At my age I tend to look at the world and its apparent problems with the attitude that thankfully I will not be around to worry about them. The culmination of things like climate change, the rise of China, and the growing surliness and divisions within the US are all things that I will not be around to see. I take no consolation in that because I have children and grand children who will be impacted by those things.

I suspect each generation has looked to the future they will not see with a similarly pessimistic eye and yet the world has continued regardless as no doubt it will despite the issues facing it today. In my parents time it was a looming world war and its aftermath of the cold war which threatened to destroy everything, including the world itself. Yet here we are.

On this day 105 years ago my grand parents' world was rocked by by the news coming from near a river in France called the Somme, where on this day alone 19000 to 23000 (depending on which estimate you accept) British and Commonwealth soldiers died after going "over the top" in the Somme Offensive. With more than 60,000 others wounded it remains the blackest day in the long history of the British army. If you add the huge French casualties and those suffered by the German army it is perhaps the blackest day in all of military history. And yet the offensive, and its slaughter, went on until November with little gain. Thoroughbreds led by donkeys.

To my grandparents it must have rocked their world and caused them to wonder if there was any hope or future for a world gone mad. Yet here we are.

So in the meantime I look forward to the wedding of a grandson in August, a trip to Oklahoma and Arkansas in September and the reunion with friends it will bring, and other every day things that bring stability. Because here we are in the now which is the only thing we can really have control over.

I think the things that most disturb me are the rise of the scammers, and businesses and individuals who do things that are legal, but not ethical (as an example, I was reminded again today of the Wells Fargo fiasco.) Sometimes I feel that a certain subset of people will do whatever it takes to get the almighty buck, even if it crushes others to do so.

But as you point out, there are always worse issues. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I am a privileged person living in a privileged country, and that my problems are largely first-world problems. I try to be grateful for my good fortune in life.

As Roseanne Rosannadanna would say, "It's always something."

Humans have always been a messy cauldron with some new power hungry group bubbling to the top. Maybe to last a long time like the Roman Empire or other civilizations, maybe to be a quick footnote.

For me personally the U.S. turn at the top of the churning mess was in a lethargic decline (Too big to fail) until January 6 when we passed the point of no return. Not because of the incident itself, as much as the unbridgeable divide exposed. America has long been the hope of the free world. We are now acting like a third world country. We are the tired. We are the poor. In L.A. currently the huddled masses have tents and armchairs by the hundreds of thousands and are spreading. The only solution so far has been to stop calling them homeless and now we must call the the "unhoused". Typical useless woke solution. No one is yearning to breathe free anymore. The rest are yearning for someone to make all better for them. Well, not just better---but Primo deluxe! Government handouts exacerbating everything.

We were dirt poor. My grandparents houses sat on blocks. People had outhouses, pumps for water outside, and our phone was a black box on the wall with a little handle to ring for the operator. But we had a community that made this all heaven compared to what everyone has nowadays--though they think they have it better.

We were told you've got to do whatever it takes to make it. Got to get an education. Do whatever it takes to get a toe hold and build on that.

Seventy years later I see people with big hearts attempting to herd cats. Good luck, cuz most of the cats are following Judas Goats around.

I’ve been thinking about that a lot too. I tried to think about whether my childhood/teen years were as trepidatious as my grandchildren’s. The worries at that time were the Vietnam era draft and the Cold War. And those were not small things. But short of the country being nuked, I never had to worry about the climate dangerously changing the entire world or whether we’d have water or if someone would bring an assault weapon into my class and kill us all.

All in all, I’m happy to have been born in the 50s and most of my schooling having been in the 60s. If I had to be born into mormonism, I’m glad it was then, when the fun times outweighed the culty ones. Of course it also means it was when there was more control of women, more pressure to marry too young, and those horrible one-piece garmies.

I wish there were more I could do to make it better for my grandkids, and now great-grandkids starting to come. I decided all I can do is recognize what they’re being left with and admit that we Boomers need to STFU and let the younger generation take the reigns and quit fighting the things they need to do to mitigate the damage we did to the environment, the healthcare system, the education system, and so many other things. They deserve to at least have the good things we had.

What really worries me is that the option of being able to just wait out the bad times is coming to an end.

