I thought 2020 was gonna be a pretty good year.
I was dead wrong about that.
So I was pretty sure 2021 would be an improvement.
Wrong again, on so many levels, but after back-to-back years like that I was sure things could only improve in 2022.
Nope.
So I’ll tell you what I think about 2023: I think it’s gonna suck.
I think it’s gonna be an awful year in ways we haven’t even imagined.
I think things in Ukraine are going to get a lot worse. Also things in Russia. I think the CCP is going to create even more problems than they’ve already created, and that’s saying something. I think the global economy is in trouble. I think there’s going to be more war and disease in 2023 than there was in 2022.
That’s just the reasonably probable stuff that almost anyone could predict by reading a handful of headlines. The really bad stuff is what we can’t see coming.
What we ought to have learned by now is that the 2020s are a cataclysmic decade and that the horrors awaiting us will continue to take us by surprise because we’re just not pessimistic enough.
So here are some predictions that no reasonable person would ever consider being remotely probable—which means we can probably look forward to at least one of them popping up in 2023.
The Alien Invasion
Can it really be a coincidence that the governments of the world have been declassifying previously secret information about UFOs over the past few years? The public response has mostly been indifference. So you see what’s happened, right?
We’re told there are in fact UFOs that can’t be explained by our leading scientific minds, and we yawn.
We might as well be sending out invitations.
The Plague
Whether the release of the coronavirus was deliberate or accidental, it happened, and its consequences were seen (and felt) by everyone, everywhere.
That includes all the deranged lunatics actively calling for the extinction of the human race.
It only takes one such nut getting his or her hands on one of the high-mortality viruses we very, very stupidly play around with in the laboratories of the world to unleash a plague of unimaginable proportions.
Count on it.
The Super Volcano
Good news, everybody! Turns out that the super volcano under Yellowstone National Park has even more magma than anyone had ever imagined.
We’re told not to worry because that doesn’t increase the likelihood of a cataclysmic eruption occurring.
But it doesn’t reduce the likelihood, either.
Would it really be surprising, at this point, if Yellowstone finally blew?
The Collapse
One of two things seems almost inevitable in the very near future: either we get our heads screwed on correctly and go back to fossil fuels and nuclear energy or civilization crumbles around us for want of energy.
It’s become entirely apparent than our ruling class will not permit a return to fossil fuels, and even if we all agreed that nuclear power was the future we wouldn’t be able to supply our energy deficit in time to prevent massive economic collapse anyway.
And massive economic collapse inevitably produces massive social collapse.
If you’re not yet growing your own crops and keeping your own livestock, it’s time to get started.
Or maybe past time.
Either way, you’re going to want plent of guns and ammunition.
Wars And Rumors of War
There’s no exit strategy for Vladimir Putin, so expect more missiles to rain down on Ukraine and more oligarchs to fall out of Russian skyscrapers.
There are signs the Russian people are getting impatient, even restless, to put an end to Putin’s little adventure.
So what’s your favorite scenario: (1) Nukes going off in Europe so Putin can destroy what he can’t take and declare victory? (2) Civil war in the world’s largest country and home of the world’s largest nuclear stockpile? (3) Putin himself falling out of a skyscraper to be replaced by a military junta? (4) All of the above?
Meanwhile, weren’t people back in 2021 telling us not to worry about China invading Taiwan in 2022 because all the think-tank people were sure China wouldn’t have the logistics in place until 2023?
And what the hell is going on down in the Balkans? And in South America?
And in Iran?
Allahu Akbar
The Islamists are still out there and the Taliban have cemented their control of Afghanistan—a country about the same size as France (and the state of Texas).
Remember the 20-year war we fought to make sure Afghanistan could never again become a safe harbor for terrorists?
Oops.
I put all that out there in the hopes that by being as pessimistic as possible I’ll totally overshoot the target and 2023 will turn out to be a year that might have hads its flaws, but will nonetheless turn to have been a year of which it can be said: hey, it coulda been a lot worse!
Here’s hoping.
Happy New Year!