Some have proclaimed the year 2020 to be “the worst year in history.” But that name was previously given to other years.
The year 536 AD was announced as the worst in history by a medieval scholar named Michael McCormick in 2018. Most of the planet went dark during that year, probably due to a volcanic eruption. This caused the temperature to decrease, crops to fail and many to die.
But then there was 1349, when half of Europe was wiped out by the Black Death. Some years have had their own challenges.
If history will conclude that 2020 was worse than 536 AD or 1349 is something that will not be seen by all of us. It could easily, however, be the worst of our lifetimes. But that is yet to be seen, too. What the future may bring, we don’t know.
There are those who behave as if they believe that on December 31st, the world will change at the stroke of midnight, doing away with all the problems and replacing this poor year with a good one. I see nothing to convince me that things are going to get better all of a sudden, just like they didn’t in 537 or 1350.
If anything, if they really got worse, I wouldn’t be the least bit shocked. I don’t have anything to back that up, just a gut feeling. Yet I can’t dismiss it.
I’ve looked around with that gut feeling, checking for the most possible crisis situations to confront us in the coming year.
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Another Surge of COVID-19
It is only fitting to start with the pandemic that has defined 2020. I have been hearing people making comments for months that sound like they assume that on January 1st, COVID will vanish. Yet, medical experts are already advising us that until well into 2022, we will need to keep all precautions in place. It is unrealistic, to say the least, the notion that this epidemic will just vanish.
But I wouldn’t be surprised if in the coming year we were to see another major surge in people being infected with COVID-19. In January, first of all, there will be a surge triggered by people coming together for Christmas. As it spreads through the family, whole households will come down with the disease, having been introduced to the party by one member of the family.
However, that isn’t the surge I’m worried about. The one I’m seeing is the one that will come when everybody spontaneously decides we don’t have to wear masks anymore and practice social distancing.
If it happens because officials decide that lifting those limits is safe or because people are just plainly fed up with the life constraints, it’s going to come. We’ll see a more huge surge when it does.
We already saw this happen in the surge last summer. When lockout restrictions were removed, many individuals took it to mean that they could return to life as usual, even though officials warned against it. They were not listening, and a lot of them got the disease.
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Another Pandemic on the Heels of COVID
I can’t help but believe that COVID-19 was a dress rehearsal for something worse to come; a pandemic that’s going to sweep the globe even worse.
There is a fair possibility that this one will come out of China, as with many pandemics, just as COVID-19 did and as so many other diseases have since the Black Plague.
There are those who say COVID was simply a biological warfare act on the part of the Chinese government. The jury on that is still out. But the communist government undoubtedly took advantage of it either way.
Considering that the government lab from which it supposedly escaped was researching bat viruses, and that a few other bat viruses are still being researched, it is reasonable to wonder how many other such labs the Chinese have and how many viruses they are studying.
If, in truth, the Chinese government purposely released the coronavirus to the planet, it’s entirely fair to believe that they have something bigger waiting in their wings. It’s just a matter of how fast it’s going to take center stage.
Civil Unrest
Civil unrest was the other big thing that 2020 was renowned for. We’ve seen demonstrations and riots breaking out around the country ever since George Floyd was killed in May.
Although peaceful protest is part of American culture, rioting is a criminal activity, a right granted to us by the First Amendment. In several ways, the rioting seems to have ignited infiltrators into what began to be a peaceful protest.
Some may claim that the riot were politically motivated and that either an escalation in the riot or an end to it might be triggered by the outcome of the elections.
But it would mean that the rioting was motivated politically, with the rioting being against some or other government policy.
That’s just not the case, even though the riots were covered under the mantle of the demonstrations against Black Lives Matter, the protests against police shootings were not immediately launched. Instead, it seems that they were started by ANTIFA,which is after anarchy.
Can you remember CHOP or CHAZ? That was all about the local government getting thrown out. Who was in charge was immaterial; they just wanted to get rid of that authority. This is the same party that is connected to all the other riots.
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Gun and Ammunition Shortages
We’re facing shortages of weapons and ammunition around the country as we head into the end of the year. This began because of the upheaval and has continued until today.
The shortage of ammunition in supermarkets is much higher than it was during Obama’s administration, and ammo prices online have gone through the roof.