Prior to WWII there were no nuclear weapons capable of blowing up the planet. There was no plastic polluting our land and water. The world population was significantly less. Illegal drugs weren't as widespread and easily available. Pesticides weren't widely used like they are now.

The US is now paying the price of 100s of years of forced human slavery of black people and another 100+ years of the mistreatment of black people following the abolition of slavery. The US is experiencing the repercussions of the wrongs inflicted on a race. I don't know if it will ever recover.

If humans can't get it together we won't last much longer. We won't be able to just wait it out like we have in the past.

Greetings to you, Tom. At least there is the Euros to divert our minds. Thought France would be the winner but I guess it reaffirms why they play the games that they are surprisingly out. Time for Belgium perhaps to finally fulfill their potential but I suspect Italy will have some say in that. Hoping for England but we have learned over many years where our football hopes end up.

tdr, my life has been shaped in many ways by WW2, both the actual air raids and the shortages that lasted into the 50s but those things were always tinged with the youthful optimism that things would get better so that while they impact my behavior today (can't abide an empty room with all the lights on, for instance) they did not produce the same kind of doubt my parents and grandparents likely felt for my future.

Thought this was in order It is directed to thedesertrat.

And 15 years later, MY grandparents produced my father, who was 90 on Tuesday and still appears to be going relatively strong (for a man of 90). Life goes on.

Hope you're well Kentish, apart from the disgust and apprehension at the spirit of our age - which, seeing how the world is, seems to me to be almost a healthy reaction, certainly a normal one, anyway.

All the best to you

Tom in Paris
where we could do with some of your excess North American heat, because it's been an atrocious spring and start to summer so far.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/01/2021 02:14PM by Soft Machine.

I can also ramble on!! I am 85.5 years on this planet and I plan to stick around as long as possible. I remember WW2 and the "police action" in Korea in 1950.
Sometimes I wonder how I managed to survive but I have.
My philosophy is this Any day in which I do not make better the life of another human being is a day wasted.

Frodo: "I wish it need not have happened in my time."

Gandalf: "So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

"In the year 9595
I'm kind of wondering if man is gonna be alive.
He's taken everything this old earth can give
And he ain't put back nothin'."
--"In the Year 2525," by Zager and Evans, 1969

That to me is the biggest problem we humans currently face--the inability to admit to ourselves that the resources currently available to us are those that are available on this planet. We assume that businesses can make money out of thin air (they can't) and that everybody will grow wealthy if they work hard (they won't). Now, it is quite possible that some of those resources that we are running out of here on Earth are available on other planets (nobody has been able to define any limits to the universe yet), but we do not currently have the means to go to other planets, especially those outside of the solar system, and mine and farm those resources for our own use. So, until such time as we have those capabilities, we must learn to live with the limited resources available on this planet and share those resources that we do not use without expectation of return.

My last sentence may well be beyond our own emotional needs and capabilities. If so, well, it was a wonderful world for some...

Imagine the irony if humans are a species intelligent enough to see what they are doing to their global petri dish but not intelligent enough to stop.

At some point that dilemma must be a decent definition of hell.

I can't imagine a better time to be ten years old. I see a world better than ever and getting better every day. Amazing opportunities.

You'll have to plug in the necessary caveats. But on the whole, given the pain, suffering & misery that humans have faced over time, I'd take starting out today. And that's what the opinion I express to anyone under 20.

I think there is good reason to be excited for the future your grand children get to experience and shape.

Curious if you still feel that way after the Leader of China's speech?

Did he say something about building a wall?

From yesterday July 1. Made all the news.

​"Chinese President Xi Jinping warned that any country that attempts to “bully” China will “face broken heads and bloodshed” during a defiant speech Thursday marking the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party.

“​The Chinese people will absolutely not allow any foreign force to bully, oppress or enslave us and anyone who attempts to do so will face broken heads and bloodshed in front of the iron Great Wall of the 1.4 billion Chinese people,” ​Xi said at the celebration near Tiananmen Square, filled with thousands of people waving Chinese flags and singing patriotic songs.

“Without the Communist Party, there will be no new China,” ​he said to roaring applause.

--------
Good luck to the ten year olds. This old guy, me, is not pessimistic but neither am I Pollyanna-is. Ten year olds should be prepared for something other than the next fun tecnological advance that will enhance their social life.

