Notes In The Margin

Given the current state of affairs, I felt it appropriate to search out my raggedy-ear’d paperback copy of that old King classic The Stand. The parallels were just too uncanny to ignore and the similarities to the shit going on around the globe make you wonder about the reality of prescience. I mean, who woulda thought? A pandemic marching across the land, projections of up to a quarter of a million dead in the US alone (at the time of this writing), people drowning in their own fluids, social distancing, economic chaos and quarantine, anarchy and riots in the streets? It seems as if God has drawn a trick from up his sleeve from the 10 that He laid on those poor unsuspecting Egyptians. Strange times. Even toilet paper may become the new medium of exchange.

But my previously mentioned raggedy-ear’d copy couldn’t be found, so Kobo provided me with a reasonable facsimile. SK’s story starts with an oopsy moment that, in the fullness of time, develops into a scenario that could happen here; apocalyptic economy and a decimated society turned upside-down. Chaos, death and destruction.  Sound familiar? So who is our Randall Flagg and where is Mother Abagail? There are some obvious choices but I wouldn’t presume. For a story written between 1975 and 1979, it is remarkably prescient.  The same could be said of every scientific thinker from H G. Wells to Arthur C. Clark.  We may be facing a malevolent invader from Mars or an indifferent intergalactic wanderer.  If Douglas Adams has his way, we’ll just be swept away to make room for a galactic superhighway. Adams perfectly summarizes our dilemma.

(again, who cares?)                   

     

 The state of our global union is under threat.

 Well, it is here and now it might possibly bring down empires.


Lesson #85 – The State of the Union

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