The Coming Cataclysm of the Gorge

So far, so good. The Three Gorges dam has not ruptured, the dragon of the Yangtze has not awakened in sound and fury. All isn't right with the world, but at least the world has been spared one more mind-wrenching catastrophe with which to crown what has to have been a truly dismal year-so far.

Yet even with the calm of autumn, I worry still. The rains are still devastating, but they are diminishing. Supposedly, most of the monsoon season at least, will be over by the end of this month.

 But that hardly means that danger is past us. When the St. Francis Dam in Los Angeles ruptured after all, reportedly there wasn't a drop in the sky. It isn't just bulk water that endangers a dam after all. 

Probably the greatest danger of all is time and the wear and tear it brings on such a huge structure. I wish to God, someone would somehow use sensors on the bottom, After all, wasn't it said that the great concrete blocks were simply laid on the river bed, or otherwise not properly fastened to the bedrock?

If that's the case, it's possible that the foundation has indeed moved, or the bedrock has been eroded by water flow, or a combination of factors. What is a fact is that the form and movement of the water has changed oddly since the beginning of September. It is turgid, with whitecaps, rather resembling wild water.

Is it possible that water flow is seeping through the dam itself from the bottom? If so, how long before a block slips, the bedrock gives way and the dam ruptures not from the top as it is thought, but from the bottom? That the great danger is in fact out of sight, out of mind, lulling too casual observers into unwarranted complacency? 

The fate of hundreds of millions hangs in the balance, hopefully these are empty words.

 How to Hate Yourself

It's easy, think yourself helpless, ineffectual, little more able to tend to yourself than when you emerged from the womb. 

At least that's the only way I can understand the sight of young, university-educated, in every other way attractive people who seem to think the only way they can advance themselves personally and professionally is to yell, scream or otherwise act out against a supposedly repressive authority. Who believe that subsuming their precious identities in movements or communities instead of developing minds and attitudes all their own. Who seem to feel that their lives are helpless and hopeless, in the midst of unprecedented prosperity and freedom from adversity.

Well perhaps they're right, they are lacking in resources against a world that, in their view, seems to be spiraling out of control. Perhaps they are utterly unable to find a way ahead for themselves and will forever be restricted to marginal, passive lives. Certainly that possibility is real.

Or perhaps as Henry Ford once observed: "You think you can, or you think you can't. Either way, you're right."