The longer I live the more I realize that human beings are not basically good at all. We are selfish, self-centered, greedy, spiteful, envious, ignorant, bigoted, small-minded, vengeful, tribal in far too many instances. I seriously doubt our poor grandson will have a long or very good life. I am glad we have given him an idyllic, even e…
The longer I live the more I realize that human beings are not basically good at all. We are selfish, self-centered, greedy, spiteful, envious, ignorant, bigoted, small-minded, vengeful, tribal in far too many instances. I seriously doubt our poor grandson will have a long or very good life. I am glad we have given him an idyllic, even enchanted, childhood, co-parenting him with his Mom from the day he was born. He will, if we and the world can survive a couple of more years, have some wonderful memories at least. Hardly enough, but all we can control. I truly believe we have an odd instinct for mass suicide that is surging, and may well take us over the brink in a worldwide mushroom cloud. The Nazis and the Japanese, against whom my late honored father, his two brothers, and my father-in-law fought in WWII, and whose memories I hold dear, especially on this Memorial Day, started us down this road. The Republican Party in this country (I am not forgetting LBJ, who was misguided but sincere, or Obama, who was feckless in many ways, but honorable) has done even more to push us closer to the tipping point, and is on the brink, with the aid of the authoritarian gangsters it so admires, of moving us past it. That is a somber thought on this Memorial Day. Thank you, Thom, not for the unvarnished bleakness of your columns, but because they force us to look the plain truth in the eye. And it is terrible to behold. Even if we defeat the malignant forces of the cult of tfg in November, it may be too late to matter. I pray not, and that we succeed in doing that at least.
The longer I live the more I realize that human beings are not basically good at all. We are selfish, self-centered, greedy, spiteful, envious, ignorant, bigoted, small-minded, vengeful, tribal in far too many instances. I seriously doubt our poor grandson will have a long or very good life. I am glad we have given him an idyllic, even enchanted, childhood, co-parenting him with his Mom from the day he was born. He will, if we and the world can survive a couple of more years, have some wonderful memories at least. Hardly enough, but all we can control. I truly believe we have an odd instinct for mass suicide that is surging, and may well take us over the brink in a worldwide mushroom cloud. The Nazis and the Japanese, against whom my late honored father, his two brothers, and my father-in-law fought in WWII, and whose memories I hold dear, especially on this Memorial Day, started us down this road. The Republican Party in this country (I am not forgetting LBJ, who was misguided but sincere, or Obama, who was feckless in many ways, but honorable) has done even more to push us closer to the tipping point, and is on the brink, with the aid of the authoritarian gangsters it so admires, of moving us past it. That is a somber thought on this Memorial Day. Thank you, Thom, not for the unvarnished bleakness of your columns, but because they force us to look the plain truth in the eye. And it is terrible to behold. Even if we defeat the malignant forces of the cult of tfg in November, it may be too late to matter. I pray not, and that we succeed in doing that at least.
I too worry about my grandchildren. We fought off fascism in WW11, but now, who will save us if we move into a fascist state? I fear no one.