Don’t look now, but the world as you know it is in trouble. 

That’s not me holding up an “end of the world” poster.

 It’s me watching historical patterns; reading the thoughts of people much smarter than me; and absorbing news from anything but our corrupted U.S. mainstream news media.

 Here are a few things to keep your eyes on:

 • Consuming versus saving — We are officially a debtor nation. From the top of our government down to those stumbling around our streets, we’ve become dependent on the grace of others to get by. Fully half of Americans live from paycheck to paycheck. The only ones not in harm’s way are a thousand or so parasitic billionaires who figured out a way to herd America’s middle-class into a debt corral. Ask a cow if corrals are sanctuaries.

 • Toying with a wounded bear — Russia lost 35,000,000 people during WWII. That’s a generations-long impact that makes our finding the magic place between surrender and drumbeating doubly important. We haven’t even tried. Putin is not our friend – he doesn’t need to be – but NATO’s decades long antagonism toward Rusia has been remarkably short-sighted.  

 • Ignoring China Inc. — For too long we have let the CCP get away with social, economic, and literal murder. Each time we responded passively, they took it as a license to fast-track. They’ve now accelerated to a point they cannot recover. War will be a temptation that their battered leadership will be hard-placed to resist as a way out of economic failure and leadership shame.

• Liberal, progressive, socialist, Democrats — The political party zombifying half of our population has lost its mind. Witness AOC and Bernie as millionaires. Witness the party that stole the presidential nomination for a lady actress with a track record so punctuated with narcissistic missteps that she deserves a TV series. Witness dedications, such as defunding our police, trans-gendering our children, removing our borders, making people dependent on government, the pursuit of endless wars marketed as nation building, and the wholesale slaughter of the unborn. The party of the working man has evolved into the party of the crazy man.

• Invasion as compared to immigration — For 50-plus years we’ve betrayed measured migration coached in citizenship and assimilation for invasion defined by chaos and law and order breakdown. Lazy politicians, corrupt chambers of commerce, and unscrupulous employers have led us to a state of social chaos where people running from their own country’s dysfunction are duplicating those messes in our country.

 • Islam--phobic — Yes, that’s me. Not because I dislike Muslims, but because these folks cannot get along with anyone – including one another. This is not a faith of peace. Watch our Muslim members of congress – Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, André Carson and Lateefah Simon – and witness their “my way or the highway” approach to diversity of belief. Watch any Muslim theocracy and their violent reaction to liberty. 

• Language as a weapon of social conquest — The Southern Poverty Law Center’s title sounds reasonable – but not if you’re into adult behavior. It’s a cover for an ultra-liberal public policy group with the diversity of thought found in a brick. It’s that way with most everything on the left. Whatever they call their latest gig, you can bet it’s focused on just the opposite. Planned Parenthood is the violent enemy of parenthood.

• Antifa Mischiefa — This has got to be the most confused bunch of organized misfits on the planet. I admire their creativity and enthusiasm, but their lazy approach to change, relentless anger, and destructive appetites reveal moral bankrupcy. Sorry guys, gals, and others in umbrellaed black — it’s not possible to do good things through bad means.

• Drugs-R-Us — We live in a nation that doesn’t know how to have fun, build a life, or be happy in their own skin without being intoxicated. Getting high means you are pursuing an alternate reality. In the meantime, the real one is carrying on without you. That’s not a good thing. Cultures indifferent to reality get clobbered by reality.

• Morality matters — Our country’s moral code has slipped almost as much as our state of dress and maturity. People of compassion and character have never been in a majority, but when these traits fade, bad things happen. The American success equation cannot survive without a bedrock of morals. Ours was birthed out of Christianity. Lying, cheating, laziness, anger, violence, greed, addiction, selfishness and obsession with sex have nothing to do with that faith.

In truth, no one knows our future. 

But it can be said with confidence that we’re going to experience some serious moments ahead. There’s too much national and personal debt; too little accountability; and too many enemies to dodge. 

Solutions? Be a good guy/gal; think about ways to feed, protect and otherwise care for your loved ones; get out of debt; invest in your faith foundation; and definitely don’t depend on government to save you.

 Encounters with reliable authority are about as frequent as meetups with Bigfoot, negative drug screens, and honest liberal politicians.

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Conserve [v. kuhn-surv] To use or manage wisely; preserve, save...

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Carl Mumpower is a practicing psychologist and former member of Asheville City Council. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .