“Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.” – Benjamin Franklin

It’s customary for know-it-alls to issue predictions this time of year. I’ve done my part over the past 21 years of blog writing.

I took a gander at some of my predictions last night. What I discovered is something I wish I’d known at the outset. If you want to have the best possible record as a prophet, emulate the greatest and most famous prognosticator of all time: the legendary Nostradamus.

Nostradamus was a 16th century French doctor that practiced medicine during the Bubonic Plague. He was also an astrologer. But he’s best known for the predictions he made in his widely quoted Les Prophéties in 1555. And a cursory glance at Les Prophéties (which I did this morning) suggests that he followed four rules in foretelling the future:

1. Make the prediction with certitude.
2. The bigger and more shocking the better.
3. Keep the language vague.
4. And never, ever predict when it will happen.

Sure enough, when I look at my long-term, undated predictions, my record is perfect. None have come true yet. But none have not come true either.

During the early months of the COVID pandemic, I made several predictions about how the response to it would play out. For example, I said:

* The government, big tech, and the prestige media would continue to promote laws and regulations that restricted personal freedom in favor of social justice and public safety.

* In response to rising crime and higher taxes, there would be an exodus of businesses and wealthy people from New York, New Jersey, California, and Oregon to lower crime/ tax states such as Nevada, Texas, and Florida.

* The value of personal privacy would continue to erode as people became more and more comfortable signing waivers to apps – knowing little to nothing about what they were agreeing to.

* Political differences between Democrats and Republicans would become sharper and more acrimonious as civil courtesies among politicians continued to disappear.

I’d argue that I got those right. But I also got one wrong…

Eleven months prior to the presidential election, I speculated that the result would depend on whether the US voting public would be more frightened by the escalation of COVID or of violent crime. My prediction: By November, violent crime would be America’s number-one concern and, therefore, Trump would win a second term. But the mainstream media did an amazing job of scaring the shit out of otherwise rational people and Biden got the win.

So, what’s ahead of us this year?

Predictions for 2022 

1. The US economy will continue on its post-lockdown recovery, but the pace of growth will slow to nearly a crawl.
2. Higher prices for many of the products affected by the supply chain slowdown will abate, but energy costs will stay high and inflation generally will continue at about 4%.
3. Wage gains will be strong in the first quarter of the year, but will be dragging by the end of the year. Meanwhile, the value of those gains will diminish at 4+%.
4. Middle- and working-class Americans will become increasingly unhappy with the economy and with the Biden administration. Approval ratings for Biden and Harris will drop even lower than they are now, the lowest level for any presidential administration in modern times.
5. Government spending will continue, even after the Republicans regain control of the House and Senate. By the end of 2022, US debt will have topped $30 trillion.
6. The rash of smash-and-grab theft in San Francisco, Chicago, and other easy-on-crime cities will decline as politicians in such cities reverse their views on police funding and bail reform. But homicides and other violent crimes in African-American neighborhoods will continue unabated.
7. Throughout the rest of America, and particularly in suburban and agrarian areas, illegal drugs will continue to be a major problem, with drugs as the #1 killer of White males between the ages of 18 and 40.
8. Because of the relatively low virulence of the Omicron variant, Americans will continue to lose their fear of COVID. This will worry the Democrats, who secretly attributed their success in the last elections to that fear. So, as the 2022 elections draw near, the Biden administration, supported by the mainstream media, will make an effort to spike that fear, but unsuccessfully.
9. At the same, recognizing that the fear card isn’t working, liberals will crank up their newfound anger about urban violence, reversing their support of bail reform and calling for more police funding. Most of them will also disavow Black Lives Matter and Critical Race Theory.

Bonus: 5 Grim Predictions From Nostradamus 

For a grimmer perspective, we return to Nostradamus.

Like all good prognosticators, Nostradamus’s predictions are intentionally vague and open to myriad interpretations. For 2021, according to some of his fans, he predicted a zombie apocalypse. I think that one came true.

For 2022, he predicted inflation, saying that the price of food will rise so high “That man is stirred/ His fellow man to eat in despair.”

He also said that “a new sage with a lone brain” will emerge, “by his disciples invited to be immortal.” The New York Postsuggests that he must have been referring to Time magazine’s Person of the Year, Elon Musk.

Then there is his prediction of environmental disaster – 40 years of drought followed by 40 years of constant rain. “The dry earth will grow more parched/ And there will be great floods when [the rainbow] is seen.”

And most remarkably, according, again, to some fans, Nostradamus predicted the rise of cryptocurrencies: “The copies of gold and silver inflated/ Which after the theft were thrown into the lake/ At the discovery that all is exhausted and dissipated by the debt/ All scripts and bonds will be wiped out.”

9 Feelings You Will Experience in 2022 

I can see your future. For you, 2022 will be a year when you will come to see life as a disappearing stream of moments, each of which could be an opportunity. Furthermore, you will recognize each of these moments as…

1. Annoying or
2. Disappointing or
3. Hurtful or
4. Embarrassing or
5. Shameful or
6. Depressing or
7. Challenging or
8. New…

But most of them will be ordinary and, thus, invisible to you.

What to Do About Those Feelings 

1. Annoying moments: Ignore them.
2. Disappointing moments: Accept them.
3. Hurtful moments: Forgive them.
4. Embarrassing moments. Enjoy them.
5. Shameful moments: Redress them.
6. Depressing moments: Emerge from them.
7. Challenging moments: Embrace them.
8. Novel moments: Embrace them.

As for the ordinary/ invisible moments: See them.