“Ten year olds should be prepared for something other than the next fun tecnological advance that will enhance their social life.“

That’s vague advice for a ten year old.

Can you lay out in more specifics the advice or explanation of what ten year olds should prepare for? I’m interested in your perspective (im over here thinking they should be excited about making friends at school, music festivals, a first job down the road, dreams of fun adventures & hard work, fantasies of absurdly unlikely futures, fishing, meeting someone, being a part of more social change, good friendships, nights out & lots of laughing - definitely Pollyanna).

How to prepare? Thanks for any thoughts you have to share—

One supposes that China has ten-year-olds, too!

I have no advice for ten year olds and wouldn't presume as much other than Good Luck and I wish you all the best, kids!

My comment regarding ten year olds meant that I see a bigger picture than just the good that the future may hold. The Chinese leader's comments smack of an agenda of World Domination. They pretty much have this sewn up already. While everyone was concentrating on nuclear weapons and wars, China went after commerce. Every one has already sold themselves to China.

So I hope the ten year olds realize all the fun bits you listed for their future. This old guy sees a few other things to consider.


Cavemen had their clubs to kill off a few. Then came horses and hordes who could go after a few thousand. The Roman empire ramped it up and ruled extensively and brutally to keep the momentum. Next came gases and chemicals and people were dying by the millions. The methods change, people do not. Its' all musical chairs in the end. Who will get the last seat and how?

I wish the best to all ten year olds all around the world so that our ten year olds don't do well at the expense of others. But I never bought the "I'd like to buy the world a Coke" kumbayah moment the first time.

At this age, I find no value in optimism or pessimism. No time for glasses half empty or half full. I just keep all my vases full of flowers, which are like people, they die and then you have to love somebody else.

Done & Done Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> My comment regarding ten year olds meant that I
> see a bigger picture than just the good that the
> future may hold. The Chinese leader's comments
> smack of an agenda of World Domination.

No, D&D. It does not “smack” of anything like that. But your interpretation seems very popular among Americans for obvious reasons. Let’s look at your Xi quote again:

“​The Chinese people will absolutely not allow any foreign force to bully, oppress or enslave us and anyone who attempts to do so will face broken heads and bloodshed in front of the iron Great Wall of the 1.4 billion Chinese people…”

Every people on the planet has a right to this, to not be bullied, oppressed, or enslaved by a foreign power, and Article 51 of the UN Charter prohibits impairment of individual or collective self-defence. Xi’s statement is essentially banal.

Yet, you see code for Chinese “World Domination” with capitals. Why do you suppose you see it that way?


Americans seem to be the only people on the planet that don’t know that THEY are the foreign force that every one else fears, the amoral Rome of today that bullies, oppresses and enslaves entire populations. The way Americans have broadened and enforced the Monroe Doctrine alone has produced uncountable miseries upon entire populations south of your border. But the American reflex for hegemony doesn’t stop at it’s own hemisphere, it encompasses the entire planet and every living thing on it. Whether it’s 750 military bases or 1000+, these bases and the accompanying gulag system are set up to threaten and enforce this hegemony world-wide. One need not read Chalmers Johnson to know all this, but he set it out in detail for all to see.

And it costs a lot of money, including yours:

“In 2019, the U.S. spent $732 billion on the military, which was more than China, India, Russia, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea and Brazil combined. That's more than the 10 next highest-spending nations combined, three of which (France, Germany and the U.K.) are allied to the U.S. through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and three of which have long been strategic regional allies (South Korea, Japan and Saudi Arabia).”

https://www.newsweek.com/congress-debates-military-budget-us-spend-more-next-10-countries-combined-1519753

That’s one reason why thousands are sleeping under every bridge in your city of lost angels and scores of American cities besides.


What Xi is saying, a little graphically, is that China will not only not kowtow to the American Empire, the foreign force he’s actually speaking of, but will not even countenance any bullying, either. Kowtowing is what America is use to and expects from the world, but is the very thing it is increasingly not receiving. For one, China is providing an alternative, for example its financing of large capital investments for infrastructure around the world. Etc.


