EDITORIALS; The Impending Collapse.(Editorial)

"By looking for earthquakes to describe changes in the political landscape, the effects of erosion and drift are easily overlooked, even though the end results can be at least as substantial."

Greg Adams: "Abortion: Evidence of an Issue Evolution"

Imagine you are an archeologist working at a famous, well-excavated site. You've been there for some time, when, seemingly out of the blue, you start making significant finds every 15 feet or so.

First, you'd be pleased, then you'd think about the responses of most of the handful of specialists who were the only ones who were more than casually aware of the site. With monotonous regularity, they had insisted all along that what you'd found to date was trivial - - and that if there was anything of significance in the locale, it would have long ago been unearthed.

But with the latest diggings, honeycombed with amazing artifacts, suddenly a larger, more comprehensive picture of the site came into focus, placing what you had discovered previously in a new light as well. Clearly, you are onto a major scientific discovery - - clearly, that is to you, but not to the habitual naysayers who'd always insisted the expedition was a waste of time.

Wedded to a position that was growing more untenable by the hour, these "experts" reacted as they always had: by offering lame, beside-the-point excuses in an attempt to explain away what you had unburied.

You'd expect that from people whose thinking had long since fallen into an inescapable rut, or who may have had ulterior motives. But once news leaked out, what about those coming fresh to the evidence?