Friday, January 1, 2010

My Predictions for 2010

Politics and the Economy
1. The Conservative Party in the UK will fumble a glorious opportunity to win a large majority in the Spring election and one of the smaller parties (either UKIP or the BNP) will make astonishing gains thus changing the electoral landscape radically, possibly even to the extent of holding the balance of power in a hung Parliament.

2. The Conservative Party of Canada will win an historic majority in a Fall election.

3. The Republicans will either gain, or nearly gain, control of the House and gain at least 4-5 seats in the Senate during the 2010 mid-term elections, which will be a referendum on Obama's fiscal, health care, environmental and abortion policies.

4. By late 2010 there will be fierce debate over the introduction of a European-style Value Added Tax and drastic cuts to military spending in the United States in response to a spiraling deficit.

5. By the end of 2010 polls will show Sarah Palin leading Barack Obama and there will be talk of Hilary Clinton challenging Obama for the nomination in 2012.

Religion
6. The Emergent Church movement will gradually fade, though it will take longer than a year for it to be absorbed completely into liberal Protestantism.

7. The Church of England will begin to splinter in 2010 as the Anglican Communion divides into the section that remains in communion with The Episcopal Church and the section that does not.

8. Pope Benedict XVI will succeed in bringing the Society of St. Pius X back into full communion with the rest of the Church. He will continue to be vilified by the liberal media and will continue to view that as a good sign that he is doing his job.

9. John Paul II's Theology of the Body will begin to be recognized by Evangelicals as the theoretical foundation of an alternative to the sexual revolution and will be increasingly embraced by conservative Christians of all stripes.

Culture
10. The debate over whether global warming is man-caused or part of the natural cycle of the planet's constantly changing environment will accelerate in 2010 and climate change alarmists will be increasingly placed on the defensive.

11. It will become widely recognized in 2010 that declining world population growth rates mean that a drop in population by mid-century could result in economic disaster.

12. There will be another major terrorist attack in the United States in 2010.

3 comments:

Josh said...

Wow. Depressing predictions.

David said...

Fascinating predication!
My two cents...

(1) I agree that, sadly, the BNP and/or UKIP will make gains but my guess would bethat these gains would not be big enough to change the face of the electoral landscape. I think the Conservatives will win a workable majority. At least they will if Blond and not George Osborne provides the vision.

(2) I don't know enough to disagree

(3) I think you're spot on.

(4) I agree that there will be some European style taxation introduced to tackle the deficit and that this will be fiercely debated but I think the economy is still too consumer driven to tolerate VAT.


(6) I think you're right, I wish you weren't (about the slide in liberal protestantism) but you are.

(7) No question.

(8) lol! I remember his grace Archbishop Chaput in Denver. He preached on Matthew 25 and had the congregation say out loud 3 times "If I forget the poor I will go to hell". The liberal media in Denver praised him for his concern for 'social justice' and it pained him! If they thought he was doing well he must have messed up somewhere!
I think Pope Benedict has genuine passion for the Latin Mass and genuine discomfort with Gaudium et Spes, he is thinking more politically though over the last couple of years but I think you're right here too.

(9) I think if it was written by someone else I'd agree, but is it possible that you're underestimating Evangelical suspicion of Catholics? Not long after I moved to the States I remember hearing a wonderful homily one day in the car and learned it was by someone called John MacArthur. I went home and did some research! Boy! Apparently I'm part of "a Satanic religious system". So too my wife's extended family don't think I'm a Christian. Among the younger generation of evangelicals too, and some of the emergent people, there's a huge disdain for what the RC Church represents. I believe things are getting better, on both sides, and I think that we both can learn a lot from each other. But I've often wondered what some of you peers must think of you having such appreciation for JP II and Pope Benedict? I wish you were right, and maybe you are, but I think that evangelical suspicion of Catholics might still be too ingrained.

(10) I think you're right.

(11) I'm not sure I agree with you here. i think it will become clearer that overpopulation is an illusion and that a declining population rate will be economically disastrous but I think the left are too invested in the politics of "overpopulation" to accept the facts

(12) I hope you're wrong.

Thanks for some fascinating predictions, it should be an interesting year :)

David said...

ooh I've forgot number (5)

I've been amazed at the level of hatred of Sarah Palin. I've lived in a few different countries now and I've never seen anything like the hate and violence the media in the States show to her. I think it should be studied seriously as I think it says a lot about today's America. The Wall Street Journal reviewed her book and trotted out the core tropes of misogyny. She's seen by the media as stupid, slutty (the Clintonesque winking), whiny and devious. Such foundational misogynistic tropes can only be tolerable to women if she is not actually considered a woman. Interestingly, in the eyes of liberal women, she has abandoned 'woman's issues' and so cannot be understood as a woman. Misogynistic liberal males can abuse her using wildly un pc, verboten words and tropes and be praised by the left for it! You mentioned Theology of the Body - the understanding of gender visible in the treatment of Sarah Palin is the inversion of TotB. Here, a set of principles are decided as "women's issues", almost all of which are designed to serve men and, in cases such as abortion in the developing world, murder millions of women, and if a woman strays from these issues she cedes the status "woman" and is no longer entitled to the socially given protections that citizenship of 'woman' usually guarantees. It's actually a new counter Genesis, creating a new category of woman defined in actual contradiction of nature.
More to the point though I think the hatred of Palin is insurmountable and have to disagree with you on this one.