The Other Shoe

There are certainly some defining moments in history. If we narrow it down to the last hundred years (give or take) these moments shifted the perspective of the world in a distinctly different direction. While time might be linear, history is not. There are these repeated mid-course deviations from where humanity had been previously navigating.

Think of these events where the world was never the same.

• World War I. The war to end all wars. Twenty plus years later the world was engulfed again.
• The Atomic Bomb. Splitting the atom significantly changed the world and ushered in new stark realities no one could have conceived at the start of the 20th Century.
• JFK Assassination. The end of Camelot, although I’m unsure just how much of a Camelot it was given the Cuban Missile Crisis and the rising tensions of the Cold War.
• Vietnam War & Watergate. These events brought cynicism to a new level, and a disdain for government. However, actual distrust would take a few more decades of disinformation campaigns and advancing technologies before, like a cancer, it really took root in the fabric of our society.
• 9/11. The United States, the world, changed perspective on that day. No longer were terrorist attacks something that was part of the national news recorded at far away places. It was happening in North America – the United States. No matter what country you lived in everyone took note of this.
• Social Media. While it has a sense of innocence with people posting endless feline photos it was only time before it began being used for the dark arts of misinformation, propaganda, and hate indoctrination. These nefarious organizations have always existed, but they stepped cautiously in the recruiting department. Now it only needed a phone and a social media account to spread their hate speech. It also solidified attacks on the institutional framework of the country. If Vietnam and Watergate were the match, Social Media outlets are the wildfires.
• COVID-19 Pandemic. The disruption of society on a global scale cannot be overstated. Today some conversations involve using the terms pre-pandemic or during the pandemic as a line of demarcation. The impact both economic and social interaction was equivalent to a massive global earthquake, and it’s something that we will continue to experience aftershocks for years to come.

I really don’t know what is the next seismic shift. In 2019 no one could have predicted we were on the doorstep of COVID for example, but the continued unrest and uncertainty is out there. It’s almost something tangible in the air, and as a society we are collectively waiting for the other shoe to drop. My genuine fear is when it does drop it’ll drop hard.