Well in spite of all the past, present and future horrors that life has, does, and will guarantee, where one chooses to focus one's attention and energy is totally a matter of personal choice. The only real 'power' anyone has is in the present moment, because that's the only time and place in which one has the opportunity to make choices and to act on those choices.

Yesterday is history, tomorrow's a mystery, but today is a gift. That's why they call it 'the present'! And it's funny GUEST seems to have a bona fide blueprint for the future, when it hasn't even been created yet, and is totally dependant on the choices made right here and now!

GUEST may be right about all those suspicions/accusations, or they may be totally the work of a paranoid mind with unfortunately nothing better to do than spread it's paranoia around like a virus. But like Don pointed out above - even if s/he is right what the h*** can any of us 'regular folk' do about it? Absolutely nothing except stay informed, do whatever can possibly be done to keep peace in the world right here and now(starting with OURSELVES and working out from there).   Keeping in an optimistic frame of mind about the future certainly helps one to be more productive in the present as well. Expecting the worst has a tendency to bring on the worst - same with expecting the best.

One thing's for sure - everything living is going to die someday. How when and where are really quite trivial details in the big picture of things, imo. Strangely enough, I find comfort in these words of Joseph Campbell:

"Only death is no trouble. People ask me, 'Do you have optimism about the world?" And I say,"Yes, it's great just the way it is. And you're not ging to fix it up. Nobody has ever made it any better. This is it, so take it or leave it. You are not going to correct it or improve it ...

    James Joyce has a memorable line: "History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake." And the way to awake from it is not to be afraid, and to recognize that all of this, as it is, is a manifestation of the horrendous power of creation. The ends of things are always painful. But pain is part of there being a world at all."

And I can't resist this one either ...

"Vishnu at the end of the world appears as a monster. There he is, destroying the universe, first with fire and then with a torrential flood that drowns out the fire and everything else. Nothing is left but ash. The whole universe and all of it's life has been utterly wiped out. That's God in the role of destroyer. Such experiences go past ethical or aesthetic judgements. Ethics is wiped out.

Wheras in our religions, with their accent on the human, there is also accent on the ethical - God is qualified as good. No, no! God is horrific. Any god who can invent hell is no candidate for the Salvation Army. The end of the world - think of it!

But there is a Muslim saying about the Angel of Death: "When the Angel of Death approaches, he is terrible. When he reaches you, it is bliss."

          - Joseph Campbell, "The Power of Myth"

FWIW - daylia