Do you hear that sound? That pitter-patter, that faint rustling in the distance, like a gentle grandmother's voice calling for a child?
It is soft now, yet it grows. Its source has more power than you can imagine. It is a force of nature, a force whose power, when felt, will mean horror, bitterness, and sadness. It will mean thousands, if not millions, sleeping in their cars next holidays, and the holidays after that, or going hungry. Abandoned. Hopeless. Wandering the streets without purpose, lost souls of a lost generation. Will-o-the-wisp's of a world forfeit. It is coming now. That pitter-patter, you can already hear it, distinctly. As surely if it knows you, and your name, dear reader, its eyes fixed on you, unsuspecting, as it approaches to deliver its message.
For two thirds of a century, that part of human civilization called 'the West' has reaped the dividend of peace. Make no mistake. This world was created by men who knew what they were doing. They had lived firsthand what no man or woman alive today under the age of 100 has fully lived: consciously in their adult lifetimes the dissolution of an entire world.
But this world is now coming to an end. In the proud republics of east - across that great ocean sailed by Christopher Columbus over five hundred years ago, at another pivot in human history, a storm is gathering. Republic after republic - whether they call themselves Greece, or Ireland, or Portugal, or Spain, or Italy, or Belgium, or France, or Germany - legitimacy has been derived from the power of peoples. These peoples have built a civilization by borrowing money. And through their republics, they now are collectively deciding that they will no longer repay this money. The creditors are irrelevant. Hedge funds, banks, investment trusts, pension funds - a collection of the powerless and the insignificant. Were they to be bankrupt one and all, it would matter not. What matters more is that these republics, who until now have formed a core of the Western part of civilization, are now deciding, one by one, to cut their ties with the economic system that has been built for 60 years, to renounce their very own faith and credit.
This is the gathering storm. The center of the maelstrom shall be indescribable. Those of us here in this republic, which has not yet renounced the very thing it itself has built, will nonetheless feel the gale force winds very strongly. And it will knock us over, the weaker ones particularly. It will drag them kicking and screaming over the flood pain, effortlessly over the beaches and out into the great empty ocean. And in their death, a dark world will be born. May God be with You as we live through a time of trial and tribulation. Let the articulate voices of our generation speak out, so that our suffering will not have been in vain. Amen.
Update: For those of you who think the prose is too difficult: The European countries appear to be headed towards default, and a Great Depression will follow.