CC asked: When you were young, did you thinking we’d learn, that we’d learn to temper some of our worst tendencies and thereby extending the awesome good window of time we were living in.
As I recall, now, I think I was rather pessimistic. Things were getting pretty bad. Some things actually seemed to improve over time. Not as much talk about acid rain. The ozone hole was eventually getting smaller for a while. The smog in LA got better. The burning river stopped burning.
Now I was very naively and stupidly optimistic about expecting that our racial conflicts were just about resolved. Boy, did I get that one wrong. I think it was largely because I was a Jesus Christian back in the day, and I figured that the MLK philosophy was obviously correct, and that our entire society would no doubt adopt it. From my point of view at the time, “Why wouldn’t they?”.
Even with the big Pop books, I would tend to scan them (if I could easily access a copy) and get enough to know the jist of it, and whether I thought the author was full of shite, or not.
In the sci-fi book I’m writing...
Now Sci Fi books, I tend to enjoy immensely, and will read them cover to cover for the fun of it. Though I might retain little useful info from them. Less than, in some cases, what I retain from scanning books about important topics. Those unfortunately are more like text books. Some you need to read in order to pass the course. Some are just useless in all respects.
NO, it’s fascinating, let me brew up another cup of tea, while you’re sharing some more.
From my point of view at the time, “Why wouldn’t they?”.
Sometimes I do make mistakes. That was a big one.
That’s what I was thinking about stewardship and learning to nurture Earth’s biosphere, so my kids could enjoy the things I enjoyed.
I’m still in shock as how much has been destroyed over the period of my few decades and how many people have managed to normalize it all to the point that most don’t seem to think anything has changed, even as the world and societal are actively imploding all around them. Oh and it’s always someone else fault, it’s never all of us in this together. Guess I’m still flailing at trying to make sense of it. But senseless is sort of human, ain’t it. I try achieving the Budda Above It All, but only works in small spurts, then empathy kicks in and the world gets utterly insane again.
What to make of America’s failed experiment, We The People, so much education, so many opportunities, yet we pissed it away to become another banana republic. Guess there was always way to much gluttony and wanton greed, that couldn’t be overcome.
