The first paragraph about surviving in "lockdown" for 400 years was fascinating; I must look into it.

The rest was a terse illustration of our ongoing, unending catastrophes.

The bit about JD Vance is accurate; I have met some of his mentors and advisors and I know some of his fans. They live in a computer game where good guys defeat bad guys and you never run out of lives.

The violent farce of democracy the United States has mythologized will probably be executed in slow motion over the next eight years.

The tragic yet banal aspect of the decades-long breakdown of the fastest failed Empire in history is that we no longer have a population that cares to know what to do about our predicament, is inclined to want to understand it, or is capable of acting when they know exactly what we are facing. We are fully domesticated and pacified by the Great Games information machine.

Curious people will continue to observe and try to understand our circumstances until circumstances dictate that we panic—what follows is all manner of chaos and violence. Thoughts and prayers about dodging a strategic nuclear war.

Some communities may rediscover how their distant ancestors survived and continue. Our species may survive and start the cycle all over again.

Developing social wisdom, community intelligence, knowledge about how nature works, and reverence for it would take generations of careful culture-building. And culture-building would have to take place across cultures worldwide. One can wish upon star stuff.

It's long past midnight. Let's make the best of what we have and be kind to each other.