Most of the comments here address a personal response to the modern world. However indivual acts of resistence and a positive mindset do not really address the systematic failures of our societies. In my country- the UK -nearly everything has gone wrong. Accessing healthcare makes you sick, transport is static, cheap reliable energy is e…
Most of the comments here address a personal response to the modern world. However indivual acts of resistence and a positive mindset do not really address the systematic failures of our societies. In my country- the UK -nearly everything has gone wrong. Accessing healthcare makes you sick, transport is static, cheap reliable energy is erratic and expensive, sanity is thought crime, healthy food makes you fat, education makes you ignorant, poverty relief increases want, policing increases crime, diversity and inclusion policies create more discrimination, affordable housing means life-long debt, tolerance equals rage and anger, customer service isn't and government is definitely not there to help. I saw this article today which helps explain things I think https://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-phantom-legion-problem.html
As a retired and fully paid up member of the PMC at least I don't really have to navigate the shallows and reefs of modern life to the same extent of the young. I may be on the planet for another 20 years. So it is not my future that is at stake. The younger generations have to deal with the world and the onus is on them to change it. I am not passing the buck here, merely pointing out that when you talk to most younger people, they can often moan a lot, but seem oblivious to the need to actually try to change their world and certainly don't listen to old farts like me. It is easy to pass on blame between generations and I am at risk of doing that in these comments. However it may be that there will come a generation who are so dismayed that they will actually take the world by the scruff of the neck and start to restore a functioning society based on rational thought and not the semi-religious ideology that passes for intellect these days. The young generally adhere to this drivel and nonesense but then wonder why their world fails to function.
And I am not sure, but suggest this is an issue related to the Western civilisation only. The rest of the world has not gone insane. I think they look on the suicidal decay of the west with bemusement.
I think it depends whether the systemic failures (about which I completely agree) can actually be fixed. The essay is based on the perception that they can't, and the argument that that should not lead us to despair. But action has to take place at the personal and communal, not the systemic level, and with the recognition that success is far from guaranteed.
I'm 40, with three small children and a wife. There is no future for our children in Europe anymore. We left France years ago, just before it turned into a totalitarian hellscape to save some boomers from their fear of death, and we are looking to get out of Europe as soon as possible.
Why would we ever want to stay here? The mess is not fixable, the rot is to deep. The boomers keep their decrepit hands on the levers of power and their eyes transfixed on the propaganda box in the living room. The best we can hope for is civil war and frankly it's better to leave.
Most of the comments here address a personal response to the modern world. However indivual acts of resistence and a positive mindset do not really address the systematic failures of our societies. In my country- the UK -nearly everything has gone wrong. Accessing healthcare makes you sick, transport is static, cheap reliable energy is erratic and expensive, sanity is thought crime, healthy food makes you fat, education makes you ignorant, poverty relief increases want, policing increases crime, diversity and inclusion policies create more discrimination, affordable housing means life-long debt, tolerance equals rage and anger, customer service isn't and government is definitely not there to help. I saw this article today which helps explain things I think https://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-phantom-legion-problem.html
As a retired and fully paid up member of the PMC at least I don't really have to navigate the shallows and reefs of modern life to the same extent of the young. I may be on the planet for another 20 years. So it is not my future that is at stake. The younger generations have to deal with the world and the onus is on them to change it. I am not passing the buck here, merely pointing out that when you talk to most younger people, they can often moan a lot, but seem oblivious to the need to actually try to change their world and certainly don't listen to old farts like me. It is easy to pass on blame between generations and I am at risk of doing that in these comments. However it may be that there will come a generation who are so dismayed that they will actually take the world by the scruff of the neck and start to restore a functioning society based on rational thought and not the semi-religious ideology that passes for intellect these days. The young generally adhere to this drivel and nonesense but then wonder why their world fails to function.
And I am not sure, but suggest this is an issue related to the Western civilisation only. The rest of the world has not gone insane. I think they look on the suicidal decay of the west with bemusement.
I think it depends whether the systemic failures (about which I completely agree) can actually be fixed. The essay is based on the perception that they can't, and the argument that that should not lead us to despair. But action has to take place at the personal and communal, not the systemic level, and with the recognition that success is far from guaranteed.
I totally agree.
The United Kingdom is a complete basket case.
I travel the length and breadth of the UK as part of my job and it is staggering what I am witnessing day in day out.
The New Jerusalem it is not.
I'm 40, with three small children and a wife. There is no future for our children in Europe anymore. We left France years ago, just before it turned into a totalitarian hellscape to save some boomers from their fear of death, and we are looking to get out of Europe as soon as possible.
Why would we ever want to stay here? The mess is not fixable, the rot is to deep. The boomers keep their decrepit hands on the levers of power and their eyes transfixed on the propaganda box in the living room. The best we can hope for is civil war and frankly it's better to leave.