You’re Not Ready For What Comes Next

Photo by Boston Public Library on Unsplash

Things are about to suck much more

Unless you are quite elderly or from the developing world, you have never experienced anything like this before, and either you don’t yet understand what’s coming or you can’t quite believe it.

In World War II, the population was urged to grow victory gardens. Things like meat, sugar and gas were in short supply. Everybody knew a family that lost a father, son, husband or brother. Lots of consumer goods were unavailable because all our manufacturing efforts were devoted to supplying the military. I can remember seeing a 1940s magazine advertisement for a “modern” washing machine that stated none of them were available yet because we had to win the war first.

The 9-11 terrorist attacks were the worst and most shocking threat we experienced in my lifetime. Those attacks did change our politics, economy and culture (remember flying pre-2001? Oh, man, we did not know how good we had it!) but unless one of our loved ones was hurt or killed in the attack or served in the military, the direct effects on our lives were mild.

Covid-19 has had far more effect on our day-to-day lives. I see our response to the pandemic as a test of our ability to adapt to challenge and danger, and we failed spectacularly. 

Which is to say, if the Russian invasion of Ukraine leads to meaningful U.S. involvement, we will either have to toughen up fast or simply curl up and die. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t show any signs of stopping with Ukraine and we are fools if we think letting him have it will be the end of this. He will continue to follow Hitler’s playbook if he isn’t stopped. And don’t forget, he has plenty of nukes, and they can reach the U.S. 

We have always known this, but we mostly haven’t spent much time thinking about it. Nobody has dropped a nuclear bomb since we did at the end of WWII, so what’s to worry about?

I don’t know exactly what is going to happen, but here is a list of things that could well be in our near future:

• We get to the point of realizing we will have to either let Putin have as much of Europe as he wants or we will have to engage in the fabled WWIII that we didn’t actually believe would happen.

• Putin deploys a few nuclear missiles to U.S. targets. Americans die. We finally realize we are not actually 100 percent safe in our own country.

• You think we’ve got supply chain issues now? You haven’t seen anything yet. This will apply to everything, including food. I keep my pantry stocked and you should be doing so, too. 

• Energy costs will hit people with gas-guzzling SUVs hard. Hell, they’ll hit people with little cars hard, especially if they have a long commute. And if your family lives in a large or old house, ouch. You’re going to be cold. I feel this one already: My house is a Victorian fixer-upper and my last power bill was more than $400 — the largest utility bill of my life. We are not rich. Our thermostat is set at 61 degrees Fahrenheit and I am bundled up.

• A new Covid variant could spring up and devastate us at any time, and if it does, I’m doubtful that most people will bother re-masking or taking any other precautions. I would rather not face war and pestilence at the same time, but hey, that’s just me. Plenty of Americans have amply demonstrated that they are unwilling to make any sacrifices for the common good. Post Trump, I no longer believe the flag-waving “patriots” are on the side of democracy.

• Just a reminder, climate change is continuing, and now we’re probably going to kick that can down the road even longer — and we’re almost out of road.

Like nearly everyone else, I had assumed hot wars among developed nations were probably a thing of the past. Modern nations had come to realize trade was better than war. I guess Putin didn’t get that memo.

Our biggest challenge is going to be changing our mindset. We had grown to believe that as the world’s largest superpower, we were safe and always would be. With our bloated military budget that dwarfs that of every other country in the world, we knew we’d be OK. We were entitled to remain blissfully ignorant of what’s going on in the rest of the world. Because we’re Americans. 

We are likely to be in for some very painful shocks, and we are absolutely not ready for them.