Old Timers: Where are we headed?

[porkrind]

Older DU'ers, (the older the better :) ) could I please have the benefit of your perspective?

I know the U.S. has had some dark chapters in its history, but it seems to me that in the last couple of years we have gone quite far down the path to fascism and totalitarianism. It's hard to get real perspective from what's written, because of the unknown bias/slant of the authors. How do current times compare to times past with regards to civil liberties, media bias, and governmental cronyism, corruption, and fiscal crime? Is the current corporate crime-wave (Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, etc.) exceptional, or has it always been this bad?

Where is the U.S. headed? Are things getting better or worse over the decades? It seems to me that it's much worse with no change on the horizon, but maybe I'm being too pessimistic and cynical? If I had to guess, I would predict continued globalization, reduced standard of living, increased concentration of wealth, poorer health care, greater corruption in government, more war, and more poverty.

Please tell me I'm wrong. I have beautiful children that I don't want to have that future. :scared: Thanks.

[DuctapeFatwa]

1. It's really up to the rest of the world.

Ball's in their court. Form a coalition and disarm the US, or sit on their butts and wait to hear the bombs buzzing over their capitals.

[JaySherman]

2. I'm considering never even having children

for the reasons you mentioned. Can't stomach the thought of my kids growing up in a world like that. Certainly not in America if it continues along its current downward spiral.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

36. Same here-husband agrees

why bring children into a world like this?

[gater]

47. Don't say that

If you teach your children that our lives are not directed from Madison Avenue; that the Ltd. and A+F clothes are no better than an old band shirt as long as it covers what you want covered; that life matters; that they can change the world for the better...Once you give up, the bastards have won! Deny them the satisfaction! Raise a gaggle of liberals who play in politically valid punk bands and send them out on tour!!!

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

3. My take:

IF Chimpy wins, it will get a lot worse, before it gets better. Better=Quiets down.

There will be blood in the streets.

Remember: So many in this administration were just low enough on the Nixon Admin Food Chain to avoid getting caught in the mangle. They have spent many years refining their techniques and waiting for another chance. These are the same people, the young, brash Nixon True believers, grown older and more powerful, and with less impulse control than their ancestors.

[DieboldMustDie]

4. If * is returned to office...

I'm expecting a combination of the great depression and 60s urban unrest :mad:

[SoCalDem]

50. 60's unrest would be hard to duplicate

The kismet of that "moment in time" was the fact that the police were so totally unprepared to handle it AND the press was so WILLING to report it..

Neither exists today..:(

[ThoughtCriminal]

5. Although just a bit before my time

It feels like the dark days of McCarthyism in the early 50's. It never really went away, but heck I'm glad I was born. And I'm thankful my parents taught me that bigotry, greed and oppression were wrong.

[Sliverofhope]

6. My father, who is older than me

(erm, well, obviously) has said:

I thought Nixon was bad until I saw Reagan.
And I thought Reagan was bad until I saw Bush Jr.

There's definately a bit of a decline here. But, it's hard to tell whether it will be a continuing trend.

[Itchinjim]

12. Sliverofhope

Two weeks before he died in October 2002, my Father said those exact words to me. He saw the war coming and even though he was dieing he was still raging against Bush,Cheney,Rummy and the rest I think it keep him alive just a little bit longer. The old man sure hated them republicans. He was a Korean War vet and a life long union man and he was a Mick who took shit from no one.

[July]

17. Welcome to DU, Itchinjim!

And I raise a toast to your late father (who reminds me of my late father, a WWII vet, union man, and Mick).

[GreenPartyVoter]

19. Welcome IJ

Glad you found DU. :)

[newyawker99]

34. Hi Itchinjim!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[peacebuzzard]

35. Hi IJ!

Sorry about your dad...welcome to DU.:hi:

[minkyboodle]

37. welcom to DU SliverofHope

Your father was a wise man. Welcome to DU. :toast:
Scott
also great name choice its what I try to hold on every day its tought these days.

[Bozita]

Jeb, Neil, and Marvin? ...

... or is it Jeb, Marvin, and Neil?

[kentuck]

46. Nixon almost looks looks like a decent honorable Republican...

compared to George W Bush and this crowd.......almost.

