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America in 2020: A Minor Prophecy

11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

12 For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them. Ecclesiastes 9 

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  • Richard May 26, 2019, 9:57 AM

    That ending, with the protagonist, fearlessly standing atop that locomotive, literally meeting his demise head-on , but ON HIS terms is just epic. One of Voight’s truly splendid performances and a really underappreciated gem of a movie. Thanks for posting the clip. Now I’m jonesing to see the movie, again.

  • Walter Sobchak May 26, 2019, 10:52 AM

    Minor? No. Not minor. “the truest of all books is Solomon’s”

    Moby Dick; or The Whale 1851
    By Herman Melville (1819–1891)
    Chapter XCVI
    The Try-Works

    “… The sun hides not the ocean, which is the dark side of this earth, and which is two-thirds of this earth. So, therefore, that mortal man who hath more of joy than sorrow in him, that mortal man cannot be true—not true, or undeveloped. With books the same. The truest of all men was the Man of Sorrows, and the truest of all books is Solomon’s, and Ecclesiastes is the fine hammered steel of woe. ‘All is vanity.’ ALL. …

    “… There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness. And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again and become invisible in the sunny spaces. And even if he forever flies within the gorge, that gorge is in the mountains; so that even in his lowest swoop the mountain eagle is still higher than other birds upon the plain, even though they soar.”

  • Casey Klahn May 26, 2019, 12:13 PM

    I’m partial to the Slim Pickens scene where he rides the H down from the sky, whipping it with his Stetson, and screaming “Yeeeee-Haaaaw!”

    But, this is a good hook; now another film you’ve persuaded me to see.

  • DrTedNelson May 31, 2019, 2:09 PM

    Trump Train 2020… unstoppable.