This is a diary I never really wanted to write, because the thoughts in it are almost suicidally depressing.

In H. Beam Piper's Paratime Patrol stories, he posits three outcomes for the human race. The one in which his stories are set is a low-probability lucky accident in which paratime travel is discovered just in time to salvage humanity from one of the other two fates.

Its time for me to discuss my pessimism for the future. In various threads, people respond to my pessimism with the classic "so what's your solution?". My answer is that there is no solution that preserves anything like a decent life for the vast majority of Americans. When I am called a "Debbie Downer" for this attitude, its very hard to resist shooting back with "Pollyanna". But I do resist that impulse.

All I'm asking of respondents to this essay is to engage with the pessimism, to follow the big picture logic.