It has been awhile...

It has been awhile since I last updated this blog. I've had a lot of time to reflect and think about what I do next. I once had another more 'Real World' blog that had quite a following for about seven years. Then the whole Windows Live thing came crashing down and the blog vanished into digital obscurity.

I am thinking of putting more support behind this blog; there is no reason Bernard Broono can't share his thoughts and feelings about 'Real World' issues and topics. The man might not be Real but his ideas are very Real.

I am a devoted futurist; I constantly seek to get a peek at what might be just around the corner. The fact is I don't have any crystal ball to look into but I do have the tool of a bit of informational analysis and a lot of news sources to draw upon. I am also an avid student of history. In my opinion you really can't reasonably speculate on the future without some knowledge of the past.

So let me get started with a morbid fascination of mine...

The Sarajevo Moment

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

I think that history is full of 'fulcrum points'; decisive events that change the course of history in, sometimes, a single dramatic moment. June 28th, 1914 was one of those days. On the streets of Sarajevo, a city then within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a man by the name and title of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg would be assassinated by a student revolutionary by the name of Gavrilo Princip. The two bullets fired in this moment in time would ignite a conflict that would eventually topple three governments, bring on one of the bloodiest wars in history and start waves of political and social revolution that continue to this very day.

I sometimes wonder if Gavrilo had known what was going to result if he would have pulled that trigger?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand_of_Austria

Gavrilo Princip

Now the human catastrophe that would result from the assassination of the Archduke and his wife Sophie was only the culmination of events that had been building for decades in Europe. It was like a house of cards built from arms races, ethnic hatred, futile alliances and a lot of human folly. It might have all been inevitable and if the Gavrilo's bullets had not started the First World War then some other incident would have. The fact remains though, Gavrilo's two shots on an obscure street in Sarajevo changed the course of human history.

Sophie

Now this all leads me to wonder...

We live in a world today that might be just as complicated and filled with risk as the world of 1914. Today though, instead of Sarajevo, the place where such a triggering event could be Jerusalem or New York City. Now I'm not some survivalist who is all bunkered up with guns, MREs and paranoia; I am just somebody who can't ignore the cold facts that the world seems to be heading in some dangerous directions.

Inside the Ring: China warship grounded - Washington Times

Just one little headline from an area of the world that is becoming increasingly volatile. When you read the whole story you see that this incident was weighing heavily on the minds of some. Maybe they could also see the potential for another 'Sarejevo Moment'...