I know more than some how to rationalize warning signs; making the writing on the wall seem like a love poem instead of curse. I’ve done it more times than I can count. I rationalized red flags with women I dated/married. I ignored warning signs of what was to come when I worked at a Fortune 100 company because they said they cared. When we have stability in our lives, it can be easy to rationalize warning signs because humans have the innate ability to both under and over estimate our danger in a situation.

We hear all the time from both sides of the political spectrum that the other side is fear mongering and blowing things out of proportion. Sometimes, it is true; and sometimes, it is not. Even though we have more access to more information than ever, it is increasingly difficult to know what information is accurate and what information is complete and utter bullshit. It is important to look at all information with skepticism. Rational and logic thinking can be used against us. We often ask ourselves, “Why would that person/group do something that would potentially end civilization as we know it?” The answer is often because of greed and/or power. It’s very difficult to understand the lengths some people with go to for money and/or power. Often times, those people have some form of brain chemistry imbalance or mental disorder.

Don’t overlook some of the warning signs that are in front of us right now. The impact of what is going to happen is unknown, but it doesn’t look good. We’re being fed shit and told it’s caviar. They are pissing on our backs and telling us it’s raining. They are downplaying catastrophic events at the same time they are catastorphizing(don’t care if it is a real word or mispelled) menial events. We do not have to understand everything about economics or multi-national geopolitical shit to know things might be turning into a clusterfuck of apocalyptic proportions.

For example, we don’t have to be extremely intelligent to see the economy isn’t as good as what some people are saying. A lot of us are living the reality of the economy, and we can tell it isn’t good. They like to throw the unemployment figures at us, but they don’t tell us the full story. While there might only be a small percentage of people currently filing for unemployment, they don’t show us how many people are no longer able to get unemployment (for one reason or another) or the people that just aren’t looking for work via unemployment or not wanting to work at all. They are committing so many logical fallacies, but the information is lost in an ocean of information and whale shit.

Those in power will oversell how good things are in hopes to remain in power. Those seeking power will oversell how bad things currently are in an attempt to gain power. Where’s the truth? It’s hard to say, but it’s likely somewhere in the in between. I don’t know how things will pan out. I don’t have all of the information needed to come up with that. Even if I did, I don’t think I’m smart enough to interpret the information accurately. All I know is that things aren’t what they seem. Real estate has taken a big hit, both corporate/business and personal. People’s and countries’s debt are at a higher level than in recent history. Income is either stagnant or only slightly higher, and that doesn’t account for the rapid inflation we’ve seen. Inflation is a year-over-year metric. That means that if inflation remains steady at 3% a year, in three years, things cost 9% more than they did three years ago (3% x 3 years = 9%).

When we feel the wet liquid (is there any other type of liquid?) hitting our back, it’s our duty to turn around and see whether it is rain or piss. Individually, we might not be able to make a global impact (in a positive or negative way), but we can peek behind the curtain and understand what is being hidden from us. We have the option to rationalize why bad things happen, or we can dig a little and get the truth, or as much as we can find. Most of us (myself included) don’t want the burden of knowing the full truth. I know we’re being fed a pile of shit, but I don’t want to know it. I just want to pretend it’s caviar. It causes me cognitive dissonance, but I think knowing the full truth would cause me deep despair.