Endgame

The US has just made a major attack on Iran. And as far as I’m concerned, this is something that was forever going to happen.

The eternal positivity of greens is something that has always grated on my nerves. I always wanted to tell them: “I know humanity just isn’t that good. Your plans don’t have a snowflake’s chance in hell of happening like you say.” But they would never listen. And hey, greens are the only people that are even moving roughly in the correct direction. So, I go with them. What else could I do?

The other thing in my mind is, it’s always slightly irked me when a writer uses the word “undescribable”. Whenever I come across the word, I think: “Hey, you’re a writer. Your job is literally to describe things. That word is for anybody who isn’t a writer and is at a loss for words. It should mark anybody as a poor writer.” And then, this happens, and I still have my writing ambitions, and I have to admit that trying to describe what it’s like is rather hard.

Because, it’s so bloody big. Like I say, it was forever going to happen. I’ll cheat a little and I’ll use pictures.

There is a mass armada in orbit…

For a little context on armadas:

http://theoildrum.com/node/8956

And if you believe that the US exports about as much oil as it imports, there’s a small bridge in Brooklin I’d like to sell you… it leads straight to Asimov’s former home. Unless, of course, you can convince me that financial creativity has reached heights I can’t even begin to imagine. Because the question is whether the creative accounting is done with the physical oil, the money, or both. I reckon both.

This picture suggests three distinct waves of creativity. And not of the fun kind.

Without a voice, without a thought, without a soul…

And for anyone that wants to chant “make love, not war”, I’m not really in the mood, but you do your thing. This one’s for you:

And somebody in the White House should be doing regret like the poor guy of Linkin Park could do, but I have a distinct impression that there isn’t anybody there even vaguely contemplating that sort of thing. Well, in the future somebody may be able to muster at least the pretense that they regret:

Anyway, if I’m going to go all Dune about it, I should specify where the golden path is going. Sure, no problem.

Long, long conflict, like in Syria. China could decide that they’re willing to fight the war to the last Iranian, but I don’t think that’s the most likely. Most likely, China will just focus on trying to keep the oil fields going, and the rest will have to manage the best they can. Big waves of refugees, most of them going to Russia and ex-Soviet republics. And, of course, the markets will do all those spiky things that markets can do, in the style of the devil’s staircase. Piecemeal WWIII, like the Pope said. Conflict areas spreading like a blood stain, till eventually they stop spreading. And like the famous karate saying, the best defense is knowing not where to be.

The thing with all the people into the occult and synchronicity is that they always want to take the hidden path. There isn’t always a hidden path. Sure, lots of people have better things to do that follow the news. But some things are so unavoidable, any path you take. So high, you can’t get over them, so low you can’t get under them, so wide you can’t get round them.