[Skybird]

An optimist to me is somebody who approaches a traffic light and sees it jumping from green to yellow while he gets closer, and he thinks: maybe it will jump from yellow-only back to green although that is not possible, or there will be a blackout, or a sudden thunderstorm will appear and blow it away, and so when I have reached the crossroad I will be able to pass right through and do not need to stop.

A pessimist to me is somebody who does not even look at the traffic lights and just keeps saying: it will be red - red - red when I have reached it, it always was red, and it always will be red, and nothing that could ever happen will change that that light will be red, inevitably. I'm doomed, I always was, and I always will be. All life sucks. That traffic light proves it. Aaah - see...!? What have I just said!

A realist to me is somebody who knows that when there is a yellow plus a red light, the next thing lighting up will be green, and if there is just a yellow light alone, the next things to light up will be red - no matter whether I prefer to have a red or a green light when I reach the crossroad. I know that from empiric experience, and becasue my father has programmed the control software for that traffic light, and because the traffic statues say also that they should be designed that way, and I learned that stuff. So the realist bases on past empiric experiences and proven knowledge, he looks around, and forms his expectation for the future on basis of what he knows, and sees: a red light jumping to red plus yellow, or a green light jumping to yellow alone. He then knows whether it will be red or green next. No need for optimism or pessimis. Neither would do harm, nor would do any good. It just does not matter.

I am not pessimistic or optimistic. I see a dysfunctional currency that causes havoc, I see a political system that looks and acts and decides like a neo-feudal system or a dictatorship, I see an institution named EU that stands in the way of European people really living in a Europe that is formed by their will, I see a dysfunctional economic system basing on suicidal exploitation of ressources without regeneration windows, and I see a population of 7 billions, climbing. That tells me two things: the traffic light is yellow and about to jump to red, and the destruction of the Euro currency and the dismantling of the EU in the form it has gained in the past 20 years at least will be extremely painful and hurting, but are necessary to reclaim the freedom and ground to build new, and better. And that I do not see as a guarantee for a better future, only keeping a small chance, since several factors I mentioned are againmst us, and without massive reduction of global population levels any other measurement is impossible to save us: 7 billion people is several billions too much.

So to me, the fall of the Euro and the EU is more about hope than dispair or armageddon. It is a pain that is necessary to keep at least a chance for the future that things will get improved. I just cannot escape to conclude on the basis of what I see. Mere hope is no strategy, and I never considered hope as helpful or relieving, speaking for myself only. It does nothing for me. Nor does pessimism. I cannot escape the little Spock inside me.

Now seeing a good reason for being hopeful, seeing a red-yellow traffic light - that is something different. But I cannot see that in this EU and in this currency. With just the tip of the roof-antenna visible above the swamp's surface I know that we will not get the car out of the swamp again without getting wet from head to feet and making our hands dirty, ruining our dresses completely and desperately gasping for air. We will break some fingers, get scratches and will bleed, and some helpers maybe even will drown.

Time for easy, clean and cheap simsalabim-solutions or hoping for some wonder-magic is over. Since long. We kept our course right into the centre of a strom. Now we will need to ride right through the middle of it. Many regional and local cultures before us have been where we are today , with comparing challenges to their survival, and most of them died, especially those ruled by strong conservative cults and habits, and without written language that would have enabled them to learn observations of past generations. What makes our situation unique is that for the first time not just a regional, local culture is at this stage, but the world-wide global community. This is a first. And that is why the concerns today cannot be waved away as mere pessimism or armageddon-belief only like those that have always been there, in all eras and cultures. Back then they were made from a context of small regional, local viewing ranges. Today we can assess the whole world.

We must not believe but we know that the threats are globally. A dissappearing Rome had some influence on the world even when dying. A dissappearing culture and a dying people on the Easter Island meant nothing to anyone not living there, was not even noted outside. But a collapse of the global supply chain with food and natural ressources, a collapse of the traffic and information infrastructure, a collapse of the financial network and the economic interactions worldwide, do have devastating effects on ALL people in the world, no matter where, no matter whether rich or poor. Many pay with losing property, and social security. Many also pay with their lives as well.

So Respenus, it is not Armageddon-attitude of mine when wishing the fall of the Euro and the EU. I am aware of the costs this will cause for us: they will be very hurting already. I just see that fall as an opportunity to keep the small chances that we maybe, in the face of even more global challenges, maybe have. I do not know for sure what the future holds for us, and for me, but I know for damn sure that the old ways that had brought us to where we are today, no longer serve us well. They led us into today's mess, so - conclusions, maybe?

When you stand on the very top of a steep cliff, and the abyss before you, then you must not argue and think and discuss and calculate whether to walk on, or stop and turn around: you look, and see - or you don't. That'S all what decides whether you turn around and search another way out, or jump, blinded.

That is not complicated at all. Complicated are only our efforts to deceive ourselves.