“Events are in the saddle and ride mankind”

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s line have a classically portentous ring to it. One can almost, in the background, hear the award-winning “Return of the King” soundtrack and in the foreground  visions rise that both threaten extinction and promise renewal.

Can you see a perfect storm developing? The euro totters. The time-bomb hidden in America’s credit card debt and borrowings on commercial real estate across the world is ticking its final riff. China’s hundreds of millions of dispossessed are beginning to do the unthinkable- they struck work at a large Honda factory this week. The Naxalite issue in India boils over. Deepwater Horizon leaks into the Gulf of Mexico with no end in sight. In Guatemala an erupting volcano combines forces with a grade 1 storm threatening to bury cities under a blanket of black cement.

Are events riding mankind to a crossroad or is it just the 24x7 new cycle combining with the angst of modern life? Or are we riding the tiger with our hubris as happy company?

Thinking about these questions I am reminded of the recent “Let’s Build a Smarter Planet” campaign from IBM. One part of the campaign highlights the superior and reassuring knowledge that results from deep supercomputers powered analytics acting on the superwaves of information that modern day societies produce.

Wonder if there is think tank somewhere that can tell us whether events are currently riding humanity to some place specific.

However one can always kick back on a lazy Sunday with the thought that the more things change the more they remain the same.

Here are a few selected laughs to go with the thought.