By Daniel Lang
The world is changing faster than ever before, but that doesn’t mean that we aren’t being acclimated to it. It’s truly a testament to the ability of humans to adapt to just about any circumstance. We have more food, wealth, and life-saving technologies than anyone in our history. We have a nearly unlimited stream of entertainment and information. Yet we take it all for granted.
Because we’re so acclimated to this world, we often forget how strange it is compared to previous eras. Sometimes we forget to stop and appreciate just how freaking bonkers it all is. If you don’t believe me, I’ve collected five news stories to prove it. They’re not necessarily relevant to each other in any way, but if you told someone 30 years ago that the following stories would someday come true, they’d probably think that you were pitching some bizarre sci-fi novel.
3D Printing
You’ve definitely heard about this technology already. 3D printing has been in the news countless times over the past few years. However, that doesn’t mean that it is old hat. It seems as if every year 3D printing is used to create something that no one had considered before.
The fact that we live in a world where a novice can print out his own gun parts is freaky enough, but now it’s believed that 3D printers can create camera lenses as small as a grain of salt. This could be used to create billions of tiny sensors that could be scattered throughout the world; a concept known as “smartdust.” Alternatively, 3D printers can also be used to build objects as large a house in 24 hours.
Lab-Grown Meat
Acceptance of Government Surveillance
Between Edward Snowden and the Vault 7 Wikileaks, the public is finally aware of how invasive the government’s spying really is. We know that the government is tracking and recording every word that we say and write over the Internet and over our phones, and we know that the government can spy on us through countless electronic devices in our homes.
But that isn’t the freaky part. What’s strange is how we’ve come to accept it. There are no riots or protests in the streets because of this. No one is being arrested and thrown in jail for something that is clearly illegal. Privacy died, and it’s like no one noticed. What would have outraged everyone a few generations ago, is now met with a shrug.
Santa Muerte
This is the only entry on this list that doesn’t have something to do with technology, but I can’t help but find this story to be a totally unexpected development.
If you ask most people what the fastest growing religion in the world is, they’d probably say Islam. However, it could actually be a strange new subset of Christianity from Mexico called Santa Muerte, or Holy Death. Santa Muerte is a female folk saint whose popularity in Mexico and the United States is spreading rapidly; from being practically unheard of in the year 2000, to being worshiped by 10-12 million people in 2014.
Statues and visages of the saint, which appear as a skeleton clad in vibrant robes and carrying a scythe, have popped up all over the world. The religion is popular among a wide variety of people in Mexico, from narco gang members to impoverished farmers, who often pray to the saint for protection. Though Santa Muerte is venerated in the same way as most saints, the Catholic church has condemned the religion, which of course hasn’t had any effect on its popularity.
Anti-Aging Drugs
For most of human history, trying to halt the aging process was synonymous with either magic or pseudoscience. Until recently, the idea that you could slow down or even stop the aging process with drugs, was simply inconceivable to scientists. But now there are companies who are actually beginning human trials with drugs that could slow down aging. And now that science is gaining a firm grasp on what causes the aging process, it may not be long before we’re able to stop and reverse aging. That, of course, would change our species forever in ways that we can’t even imagine yet.
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You can read more from Daniel Lang at SHTFplan.com, where this article first appeared.
There’s nothing new under the sun.
“Acceptance of Government Surveillance
But that isn’t the freaky part. What’s strange is how we’ve come to accept it. There are no riots or protests in the streets because of this….”
Because it’s not perceived as a threat and being harmful by the people.
Also the result of apathy ?
.
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It’s the old story of the frog in the pot coming to a boil so slowly that by the time the frog realizes it it’s too late.
#6 Christians believe biblically seditious Constitution is Christian.
There’s only one standard by which everything (including the Constitution) is to be ethically evaluated: By Yahweh’s unchanging morality as reflected in His Ten Commandments and their respective statues and judgments. When the Constitution is actually examined by this standard (instead of a bunch of dead politicians’ cherry-picked quotations), it’s found to be anything but biblically compatible. In fact, there’s hardly an Article or Amendment that’s not antithetical, if not seditious, to Yahweh’s sovereignty and morality.
For evidence, see free online book “Bible Law vs. Constitution: The Christian Perspective,” in which every Article and Amendment is examined by the Bible.” Click on my name, then our website. Go to our Online Books page and click on the top entry.
Then, find out how much you REALLY know about the Constitution as compared to the Bible. Take our 10-question Constitution Survey in the right-hand sidebar and receive a complimentary copy of the 85-page “Primer” of the 565-page “BL vs. USC.”
There has never been a time like now!
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I was thrown in jail for taking a stand against their surveillance, which included their physically breaking into my home with no warrant. You’re right – government facilities should be smouldering across this great land, their occupants subjected to Robespierre’s tender mercies (although piano wire would be a little less grisly than guillotines, and cost less, too). But don’t expect much from the downward spiral evident in successive generations of American young people. I’m of the Baby Boom generation, and with all its indulgent faults, we’re the last with enough recollection of this nation’s true history and character to do something.
Wish they would hurry up with that anti-ageing stuff.
“5 Reasons Why You’re Living In The Strangest Time In Human History”
Looking around the world at the corruption, evil, slaughter and realizing this is surely Satan’s “system of things”, I would say we’re living in the last days. Too bad there’s not more books describing the depravity that had permeated the world so badly it prompted a global cleansing. I’m certain the world we’re seeing at this moment has to be at least AS bad if not worse. I wonder if the Talmud was around then? Perhaps just the oral teachings? I don’t think the scribes/pharisees had put it down in writing that far back, but comparing the foulness of today with the little we know of pre-flood history, it doesn’t take much of a leap of faith to see the similarities.
So . . . they slow down or reverse the aging process. What then? We continue to breed years past the normal period. More babies are born. They grow up to breed past the normal period, etc. etc. Exponential growth. Where in the heck are all these people going to live, work, etc? The world is already over-populated (Just try to drive the I-5 corridor through Portland, Oregon if you don’t believe me.) More people, more pollution, more garbage, more of everything. Too much. No thanks. I’ll gladly make my exit stage right as soon as it’s time!