Rome is burning. Are you fiddling?

Like most of my peers, I was taught that Nero fiddled while Rome burned.  We were led to believe this was a literal event.  We were even led to speculate on “why” he may have been fiddling at such a critical moment….

I have since come to believe that this was an idiom.  He wasn’t literally playing a fiddle.  He simply did not get passionately involved in a responsible and creative manner to prevent the destruction of the great state of Rome.  Even today we have a similar idiom.  We say someone is “fiddling with” something, when we mean to infer that they are putting a half-hearted amount of thought and effort into a project.

That Nero was fiddling while Rome burned implies that the state that was entrusted to him was undergoing a series of cataclysmic events, and he was less than fully engaged in resolving the issues in a timely manner.  Maybe he was distracted by events that he thought more important at the time, or maybe he was simply naïve and unable to grasp the magnitude of the gathering forces of doom at his doorstep.

It is well past time for Americans to understand the causes of Nero’s failure to mitigate the catastrophes that followed his neglect.   This is because America is today standing at a similar moment.  There are forces gathering that promise to lay waste to the America we have known.  Even now it may be too late to turn back the tide of destruction that approaches.  Yet, we see no organized effort on a significant scale to mitigate the destruction which is beckoning.

Before I continue, know this.  KARMA IS REAL.  It is inviolate and can not be defeated.  It can sometimes be postponed, but not indefinitely.  And, having been postponed, the effects are more harsh than they would have been at an earlier time.  This is true on a personal level, but also on a macro level.  Nations succumb to karma just as do persons.  Bear this in mind when you consider the root causes of some of our present dilemmas.  Ultimately we must understand what behavior got us to our present situation.  Then we must resolve to change our self-defeating behavior.

We are spending ourselves broke in multiple wars that have lasted longer than WW1 and WW2 COMBINED.   In the process we have laid waste to entire countries and have left millions of peasants and farmers homeless, orphans, widows and widowers.  These wars continue AT GREAT COST despite our inability to pay for badly needed expenditures at home.  This is unsustainable on many levels.  It will end badly for America.

We need to fix so many things in America there is no obviously logical place to begin.  Everything, from the economy to the environment, is a mess of cataclysmic proportions.

I have a suspicion that the catastrophe in the gulf of Mexico, all by itself, will see the destruction of America as we have known it, by the years end.   I cringe when I hear people crying about the need to “save the beaches”.  SAVE THE BEACHES?!  The beaches are literally the tip of the iceberg!  The sight of oil on the beaches, as heartbreaking as it is, is not even close to the critical issue.  It’s the underwater oil we can’t see, and the chemicals we can’t see in the air and in the water, that dooms the continent.  In a short time I fear we will see a wholesale migration of peoples out of the southern half of America.

“The poison is baked into the cake.  The well has been poisoned.”   These well known metaphors are so very apt.  They speak directly to the plight of the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi river, and ultimately to the eastern seaboard of America.  It’s not just the tourism and fishing businesses that are now terminal.  That is just the beginning.  God have mercy on us that we don’t have a hurricane any time soon.   When and if we do, poison will literally be raining on the Southern States from the clouds.

Of course, even if the Gulf were not poisoned, America would still be in for a very hard time due to the continuing collapse of the economy and the growing inability of Washington to paper over the problem by borrowing ever more notes from the federal reserve.  America will be inundated by a currency crisis in the foreseeable future that will wreak total havoc on our lives if we are not prepared.

Already the lives of millions of Americans have been wrent asunder.  Millions worked for 20-30 years, paid their taxes, went to the ball games and did everything they were told to do.  Yet today they are out of work with no reasonable expectation of finding work anytime soon.  Their unemployment benefits are largely depleted and the states have no money left to extend them.  Many of these people have lost their homes and are now living in tents in the woods.  I have no doubt most of these people wake up every morning wondering how in the hell they ended up there.

Those lucky enough to still be working are uneasy but remain optimistic.  They shouldn’t be.  This storm is nowhere near to being over.  The worst parts are still to come.  The worst parts are coming, and like KARMIC desserts, they can not be avoided.  If you are reading this, and especially if you are in America, these parts will affect you like a surfer being dashed to the ocean floor after losing control of a 5 meter wave.  It’s much bigger than you.

So what can you do?  Number one: STOP FIDDLING!  Recognize that the present apocalypse is not going to accept excuses. I’m not saying you should move to a cave. Go to the ball game if you want to.  Study for the next midterm exam.  But know that if you do not pay close attention, the fire raging in our midst will burn you up in time.

While you are assessing the present situation and planning as to how to keep loved ones safe through it all, be sure to give ample thought to the KARMIC  lessons being taught.   For example, what do you think that Providence might be trying to teach America by literally drowning her in a sea of oil?  What do you think that Providence might be trying to teach America by destroying her national infrastructure?  What do you think that Providence might be trying to teach America by leaving Americans unemployed and homeless en masse?

Ultimately, Americans must come to a clear understanding of the answer to these questions.   Only when America has correctly answered these questions and made the appropriate and necessary changes, will America be able to extinguish the flames of destruction.  Karma feels very cruel when we are in the process of learning a needed lesson.  However, it can also be thought of as kind, if we realize that karma pushes, prods and cajoles us into changing into the peoples and nations we are meant to be.

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