[Frances]

7. What I've seen

I was born in 1941 in Alabama. One person wrote that the only place he had seen worse poverty than he saw in Alabama at that time was in rural China. Segregation kept African Americans only one step from slavery. World War II was as just as wars get, but the men who saw combat carried the scars of war with them all of their lives. Then came Korea and the McCarthy hearings and anti-Communist fervor that destroyed innocent people's lives. Next was Vietnam, and you have to see the memorial in DC to understand how huge that tragedy was.

But we also had Elvis and the Beatles and John Kennedy and Martin Luther King.

I think life is always a struggle, but I have hope that we will get a Democrat in the White House and then take back the Senate in a few years and come up with a better government.

[madrchsod]

9. i went thru

the south in 57 when i was ten years old and what i remember the most was the beauty of the land , the colored only signs, and the black towns on the edge of the white ones. i don`t know if the hearts have changed.

[trof]

22. Born in Alabama, 1941. Me too!

Montgomery, but grew up in B'ham.

[madrchsod]

8. who knows what tomorrow will bring..

nothing much has changed over the years in the hearts of mankind. the wars have never stopped, the misery of those who have nothing,the misery of needless death. the knowledge has given us the ability to alter our destiny for good or evil. it is up to us to teach our children how to use the knowledge we are given for the good of mankind. the future belongs to them.

[Sugarbleus]

13. Well said rchsod!

some things have improved since my birth on this earth; other things, important things, like the unbridled race for wealth and power, poverty, weapons proliferation, freedom, and liberty have gotten worse. With a Dem in DC, we may calm down a bit but the "direction" in which we are headed is STILL about wealth and power and trade and domination--on a MUCH larger scale. I fear we are headed for some sort of showdown one of these days. It's 2004!! fercryininabucket! ...I had high hopes for our "Social condition" by now. Alas. Some will make it as we go forward, many will not.
I remain committed to change, no matter the cost.
Tighten your seatbelt and never give up hope.
Peace in our time

[DemoTex]

10. FWIW: DUer since 5/2001

I don't know any more than you do, I've just been here longer. I know that we have to get rid of Bu$h, and you know that too. Your beautiful children don't understand the onerous debt that Bu$h has bequeathed them. Meanwhile, the rich friends of the most powerful man in history - an ill-gotten power - get richer beyond even their wildest dreams.

[Old and In the Way]

11. Well, as a 51 year old fart, I can tell you this is the worst

administration I've ever lived through....no one comes close. I thought Nixon had it out for Democracy, but in retrospect he was just a paranoid schizo. The difference now is that the RW has taken pretty effective control on all instruments of government and they have had a sympathetic media.

That said, power begets corruption and naked greed. They've exposed their agenda pretty blatently and I think we are seeing a grassroots backlash in the making that will force reactionary change. I suspect that it will get uglier, but the forces of good will win out...and I totally expect that the reaction will be to implement a far more progressive and evolutionary change in our culture, social institutions, and infrastructure as we confront unavoidable changes needed to adapt to a post-peak oil world.

[Mari333]

16. as a 52 year olde farte

this reminds me of McCarthyism with a twist. Never seen it this bad, and dont want to see it continue.
We arent THAT old you know. If you are 80, a 50 yr old is young.
All depends on ones perspective. =)

[Mairead]

25. As a 63-y.o. one

this is worse than McCarthy. Under McCarthy you could be blacklisted and never be able to work in your field for a major employer again. But they didn't have provisions to strip native-born citizens of citizenship, or put people in prison forever without trial. Nor did they have the surveillance capabilities that they have today.

This is very very very bad. We are windmilling frantically on the edge of The Pit.

[Dookus]

14. it's always a mixed bag....

in one sense, we have "abstract" limitations on our freedoms, such as the Patriot Act. But in reality, nothing in my life has changed.

On the other hand, as a gay man, I'm freer than ever before, and it seems like I will live to see the right to marry be afforded me - something I never would've expected 10 years ago.

[dbt]

15. The one GLARING difference between the bu$h regime and past ones

is the unprecedented level of corporate control of the government. I think you'd have to look back to the 1890s to find anything similar. Millions and billions of dollars are shoved into the pockets of Republicans and Democrats; favorable (corporate-friendly) legislation is delivered in return.

A war has been undertaken purely for profit, something unprecedented in my 53 years. The invasion of Iraq is for the sole purpose of allowing Halliburton and other corporations to make billions.

And all the while, the corporate-controlled media (five entities. Count 'em, five) tell us 24/7 what a great pResident bu$h is.

Hitler is dancing in Hell as he watches the propaganda machine in Amerika go about its business.