With the continuing danger of civil unrest, there is no end in sight to the surge in sales of arms and ammunition. As people who may be a bit behind getting on board this particular train climb on, we can not only expect them to continue, but maybe even increase.
The ammunition shortages are likely to last much longer than the shortage of weapons, as individuals go to the range to practice using their new purchases.
I would recommend stockpiling whatever you can and considering packing your own ammunition if you are not already doing so. But, I’m going to have to admit that there’s still a shortage of supplies to refill.
Other Shortages
The panic associated with the outbreak of the pandemic of COVID-19 and the rumours of coming lockdowns triggered a large amount of panic buying in the shops, leading to shortages. As time went on, due to items like workers in meat processing plants coming down with the disease, those shortages increased.
It took months to hit regular stocking levels again for the stores. But after a second lockdown had been spoken about, the shortages began again.
We are looking at the possibility of another national lockdown with another surge in COVID already occurring. In some nations, it is already happening.
Although, constitutionally speaking, the president does not have the authority to do so, whoever is president can manipulate national opinion and bring pressure on the governors of the various states to do so. But it’s possible that the possibility of him doing such a thing would again trigger shortages.
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Our Rights Under Attack
For years, the government has been in all out conflict with our constitutional rights, especially the first, second and fourth amendments. One of the biggest threats we face today is that both the houses of Congress and the Presidency are dominated by both political parties.
If it were to happen, they could turn a lot of the hobbyhorses of that party into law, directly restricting our religious freedom, turning “free speech” into “hate speech” whenever it does not align with their agenda, and limiting our own firearm rights.
The Bill of Rights is a big part of what makes America special. Our Constitution has been copied by many nations, but they rarely copy our Bill of Rights… at least, not all of it.
But it is those 10 amendments to the Constitution, not the Constitution itself, that give us rights.
The way that the new version of political correctness places the interests of certain people above those of others is another aspect of this.
In particular, placing minority groups’ rights above what is mainstream in the “flyover country.” Muslim rights trump Christian rights. Transgender rights outweigh the rights of women. And, of course, those of any conservative outweigh the rights of any progressive.
Return of Political Correctness
Perhaps one of the greatest changes brought about by the presidency of Donald Trump was to kill, even though it was not part of his task, the notion of political correctness. He was not only politically incorrect, but he was shameless about it, aiming back at those who shot him. It wasn’t a presidential one, others said, but it was Trump.
Yet the media, along with their allies in Hollywood, has not slowed down any of their drive for political correctness. That gave birth to today’s “cancel culture,” where the lives and careers of people are being destroyed by something they did 20 or 30 years ago, even though back then it was acceptable.
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Natural Disasters
2020 was a horrible year for hurricanes and other natural disasters.
Though I don’t believe they were triggered by “global warming” by whatever name they use today, I see them as cycles that come and go.
Based on that, expecting 2021 to be a year with few natural disasters would be normal, since 2020 was so terrible.
But I don’t think it’ll happen. I expect 2021 to be a worse year for natural disasters than 2020 has been, if anything. This would not be because of climate change, but because there is a movement in the world in that direction.
Iran and North Korea Turning Militant
On the world stage, a variety of things will happen with Biden taking over from Trump in the White House. Biden, for instance, has already announced he’s going to rejoin the Paris Climate Accords that Trump took us out of. There is also a discussion from his transition team about rejoining the deal between Obama and Iran.
If we look back, over the past few years, both Iran and North Korea have been doing a lot of saber rattling. It is up for debate why that happened. But what’s not up for debate is that the last four years have both quieted down. Bad actors like that just understand strength, similar to the neighborhood gang. The only one who gets them to act is one who, with one hand bound behind their back, told them they could beat them.
But for too long, they have been silent, despite who they are. Usually, one of the things we see on the world stage is these kinds of nations testing our president, whoever they may be. If we end up in the White House with Biden or Trump, we should once again assume that. They might see Biden as an opportunity, or they might think all the legal battles prove that the role of Trump has been weakened.
They’ll be looking for an opportunity that they can use to their benefit, whatever it is. It will become a question of how effectively we can fight their actions.
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Anything Else?
So, in the coming year, there’s a list of things I’m searching for. Have I missed anything? Is there something that you’re anticipating this coming year, which I didn’t mention?
Is it something that should be planned for by the rest of us too? Oh, let us know.
