With All This Thunder, We Should Expect the Rain

Renowned Greek philosopher Socrates had a wife named Xanthippe, who was apparently a bit of a handful. One day, the story goes, she was angry at Socrates and angrily belittled him in front of a group of guests before pouring the contents of a basin—some stories say it was a jug of water, other accounts say it was a chamber pot—over the philosopher’s head. Responding to this, Socrates simply said, “We should have expected rain after all of that thunder.”

Socrates was, of course, not talking about weather. He was talking about wisdom—the ability to connect signs to outcomes, to understand that patterns precede consequences. He was calling out our tendency to be shocked by storms we should have seen coming.

Whether or not these were Socrates’ literal words is beside the point. The quote has weight because it distills the essence of what the philosopher spent his life urging humanity to do: think critically, examine our assumptions, and anticipate the consequences of our own actions. In an age defined by artificial intelligence, global conflict, ecological instability, and information overload, that lesson has never been more urgent.

Socratic Insight: Reading the Signs

Socrates wasn’t a prophet. He didn’t pretend to tell the future. But he did warn against ignorance—especially willful ignorance. He challenged Athenians to look beyond rhetoric and short-term pleasure to see the deeper patterns of decline.

The “thunder,” in Socrates’ time, was the rise of populist demagogues, the erosion of civic virtue, and the failure of institutions. The “rain” was the Peloponnesian War, the collapse of Athenian democracy, and his own execution by the state he tried to awaken.

Today, the thunder sounds different. But it’s getting louder.

The Modern Thunder: Warnings in Plain Sight

We are surrounded by thunder. It echoes through:

• The rise of China: China’s “creeping normalcy” and its increasing bellicosity.
• Global AI arms races: The sudden leap from novelty to existential risk in under a decade.
• Political polarization: The erosion of trust in democratic institutions across continents.
• Surveillance capitalism: The commodification of attention and thought through social media.
• Supply chain fragility: Pandemic shocks and geopolitical frictions laying bare our vulnerabilities.
• Declining mental health: Among the nation’s young, and especially within the Veteran Community, in a world of digital overstimulation and meaning-deficit.

We act surprised when the skies break open. But as Socrates might say—what did we expect?

From Thunder to Rain: Future World-Shaping Events

If we follow the thunder, here’s what the rain might look like:

1. Major Theater War

With China rattling its saber and Russia’s already unsheathed, the world could suddenly become a much more dangerous—and deadly—place. A war between the US and either Iran, North Korea, China or Russia (and, worst case, “all of the above”) would cause destruction that we have not seen since World War II. And the bad guys can reach out and touch us in our homeland in a way they really just couldn’t in the last global conflagration.

2. AI-Induced Labor Shock

Generative AI and autonomous systems could displace not just factory workers but white-collar professionals—lawyers, doctors, coders, even creatives. Entire job categories may vanish faster than policy or ethics can respond.

3. Fragmented Truth

Misinformation, deepfakes, and algorithmically curated bubbles may destroy consensus reality. When no one agrees on the facts, democracy itself becomes unworkable. This isn’t a dystopian guess—it’s already happening.

4. Cyber-Proxy Conflicts

The next great war might not involve tanks. It may unfold in servers and satellites—crippling infrastructure, swaying elections, and igniting conflict without a single shot fired.

5. Biological Risk

The COVID-19 pandemic was thunder. The rain could be far worse: engineered pathogens, accidental leaks, or naturally emergent viruses with far deadlier potential.

These aren’t far-fetched scenarios. They’re forecasts based on observable trends, technological capabilities, and known systemic weaknesses.

Foresight is Responsibility

To notice thunder is not paranoia. It’s prudence. And yet, as humans, we are drawn to denial, distraction, and deferral. We prefer comfort to clarity—until the rain is falling and it’s too late to build a roof.

What would Socrates say to us now?

He wouldn’t offer easy solutions. But he probably would demand we ask better questions:

• What are we pretending not to see?
• What do we value—and what are we risking for it?
• What patterns are we ignoring because they’re inconvenient?

These are the questions that lead from passive reaction to active preparation. Because if we keep acting shocked by the storms we’ve spent decades ignoring, the future will only grow darker.

Final Word

“We should have expected rain after all of that thunder.” It’s more than a quote—it’s a challenge. A call to face the truths that echo around us before they crash down upon us. In the Socratic tradition, the most dangerous thing isn’t ignorance—it’s the illusion of knowledge. The belief that everything will work out just because it always has.

History says otherwise. Philosophy warns us. And the thunder still rolls.

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Charles Faint served over 27 years in the US Army, which included seven combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan with various Special Operations Forces units and two stints as an instructor at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He also completed operational tours in Egypt, the Philippines, and the Republic of Korea and earned a Doctor of Business Administration from Temple University as well as a Master of Arts in International Relations from Yale University. He is the owner of The Havok Journal, and the views expressed herein are his own and do not reflect those of the US Government or any other person or entity.