:freak:
dbt

PS: To answer your question, we are in a handbasket!

[BeFree]

18. Never been worse

And if you youngsters don't get off your asses and do something about it, you'll be damned sorry you didn't! <grin>

[catmandu57]

20. I thought 68 was bad

but in retrospect, this is a much worse, dark and dangerous time we're living in. The old chinese curse of "may you live in interesting times" has come true with aq vengance.
What the assassin's bullets started in 68 has carried on, building in strength, and redefining itself, so that now the message of exclusion and corporate control is fine tuned.
Who knows what the world would have been like now if the Kenendys, John and Robert had lived, if Martin Luther King hadn't been felled and silenced.
If the riots hadn't torn the cities apart, if Chicago hadn't erupted and Cronkite hadn't spoken against the maddness of Vietnam. The world could have been a much brighter and safe place to live.
Instead we got nixon, rayguns, bush, and now jr* the vision of corporate dominance, pax americana, armageddon, and the vengeful hatred of an angry, mean, selectful god.
It's up to you youngsters to get mad and right the ship, the world will belong to you much longer than I, and I'm ashamed and sickened that this is your inheititance.

[ramapo]

21. Worse than ever, and heading down

We are more divided.

We are more in debt both personally and as a society.

We have learned nothing from the energy crisis of 30 years ago. In fact we have regressed.

Poverty is a hugh problem that is mostly ignored.

Education has become more a political issue than a right.

Health care is more a business than a right.

Government is cast as the enemy even though we are the government.

Citizens do not vote. Many are totally disengaged.

The media has become more a tool of the governing than a watchdog for the governed.

Profit takes precedence over almost everything.

Little has been done about global environmental problems including CO2 emissions, ocean pollution, overfishing, and on and on.

Nobody wants to face up to reality...

[Jim Warren]

23. In high school when JFK was taken out

A grotesque series of events in a compressed block of time:
JFK, X, MLK, RFK.
Like light gone out....... relatively all at once.
The way was cleared for the Nixon/Regan/Poppy/Jr. it just keeps getting worse downward spiral.
I think a crucial turning point for me was when I heard Poppy say the words 'New World Order' the first time and wondered WTF does that mean?

[Jim Warren]

24. dupe

dupe

[Bandit]

26. Well I remember a time when the US Navy actually spied on citizens

and People sometimes were tied and gagged in the courtroom so they could not speak in their own defense.eg. Bobby Seals. Things were not all that great in the sixties. They tried to pull their fascists stuff then also but we had a Media that wasn't part and parcel of the cabal. That is the scariest part of all of this. The Media is no longer trustworthy even in the slightest. In the sixties we had underground newspapers like Berkley Barb and nationwide groups like the Weathermen who constantly got media attention. I guess DU is our underground newspaper of the twenty-first century. I still have hope America will awaken. Most people are not the idiots and mean-spirited people of the GOP. Most Americans are just too busy or to lazy to pay attention.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

27. Another middle-aged DUer chiming in

At age 53, I have NEVER heard so much talk of emigration. Back in the Vietnam era, you'd hear of young men going to Canada or Sweden, and I know one who purposely stayed on at his English teaching job in Japan until Carter's amnesty.

But now all kinds of people are saying that they wish they could emigrate, not only draft-age men, but also middle-aged professionals and elderly people.

I think it's the accumulated stress of seeing one bad Republican president after another, each worse than the last, and knowing the the corporate media, the only media that most Americans ever watch, are facilitating this takeover.

This is occurring in spite of America looking much the same as it did in December 2000, and most people appearing to be totally unaffected.

On second thought, it may be the fact that most people appear to be totally unaffected that the more politically aware people are feeling so discouraged.

[grilled onions]

28. Money Madness

As a tyke in the fifties kids from poor homes could,if they wanted to,peddle papers,mow lawns,shovel snow to earn a few dollars. Now to do something a kid gets wrapped up in red tape and the parents are defending "child labor" in their family. Back then if you had a job,did your work you could expect to stay there as long as you wanted. It was called job security. The owner considerd you a family member and would do his best to keep you in the fold. Today some clown in Denver decides your fate in Asheville. You are out on your ear more times then you could count. People start turning on each other for fear of losing their job. Some can't adjust to this constant worry and you see them going thru life much like some of them did in '29. Kids today going to college have no idea IF there will be ANY job when they get out. Their future is shaky before they even get started. Our enviroment is going down the toilet today and you don't see many people in high places concerned about it. The might dollar has blinded them to anything but profits. Even they do not worry about the future of their grandkids. We used to see adds for Smokey the Bear and anti pollution,anti litering etc. How can we fish tommorow if we choke the waters today? Where will our wildlife end up if we chop all the trees down,ruin their streams and pollute the air? It could change. It's not hopeless. But we need to get kids involved early with what is facing their future and we need leaders who are more concerned about improving our surroundings,keeping jobs here and less about financial gain.

