Watching the Presidential debate, last night, was a tormenting experience ... a tired warrior ... in a Tenth Heavyweight Round .... and someone who was saying a great deal that seemed to boldly contradict what he had said on many previous occasions. Some people come and visit me and oftentimes will talk about what it's like to be living in the declining years of a once-proud civilization.
De-energized! That's it. It's difficult enough getting older but to do so during the Fall of Some Empire seems like a cruel joke.
I feel worried and de-energized. It was Erik Erikson who a half century ago, in describing the variety of conflicts that occasion an unfolding life from childhood to the grave, suggested that in the last stages of life the choice was between what he called generativity, the sharing with one's progeny, and despair.
I feel worried and de-energized and despairing. What could I tell my grandchildren that will be hopeful? A great nation was founded on the magic of balancing free enterprise and individualism with some form of the social contract. And now that nation seems locked into poisonous and betimes dishonest representations of its attempts to deal with a changing World .... A world in which a goodly percentage of the population has become somewhat redundant ... in which change has occurred maybe too rapidly for us to adjust.
I think I'll join some Luddite organization and fight against industrialization or something. The French Legion, alas, won't have me!
Glad that I'm not President.
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