For posterity I'd like to share my predictions.
The polarization phenomenon continues. Dark becomes darker, light becomes lighter. There will be increasing attempts from the top down to oppress, and increasing pressure from the bottom up (the grassroots and individual level) to resist. This will make for continued disillusionment with authority and civil disobedience, social and political tensions.
There will be more and more catalysts that force people on the fence to choose. As time goes on, more people will know where they stand. Some will defend the system to the bitter end because they have invested so much in it, and denial is more comfortable than owning up to your naivete. Others will gravitate toward relying on each other, on knowledge that really works, on their own inner spiritual strength, to make it out. Adversity will bring out the best in the best.
We didn't come here just to survive. What is the point of surviving if you stop living just to continue existing? I predict that the challenges we face won't be so much about finding food or fending off against hordes of postapocalyptic barbarians. It is not we who will fight for survival, but the system that will fight because its existence is being undermined by the uncertainties of change. We are fighting for truth and the positive future that all genuine souls deserve. So the challenge may come down to nurturing spirit, awareness, wisdom, friendship, and truth in the face of disillusionment, uncertainty, and deception. It will be more subtle, sophisticated, and a test of spiritual fortitude.
That's why it is important to keep learning, forging solid friendships with solid people, becoming more empowered and resourceful, well-spoken, and living with increasing discernment, compassion, and integrity. You didn't learn all this just for yourself. There will be others in the years ahead who will cross your path because you have something they need and vice versa, a nudge, a clue, a flame to pass on. When the time is right, you don't have to preach because the exchange flows naturally. It becomes superconductive. The hardest part of all this is patience, because anticipation leads to disillusionment when the timing of destiny does not match your eagerness. I can't nail down specific events of the future, but some things are constant regardless of the situation, which is that life doesn't offer what you cannot handle, and in the times ahead life may test your limits because only by doing so can you fulfill the limits of your potential. That is to squeeze the maximum service out of you in this one precious life.
So to sum up, things will get a lot worse for a lot of people. Economic hardship, dreams crumbling. And things will get a lot better for some people, too. If you stay in the flow, keep your eyes open and look a few steps ahead, and maintain a good-natured vibe regardless of what happens, you can create a synchronistic bubble around yourself and those in your field of influence. This synchronistic bubble will help shift the odds to better outcomes. The key will be in establishing, growing, and defending the alternatives to the system rather than attacking the system itself. The system cannot be saved or overhauled, it is a house with rotted beams that is best evacuated. And there will be many who will refuse to leave the house. You know the saying, home is where the heart is? A weakened heart stays in a weakened home and eventually collapses in upon itself. I see the future as "middle earth" separating out into "heaven" and "hell" -- both overlapping and interpenetrating, and it being a matter of where you align your heart and how you put that alignment into action that determines which one you will shift into.
The future will be fun and exhilarating because you will increasingly know who you are, who your spiritual family is, what you stand for, what must be done, and finally, how this all turns out.
Acquiring fringe knowledge is like digging for diamonds in a mine field.