[Pegleg Thd]

29. At a few weeks short of 66 years

with one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel I can tell you that this bunch of bastards that have overthrown the legitimate government of this country are the worst I have ever seen.
Someone told me just after this regime took over that a relative of his who, was dying of cancer, told him that unless the shrub was stopped the only 'lucky ones' were the dead. The more I think of it the more I believe he was right.
If this bunch isn't thrown out now there is not a one of us who has a reason to live. In the next 4 years they will take away what little we have now.

[oneighty]

30. A steady decline

of comfort will take place in the US of A as oil, coal and gas reserves run out. Life in the North will become extremely harsh. People will move south for warmth. Southern populations will outgrow fresh water resources. Food will become scarce, hunger and disease will kill large portions of the overcrowded population. The nation will again become an agrarian society. Nuclear power plants will become common. A new society of mixed races will be born. WASPs will be a distant memory. Those that consider themselves rugged individualists will learn that they are not.

I bet!

180

[JitterbugPerfume]

31. scary scenario 180

but the trends toward your predictions are already evident to this pessimistic old woman

[Cheesehead]

32. As a 56 year-old who came of age as a '60's radical

I concur with my contemporaries here that we are about ass deep in the Big Muddy right now. If we are not successful in keeping Whistle Ass, the corporatists and the neocons from "pushin' on" as they plan, we will truly be in the deep shit. As a lifetime optimist, I have considerable faith that a coalition of us "good folks" won't let that happen.

[GoldenOldie]

33. As a 68 year-old who felt the depression as a child

I remember FDR ...sitting beside the radio and listening to his Fireside Chats. As a child I was in fear of bombs falling during the air-raids, missing my father who was in a foreign country, flying in planes that were dropping bombs on bad people, missing my mother who was away from home during the day playing "Rosie the Riviter", and spending much time reassuring us that the air-raids were there for our protection. My dad was 36-years old with a wife and 4-children. My dad again played a role in the Vietnam war. He was 58-years old and was ordered to Nam as a field consultant for the military when they had problems with the big guns. He spent 11-months with young men in camps that were overrun by the Vietcong. These young men could have been his grandchildren....it broke his heart. My years have taught me that people have died and have given up wealth to make thing better for us all....they have fought for woman's right to vote, banking regulations, safety regulations, Unions, racial equality, etc., etc., etc. It didn't come easy or cheap. It saddens me to see that people have taken all of this for granted.
This is without a doubt the worst administration that I can remember. I am an independent and I have voted for the man/woman not the Party. Both Parties are not representing the peoples but their own self interests. It is no longer Democrats (liberals) who care about everybody and are willing to spend what it takes to ensure that it's citizens prosper, Republicans (conservatives) who want smaller government utilizing less funds. It is becoming an Empire with those in control, setting their children up to take their place or finding high placed jobs which will give them tighter control...ie., Bush I, Bush II, Jeb, Neil, Marvin, John Sanunu and son, Powell and son, SCJustice and son. Their goal is to "Privatise" their will no longer be a need to regulate and will leave it wide open for their buddies to have a free hand in benefits, safety, financing, environmental, wages ...taxation with no representation.

[Karenina]

39. Your post is appreciated, GoldenOldie!

Welcome to DU!!! :party: :toast: :party:

All I got to say is folks better WAKE UP quick!!! I was BORN IN THE USA and have lived abroad for a decade in a country where a WHOLE BUNCH of nassy, funky shit went down. All I can say now is WAKE UP!!!

[peacebuzzard]

38. The apathy is astounding....

the US had become a nation of uncaring, fat, greedy and egocentric rude rats chasing fighting and screaming at each other into a frenzied lather. That is what we have become.

[AlinPA]

40. I was born in 1939, raised in a poor area - coal mining.

Things were tough but we felt we could make it. Most of us did. The people were not as divided as now.

Jobs going off shore scares me. I fear for my grandchildren, that they will lose their freedoms. The biggest change I see is the near total control of media by the republicans. I fear the right wing religious fanatics are taking over.

