a new year

only humans mark time with a numerical value and give that value significance.  a solar year is a matter of physics.  how humans mark a solar year is discriminate.  we can start from zero if we wish.  or we can found a new calendar and call the years something different.  for it makes no cosmic difference if we call the new year 2018, or 18, or 3018.  the universe does not care how we measure time.  only we human beings care about such values and labels.

2017 was a punch in the solar plexus and a kick in the teeth.  2016 seemed pretty bad too.  but '17 was awful.  name your poison, and you'll find it in abundance in '17.  now we face a new year.  who knows what the fuck will happen in 2018.  more extreme weather events.  a hotter earth.  economic volatility.  tumult in our politics.  these are happening right now.  if 2017 taught us anything it is that predicting the future is a cod's game.  we do know our politics are fucked up.  and we have destabilized the climate. 

but now is a moment of reckoning.  perhaps my vision is blurred by the chaos of our society but i don't see shit getting better.  i may be wrong.  i hope i am wrong.  and if i am wrong then i am happy to admit to it.  however, we are living in extreme societal, economic and climatic upheaval.  the times are a'changin'.  AI and automation are only just beginning to change the economy.  you think shit is bad now, wait until you are outsourced by an algorithm.  think i am joking?  look around you.  look at the device you carry in your pocket.  think about how futuristic sci fi that phone is.  if someone told you 20 years ago that you could talk to your device and have your device talk to you in return you would've shit your pants.  what kind of technology do you think we will have in another 20 years?

still, we are human.  and we are a cooperative species.  2017 was rough.  2018 might prove to be rougher.  it may not.  but at any rate, i wish for you and your loved ones a happy new year.

i found this cartoon tonight penned by the great gary larson.  it encapsulates my own philosophy about the meaning of the universe.  because the net sum is zero we are free to make our society in to whatever we want.  let us hope that what we want is, in the immortal words of nick lowe, peace, love and understanding.

peace love and understanding, brothers and sisters.