History tends to move slowly, in small ripples, not tsunamis. Liberals howled at Ronald Reagan’s “trickle-down economics” in the 1980s, but trickle is exactly what we get in nearly all walks of life, especially when there are 7+ billion people to trickle to. Inventions, knowledge, wealth—all take time to spread and permeate the masses. Humans are turtles, not cheetahs.
The occasional bomb does drop—the Great Depression of 1929 didn’t wait for anybody—but usually, even “revolutions” take time. The French “Revolution” started in 1789; it was 10 years later before Napoleon came to power, and 16 years after that when Europe finally got shuck of him. 26 years. Bill and Monica were a thing 26 years ago, and nostalgia today. The American “Revolution” broke out in 1775 (Lexington and Concord) but we didn’t get a Constitution we could live with until 14 years later (1789). Snail. The last empirical dynasty in China, the Qing, fell in 1911. The Chinese Communist Party started its gala murdering spree under Mao Zedong in 1949—38 years after. The last of Rome’s “Five Good Emperors” (Marcus Aurelius) died in 180 A.D. The decline began, but the “official” date of the “fall” of the Roman Empire is 476 (the last Roman emperor removed from the throne). That’s almost 300 years. Yawn. The history turtle crawls.
Because of the Industrial Revolution, and especially the rapid development of transportation and communication, matters generally move a little more quickly nowadays. But, with over 7 billion people in the world, and tradition and culture being what they are, trickle is still the best way to describe historical movements. Particularly with ideas. People must be “un-educated” of their “old-fashioned” views before they can be “re-educated” with new ones. Even Communists, with their “re-education camps”—i.e., “learn this or die”—aren’t usually successful in immediately overturning the traditions of the masses. It takes a national education system and at least a generation or two of brainwashing and indoctrination to completely convert most people. And even then, traditions run strong and the wise perceive “this new garbage stinks.” But again, re-education is possible, though not rapid. It took several centuries to wash slavery from human acceptance. The Democratic Party in America still believes in it, just government slavery, not private property slavery.
I will show, in a subsequent article, that 60 years ago, even Hollywood knew what a woman is. Most of us still do, of course, and thus the Left’s goal of destroying the American family, Christian truth, and thousands of years of history hasn’t been successful yet, and it never will be. Some ideas are too stupid to be accepted by anyone except leftist intellectuals. The sad thing is, incalculable damage has been done while “progressives” have been experimenting on mankind.
Changing a country’s moral system also takes time. There is an enlightening passage in the book of Ecclesiastes: “Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” People don’t commit adultery and then die the next day (usually). God is long-suffering, otherwise we’d all be ashes the first time we sinned. But the (false) conclusion is drawn: “Ha! I must be getting away with it, so I’ll do it again.” The more that people believe they are succeeding in their immorality, the more they tend to do it. And it spreads. Trickle-down immorality. Excellence takes awhile, too, but nobody knows what that word means any more. America is drenched today in immoral slime, the government education system having been flushing character and decency down the toilet for at least the last generation or two. A moral nation does not elect depraved curs like Bill Clinton. Or Joe Biden. (Donald Trump?) Or most of what we send to Washington, D.C. It seems rapid once it is upon us; but it did take time to get here.
I say all of that to say this: the year 2023 is upon us, and what we will probably see, especially as we look back on it in January 2024, is a continual dripping, trickling decline. Joe Biden and the Democrats aren’t going to change. The policies they have enacted are horrible, and a downward trend will continue—economically, morally, and by every other measure one wants to use. The Republicans in the House might be able to slow some of this down (they will never hold anybody accountable), but they can only slightly retard the growth of cancer, not stop it. Mitch McConnell apparently is content to be a Democrat for the rest of his life. So, it’s a pretty good bet that, on 1/1/24, conservatives will still be in a depressed condition as we slowly watch our country slide down a sewer, hoping that maybe the elections of 2024 will turn things around. They won’t. America’s problem is moral, not political. Rotten trees rarely grow good apples, and politics cannot change that. Moral rejuvenation is the only road back for America, and that is nowhere in sight.
Of course, a major bomb COULD drop in 2023. Those events can never, by definition, be foreseen. If the economy finally goes belly-up (it will someday), if a nuclear war breaks out, if another Chinese plague wipes out two-thirds of humanity—something like this COULD happen. It is always possible. But those events don’t happen very often, and the best money is on them not happening in 2023. Stay out of that market, though.
Trickle-down destruction will continue, led by Joe, Kamala, Mitch, the Washington establishment—AND the American people who elected them in the first place.
Sorry. I’d like to be optimistic, but…what is there to be optimistic about?
Speaking of history, travel back in time to the good ol’ days of the American West. You will meet some real American heroes. My western novels, Whitewater and River Bend, are available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Eliva.com. A third western, Allie’s Dilemma, is available for Kindle only. And read some different posts on my blog at thailandlewis.blogspot.com.