The second biggest change is how the much of the world hates us or distrusts us. We have lost our standing in the last 3 years.

Businesses are in control of almost everything. This is the worst I've ever seen it.

This is the most important election I will ever work in. I could go on about this all night.

[mike1963]

41. Gosh, your question begs a book. I'm 61. Nearing 'old phart' status,

I guess...

And it made me recall something I was cogitating about just this morning, that Americans living today, especially those over 50 or so probably have seen a seminal and pivotal point in not only US history, but that of the world as well.

There are lots of things to be grateful for the last few decades - I remember when people had to get off the couch to change the channel on the black and white television and telephones had rotary dials (actually I can remember phones with no dials, you picked up the handset and an 'operator' would ask you who you wanted to call.) In the early 70s I got involved with computers. A disk drive was the size of a washing machine and held a whole 10 megabytes of data and memory was actually "core" (16000 little ferrite donuts with wires passing through them. I wrote payroll programs in Fortran back then)

There are a million other things that could be mentioned...the McCarthy days, well as I said too much to cover but something about the last 3 years is...different. Other than the 1860s with the Civil War, never before or since has the country been so divided and in flux.

Never before have we had a president (?) who is crazy as a shithouse rat *with* the power to wreck civilization. Wilson was nutty but there was no massive military nor any means to subjugate the whole damn planet.

The USA has survived in large part because it was NOT until recently dedicated to imperialism. Since that has changed, I forsee its demise. The rest of the world, and there are a lot more of them every day) won't allow it. Karma has a way of running over dogma. I'm not sure I really want to see how the current insanity will play out.

[opihimoimoi]

43. Common Sense and old fartness combine to infect this old fart Opihi

Somehow, we must approach the notion of Global Stability / Global Sustainability..... no choice if we want avert dire Times. We dare to perch ourselves on the very edge of extinction and not care. Its as if we don't even realize how close we are to dooming our children to very horrible times ahead. Like we don't care.

All for One and One for All, Dumas.

Opi.

[bobbieinok]

42. born in 1940

the 60s were scary but they were also exciting - there was hope things could be changed

in the civil rights movement, the local situation might be very bad but it became obvious that the fed govt would act for the rights of minorities against the local and state govts

and the media was not a monolith - TV news was still pretty new

without the national TV pictures of adults yelling at little black kids trying to go to school and of fire hoses washing black kids against buildings ------ well there'd probably be ZERO changed

[SoCalDem]

44. Ever watch a pendulum???

It always end s up in the middle, but it swings from one extreme to the other first..

We are in the "swing" phase..

Every 35-40 years or so, America gets its panties in a wad..We do not seem to have a longterm memory. We have a unique situation with our media though, that has never happened before, and it's anyone's guess..

Until quite recently, people got their news from their local paper or their local TV station.. Cable news and the consolidation of the newspapers changed everything. If you look at a paper in Sioux Falls, the exact same stories will be in it, as the paper in Chattanooga .. The "local" sections get smaller and smaller, and the news gets more homogenized.. People "learn" what the people who own the radio stations, newspapers,and TV networks want them to learn.. In school, less and less time is actually spent on learning, as more time is spent of training for "the test"..

Jobs were not as exciting in the past (kids tended to do what their parents did) , as they are now, BUT the last 30 years has brought to fruition, what a lot of us feared back then.. Machines that were "sold" to the worker as helpmates, have either taken over their jobs, or allowed those jobs to be digitized and sent across the world..

When it was the foundry workers, and manual laborers who lost their livelihood back in the 60's, people did not raise a ruckus, because they were "low end" workers.. Then the steelworkers and auto workers lost a lot of their jobs. Those were "family-supporting" jobs, and unless the worker was at the beginning of his career, he was pretty much screwed. The kids of those workers saw that they needed to be well educated to avoid the pitfalls that "Dad & Grandpa" had fallen into, so most kids trained for white collar jobs.. Those were jobs of the "future"..until the "bosses" figured a way to eliminate even those jobs.. What we have ended up with is a "perpetual student" who works various part-time jobs with no benefits, because he is on a treadmill of job outsourcing.. He's told that he needs to retrain, but by the time he's paid for and retrained himself, there are 500 applicants for 20 jobs.

I seriously worry about the ones who are in their 30's now. They have overextended themselves for the $50,000 cars and the $500,000 houses, and there has to be a "correction" coming.. There always is..

