The bell is unbuilding.

*Originally posted 30 December 2010 on Prophets of the New World

It is the time of year most commonly referred to as the "holiday season" and heavy rain is soaking into the pot-hole pocked streets of Long Beach. The rains this year follow the trend of recent years: colder colds and wetter wets for winter. Residents discuss the irony as they have just finished feeling the record breaking heat of summer. Extreme disparities in seasonal weather patterns are not characteristic of temperate maritime Southern California that generations of inhabitants have become acclimated to. Stability is being disrupted.

Global climate change is being realized more and more in our everyday lives. For those aware of it, the feeling can be quite schizophrenic. You see a problem that you feel helpless against. It surrounds you where you live and reminds you if you forget. And discussing the issue you realize that so many people just do not see what you do, even if they are already familiar with the problem.

Weather patterns throughout recorded history have developed a bell distribution with regard to the occurrence and breadth of moderate and extreme weather. As the composition of our planet shifts, the distribution curve is following suit. What it reflects is a sort of flipping of the curve, making extreme events more common, and moderate events less average. In other words, climate change is having a polarizing effect on the weather that means radical events like hurricanes, floods and heat waves will be amplified in magnitude, longer in length when they happen, and more immediate in their coming and going.

But, I don't really want to talk about climate change in the meteorological sense. I think there are enough scientists with Ph.D.s doing a fine job in that area. I am more concerned with the fact that that polarizing effect seems to be reflected more in contemporary culture.

Extreme weather is happening on the psychological landscape.

It is not hard to find either. The mass media are dependably delivering us more fear mongering, doubt manufacturing and exploitation everyday. It happens before our eyes and becomes more easily forgiven the more it persists. The systems of power that be are becoming more powerful. Those in poverty are becoming more impoverished. The middle class is falling out, and the class gap is growing.

We need extreme support on the other side. If evil is our enemy then to combat it calls for a strong and fearless good. We need to stand true to our ethic and morality in order to not get far behind. We need to be unafraid of hurt and willing to take hits. We need to do this non-violently and intelligently, without taking on the false means of our adversaries. We must defeat cheaters without cheating ourselves of our character.

Try to maintain a sense of direction and awareness as the current shifts. Remain lucid in the coming times of darkness. There are hurtful systems of power afoot, and they throw rocks during snowball fights. The bell curve is unbuilding into a valley and a flood is coming. The weaker side is destined to fall in.