543- The 1990s – the Last Decade (Free)

Nearly a quarter of a century ago, in the 20th century, the decades were delineated by a specific look and feel, a flavor, if you will. But, as we hit the year 2000, or the actual millennium 2001, the specific sense of decade differentiation faded. What we might call cultural time homogenization had set in. In many ways 1990 was the last American decade. It was certainly the last decade that resembled what life in America once was. Though, in this decade a somber tone, muted colors and depressed music began to set the stage for what was to come. And – what was to come? The end of pretending that this is the home of the free and the brave. Looking back on the 90s we can now detect that there was a feeling of an impending… something. It was not yet clear what that something was, nor would anyone have accepted what that something turned out to be back then. For those of you old enough to recall the 1990s, you had a taste of what this country once was, though in a diminished state by then. The truth is that the chess pieces on the world stage had been moving into position for decades, ready to openly dominate and put an end to freedom. The truth is that we have been shown that those who do not stand and protect freedom, do not have freedom. The truth is that looking back now, things were not as they appeared to be for generations. We were socially engineered into complacency, and somewhere along the line American culture became nothing more than an echo of entertainment… TV, music and film. And in our “entertained” state of mind, the way we think, how we interact, and what was to come had been cleverly inserted into our subconscious minds, and then by proxy mainlined into our reality. I can still recall a certain Thursday night in San Diego. It was May 14, 1998. I headed out for a night with friends and found that the usually grid-locked freeways were empty, as if some apocalyptic event had just taken place. The streets were empty in the 6th largest city in America! I later learned that this was due to the last episode of Seinfeld being aired on TV in an era before instant replay. The episode was aptly named “The Finale”, preannouncing the three remaining years of the century, and the illusion of freedom. And so it was that we slumbered toward the new millennium. Sadly, we even got that wrong (which Seinfeld also made fun of in episode 154, count the ways). Apparently, those in charge of world trade were the only minds in America who knew when the new millennium began. As a result, things are very different in our world today, and some very serious outcomes are about to get worked out. I pray that the majority of the country is not watching reruns of “The Finale” when the crucial moments arrive. After all, there is a critical difference between the words “pray” and “prey”, and this is one of big strategies that is about to get worked out, and then applied en masse, everywhere. In closing I will ask a simple thing. If someone spends hours every day focusing a human mind on a screen (phone, tv, computer, etc.), is this synonymous with worship, and if so which word (prey/pray) applies?