A wise man – presumably one sitting on a rock in a lotus position – once said, "Nothing is as difficult to predict as the future."
Indeed, it is usually pointless to attempt it, except at the highest "macro" level, where we can confidently say sweeping things like "The Earth will eventually be swallowed by the Sun," "Empires collapse," or "Democracy is unworkable in the (not so) long term."
But despite the poor returns in terms of marketable facts, predicting the future is still worth attempting because it helps develop a certain kind of engaged consciousness that might one day manifest as willed control of our destiny, rather than passive acquiescence – the difference between being truly human and being an animal.
One of the things that distinguishes the alternative right from all other political and ideological movements is our readiness to contemplate this ever unreliable future. This is one of the reasons why we are the most humanistic of ideologies.
Indeed, it is usually pointless to attempt it, except at the highest "macro" level, where we can confidently say sweeping things like "The Earth will eventually be swallowed by the Sun," "Empires collapse," or "Democracy is unworkable in the (not so) long term."
But despite the poor returns in terms of marketable facts, predicting the future is still worth attempting because it helps develop a certain kind of engaged consciousness that might one day manifest as willed control of our destiny, rather than passive acquiescence – the difference between being truly human and being an animal.
One of the things that distinguishes the alternative right from all other political and ideological movements is our readiness to contemplate this ever unreliable future. This is one of the reasons why we are the most humanistic of ideologies.
