Turbulence

Jack Drachman wondered what the people who followed the Barlow Road in covered wagons to settle the west would think about him using it to escape. They came with great expectations, pursuing their dreams. They established communities that became cities. More people came, hungry for success, willing to sacrifice anything to get it. What would those early travelers make of someone going the opposite direction now? Fleeing the very culture they worked so hard to establish? Could they see what had gone wrong and explain it to him? Was this present decline of America a mere bump in the road or something more?

Jack saw two possible explanations. One; civilization was declining as it had at times in the past and chaos would ensue, or two; these things were signs of the end. The first could happen without the second, but if the second happened, the first would happen simultaneously. He didn't know which it was, but getting out of Dodge seemed to apply no matter which scenario it was.