His name was Michel de Nostredame – Nostradamus in Latin. There’s scant science in the early 1500s, limited freedom, life’s dominated by the trilogy of religion, political power and wealth. Among the masses illiteracy, religious fanaticism and poverty reigned supreme. The masses embraced prophecy.

Who is Nostradamus, you ask? Many believe he has prophesied world wars, Hitler, JFK’s assassination and the Radical Muslim desecration in New York on Sept. 11, 2001.

If Nostradamus could predict the future, it raises this question: did Nostradamus have superior intelligence? Was he gifted and enabled to “see” what was yet to be? Excuse the expression, but “hell, no!” If Nostradamus had a gift, it was conceding this fact: humankind embraces (perhaps forever) superior stupidity. We endlessly repeat the same mistakes. We’ve instituted devastation on nature. We corrupt and alter from good to bad what we touch. Not so, you say. If you believe that, then you know very little of human history. Please turn off your TV – go to the library and read.

Research the horror of human superior stupidity: hunting the Salem witch, Gettysburg, Vietnam and Jihad. Embrace prophecy and pretend the following didn’t occur: the Spanish annihilation of the Aztec and Maya, the power-thirsty Christian Crusades, the Inquisition – all three clearly religious desecrations. Be proud of white man’s progress westward into “our lands” resulting in the death of Native Americans – the Apache, Cherokee and Sioux. Let’s continue the depletion of natural resources, irresponsible human reproduction, hunting animals to extinction for wall trophies and the pursuit of power which enslaved (and still enslaves) millions.

Are you following me? We have been repeating this path of life for tens of thousands of years, and there’s apparently no major movement afoot to change direction. That being the truth – and it is – prophecy is the simplistic repainting of the same human drawing. Oh, the strokes may be different, the media painted on changed and the variations of color dazzling – but the image is consistent.

I am a foreshadower of the future. Here are my prophecies.

Prophecy One: the earth will rumble and move. In those times there will be tumbling cities, the pavement will be turned to weed and many will seek revenge on their lords and kings.

Prophecy Two: Armagid will be king. Those at peace will be drawn into reshaping their plowshares into swords, the bear will crush the eagle by its sheer weight and the python will grow out of habit.

Prophecy Three: Power will seek sacred union to wealth. They together will foster four children – domination, separation and conquest, the twin brother to greed.

We best wake up, for there is no future set in stone – the future is yet to be. Sadly, where we quarry the future’s stone has not changed. Until we stop cutting stones from the quarry of stupidity, our end result will remain the same weak and destructive bastion. Bury the current stone quarry named “Me” and fashion our future bastions from the stones of “We.”

Nostradamus? Give me a break.

Thomas H. Hunkele of Troup County is a certified fitness trainer and president of Lakeside Fitness.