President Thomas S. Monson made the observation that “the world has slipped from its moorings.”  (Ensign, May 2010, pg. 113).  That is a dangerous situation.  It conjures up the picture of a large ship adrift on the sea about to be dashed against the rocks.  Those who should be guiding the ship are either asleep or uncaring.  No one is at the helm.

I’ve been witness to similar scenes twice in my life.  Both events resulted in a crash that could have been avoided if someone had been alert.

One situation involved a train.  A lone engine was left parked on the track in Baker, Oregon.  When the engineer left the cab, he neglected to set the brake.  Baker is 99 feet higher in elevation than my hometown of Haines, nine miles away.  With nothing to hold it back, and with no one aboard, the heavy engine began rolling, picking up speed as it went.  Seven miles down the track was a parked train.  The runaway engine crashed into the rear of the stationary train derailing and overturning several cars loaded with wheat.  It was a big mess.  Anytime the railroad has a derailment it costs millions of dollars in downtime and cleanup expenses.  The accident could have been avoided if the negligent engineer had just set the brake.

Every day we see and hear of people around us who have no brakes.  Anything goes.  There are no restraints.  A crash is inevitable.  They are a danger to themselves and to everyone around them.

This happens when the Holy Ghost is not invited to be a part of a person’s guidance system.  James E. Faust aptly observed that “A man without the Holy Ghost is like a man without an immune system:  he can’t fight anything off.”

The other situation to which I was witness involved an airplane.  It was perhaps the eeriest sight I’ve ever seen.

I was a student at Brigham Young University.  The steep Wasatch Mountains literally rise up right off the eastern edge of the campus.  One afternoon as I was walking the 10 blocks home on the easternmost street that parallels the mountain, I, and every other pedestrian, suddenly came to a standstill as a huge bomber came up behind us heading south.  It was flying very low.  Its wingtip was almost brushing the mountain.  We watched, spellbound, until it disappeared from sight.

That night the news reported that a military bomber was missing in the area.  I called the authorities and reported what I had seen hoping that would help them trace the plane’s trajectory, but they never found the plane.  It was thought that it ran out of fuel and probably crashed in Utah Lake.

Thankfully there was no loss of life.  The plane could have crashed in a populated area, but did not.  Not even the pilot lost his life, because he wasn’t aboard!  The plane that I’d watched skimming by the mountain had been a pilotless, passengerless ghost ship.

The pilot had been on a practice bombing run in the skies over Nevada.  The cover had been down over the windshield of his cockpit, and the plane had been on automatic pilot as he conducted the exercise.  At the completion of the exercise he pressed what he thought was the button that would raise the blind on the windshield.  Instead, he hit the eject button.  He was shot out of the plane, and parachuted safely to earth.  The plane, being on automatic pilot, continued its unwavering course until it ran out of fuel.

A plane without a pilot, a train without an engineer, a ship without a helmsman, and a nation or a world without a leader who can heed the Holy Ghost constitute inevitable wrecks.  Societies without restraints are settings for inevitable catastrophes.

We  are such a society.  Our world has “slipped its moorings.”

This has happened before.  One of the saddest verses in all scripture, in my opinion, is Mosiah 10:22.  Prior to writing this verse, good king Limhi had again successfully led his people in repelling a Lamanite invasion against overwhelming odds.  His people and his small country had been protected for many years because of his and his people’s righteousness.  He wanted the very best for his subjects when he became too old to reign any longer.  He concluded his record by saying, “And now I, being old, did confer the kingdom upon one of my sons; therefore, I say no more.  And may the Lord bless my people.  Amen.”

In that verse he both asked a blessing upon his people, and cursed them with the leadership of a man who would bring about their downfall.  The son, Noah, “did not keep the commandments of God, but he did walk after the desires of his own heart.  And he had many wives and concubines.  And he did cause his people to commit sin, and do that which was abominable in the sight of the Lord.  Yea, and they did commit whoredoms and all manner of wickedness.

“And he laid a tax of one fifth part of all they possessed...And all this did he take to support himself, and his wives and his concubines; and also his priests, and their wives and their concubines; thus he had changed the affairs of the kingdom.”  (Mosiah 11:2-4).

Today our local, state, and federal governments exact a heavier tax than Noah ever did.  Whoredoms and abominations abound around us to such a degree that they are commonplace and accepted.  Few efforts are even made to hide them.  Many laws are corrupt, and tax monies are used for unworthy purposes.  Many plans are underway to undermine or to ignore our Constitution, the law of the land.  Some of those efforts are perpetrated by our own president.

Abinadi, a prophet of the Lord, was sent to warn Noah and his people of their imminent destruction if they did not repent.  They were offended by his warnings, and killed him.  A short time later many of the men were killed in battle, and the remainder of the people were enslaved, and made to pay a 50% tax to their conquerors on everything which they owned or produced.

Interestingly, the tax burden placed upon the people enslaved by the Lamanites did not exceed what many supposedly “free” people around the world are currently paying to their governments.  Tax Freedom Day for citizens of the United States in 2015 was 24 April, on average.  California’s was 3 May, New York’s was 8 May, and New Jersey and Connecticut had to wait until 13 May.  Citizens of the United States paid 31% of their earnings in taxes in 2015.  (Tax Freedom Day in 1910 was 19 January when taxes amounted to 5%.  In 2000, Tax Freedom Day was 1 May when taxes amounted to 33%).

In nearly every other industrialized country of the world, the situation is even more dire.  Germany, Israel, Turkey, France, and Norway all have tax burdens above 50%.  Belgium is the world’s worst at 59.5%.  Only 4.99 million of that nation’s 10.67 million citizens are working, which calculates out to an impossible-to-maintain situation for working citizens.

The world, as I see it, is hurtling toward a calamity.  The Lord has said as much through a prophet called in our own day.  In the preface to the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord states, “Wherefore, I the Lord, knowing the calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of the earth, called upon my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and spake unto him from heaven, and gave him commandments.”  (D&C 1:17).

The only safety for the world and individuals is to pay heed to those commandments given through Joseph Smith.  There are looming catastrophes, crashes, and calamities in our future; but as individuals, we can largely stay above them.  Many people, and virtually every nation, are busy throwing overboard the anchor, the helm, the lifeboats, and even the Captain.  But if we will take the Holy Ghost as our guide, faithfully do our duty, and keep the commandments, we will largely be wide-eyed onlookers as the ships of state and society dash themselves to pieces on the rocks.