate you taking the time to read what I have to say.