The Depression was a correction for the profligate years that came before.. It took WWII and a very gutsy president to bring us out of that free fall.

The payoff was a prosperous and calm 50's & early 60's..

The cold war spending and the arms race of the 60's and the social upheaval, all coincided with the largest group of people entering the workforce ..ever......The kettle boiled over ... The 70's were not great at all..The staggering recessions..one after the other ,high inflation,and wage and price freezes made it difficult for people of modest means to keep up.. That was the real end of "upward mobility".. The 70's ushered in the era of treading water..

The phony prosperity that people thought we had was a result of borrowed money, and all through the 80's the administrations kept those plates spinning, but we all know the crushing debt we had when Clinton came in..

The end result of all the scrambling was that for 25 years, ordinary people were just too busy trying to keep their heads above water, that most did not notice that they were actually falling behind..The gap between rich and poor only gets wider, and the ones in charge only get blinder to the troubles of the common man..

I don't know what I would do if I were a twentysomething, just starting out.. When I was that age there was a heady optimism in the air.. I do not sense that now.. It's oppressive right now..

Globalization only works as long as there are compliant people willing to go along.. More and more there is resistance.. There are more and more people who realize that if the goal of globalization is the lowest common denominator, it will not work.. If the third world is to rise, it must not appear to have risen, only because the we have come down to meet it.

There will be a tipping point though... there always is.. We were sure that the whole world would be blown to bits during the missile crisis...but it wasn't..

The only advice I can offer to the young ones, is that it's never quite as bad as you think it is, it can always get worse than it is, but chances are, it will stay the same or get better. Evil can be in charge just so long, before people say.."No more"..

Consider too, that the boomers (my generation) , as huge as we are, will be gone in a flash too.. We arrived in a flurry, and we will depart the same way... Between 2025 and 2040, most if us will be gone.The younger population that will result will be free finally to do things their way...just like every group before has wanted..

[gater]

45. Old?!?

Dude, if in old you mean age...I am almost there. I was speaking today with a co-worker who asked why I do the things I do to try and change the world? After all, in his mind, there was no hope, nothing will change. I told him that I refused to go quietly into the night, but would rage against the darkness!! (I forget where that comes from.) I am raising a highschool activist, and a 10 year old who is the most caring person I know. These are darkening times, but it ain't night yet...not by a long shot. One voice is the building block of a chorus, keep singing, can't you hear me and my children too!!!

[SpiralHawk]

52. That would be Welch poet Dylan Thomas, gater

writing a poem about his father

"...rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Do not go gentle into that good night..."

[are_we_united_yet]

48. Since people are quoting Churchill these days

"Never, never, never give up"

[kskiska]

49. 59 here

This is the absolute worst I've ever seen. My kids are grown, and they have no kids. I'm wondering just how long this republic can continue. The Constitution is being shredded every day and we're now in the throes of a dictator. Maybe if we depose this guy we'll have a chance, but people in general just don't seem to know what's important anymore, as evidenced by the polls. They think it's okay to scrap church vs state, evolution, sacrificing freedom for "security." I don't feel very optimistic at this juncture. If I could, I'd rather view all this from abroad.

[resist]

51. Oy vay.

I'm glad there are some young people asking these questions. Generally, I think itsbeen the same since feudal days. The reason it appears to be worse if the fault of the 24 hr. news cycle and unlimited media. It just shows more

Which is not to say that its all right. Its not all right at all. I've said this before on DU, but doesn't anyone care that we've been settling our differences for the last two thousand years the same way? War didn't work 300BC, it doesn't now, but we keep on keepin' on. Am I foolish to to think that "God" somehow intended us to evolve into something better?

In contemporary terms, and for my own country, I blame the concept of capitalism. Anytime you tell people that the single greatest philosophy is based on "I wanna' get the most", I think you're gonna have some problems. Our government defends the individual before the collective, tht's our way. We dislike the opposite in China.

Its so very scary, and so sad. I have a son who is in his thirties n ow, and he and his friends just seem so angry but powerless. It doesn't seem to occur to them that they can do anything about it, and hence, I think it can only get worse. I miss my youth and the crazy days of the sixties - all that hysteria was because we thought we had the power and the right to change our own government. Of course it didn't work, but it sure felt good.

[banana republican]

53. 1930's all over again

Republican Congress
Republican SCOTUS
Reoublican President

Great Depression
followed by a
Major War ( most likely a united world against the US)