Your thumbnail sketch of history is instructive:

> Cavemen had their clubs to kill off a few. Then
> came horses and hordes who could go after a few
> thousand. The Roman empire ramped it up and ruled
> extensively and brutally to keep the momentum.
> Next came gases and chemicals and people were
> dying by the millions. The methods change, people
> do not. Its' all musical chairs in the end. Who
> will get the last seat and how?

Essentially what you’re saying is that there is no such thing as win-win, that everything is zero-sum-gain, that Imperialism is inevitable, and since it is so, it is better for everyone that American Imperialism continues to grow and go unchallenged.

China disagrees. And it now has the power to do so.

And since America frittered away any semblance of a moral authority with its invasions of Iraq and etc and the continuing aftermath, many in the world are looking to China. This is part of Chalmers’s Blowback.


Sorry to have to type this on the 4th. But what has to be faced for the sake of all the ten year olds in the world is whether you people keep paying for this crumbling hegemony or begin to demand that it winds down. Since many American citizens share the paranoid vision and attending hubris of their CIA and MIC in general, which they continue to willingly pay for, I have my doubts the US will wind anything down unless it is forced. Better for everyone that YOU and your fellow citizens wind it down before the world collectively winds it down for you.

Human, hoping for a day America replaces The Star-Spangled Banner with God Bless America for its anthem

Every great power has international interests and hence is involved all around the world. A buddy of mine from your country rightfully says a Canadian passport is the best in the world because no one hates the country and yet it gets all the economic and geostrategic benefits of existing as an extension of the United States. It is easy from that vantage, a New World Switzerland or Sweden as it were, to criticize the Pax Americana that enables your national and personal prosperity.

Your naivete extends in spades to China. Can Xi's words be interpreted as you do? Absolutely, for that was the purpose of the speech he and his propagandists wrote. Uncle Xi loves you. He really does.

But how does the propaganda you imbibe stand up against reality? Do you recall--of course you don't--the five principles of peaceful coexistence as espoused by China in the Shanghai Communique of 1972, in which it pledged never to exercise dominion over other peoples and countries? Have you thought to compare that promise with what China is doing to the Philippines, Vietnam, and other countries in Southeast Asia with its bases in their territorial waters and its intimidation by warship? How about the fate of Hong Kong, whose freedom Beijing promised by treaty until at least 2047? What of Taiwan, a country that has never accepted Beijing's sovereignty and yet is now being pressured by military vessels and warplanes on an almost weekly basis?

Have you watched what is happening in Xinjiang, a province and people whose rights China has promised to preserve many times in international treaties and yet is now undergoing something approaching cultural genocide? How about Chinese influence in Africa, where bilateral debts are routinely used as a pretext for Beijing to gain unilateral control over ports and harbors and railways? What of the One Road One Belt initiative in Central Asia, where the same thing is happening?

The truth, Ingenue, is that you are reading Xi Jinping's words exactly the way he wanted you to do. He pretends that China is a victim and you, unaware of the extent of its expanding hegemony, gleefully endorse his lies.

Has the US exercised unwise and often brutal dominion over other countries? Absolutely, starting from its early intercourse with Native Americans. So too, however, did the France and Britain from which your freedoms and prosperity arose; so too your country itself in its interactions with the same Native Americans. Is your umbrage not therefore overwrought, you favored child of Anglo-American imperialism? Is your perspective on global events not obscured by your gullibility regarding the more brutal expanding hegemons in other parts of the world?

And those vessels plying the waters along your northern coast as the ice melts? They're Russian: they want your land, your resources, and the ability to control your trade. Never fear, however, for Canada shelters under the American military umbrella and those nasty hegemons in Washington will save you yet again.

You're too smart, too well-read, to fall for Freshman dorm canards.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/04/2021 04:06PM by Lot's Wife.

+1

America allows itself to have it's focused directed to the ugly but minor minutiae of kids who can't get along while Russia takes over technology and China takes over commercially. The world is not going to be controlled by missiles and nuclear anything. The world is going to be controlled by the thief in the night.

So while everyone debates what the leader of China really meant, or, whether Putin really is using hackers to win the big prize, and the people of the U.S. have been tricked into focusing on Q and the intricacies of the fabled religious rights, and signs on bathroom doors. the game is being played without us. They are playing Monopoly and we are still playing Yahtzee, with a round of Paddy Cake coming up next.

"Sorry to have to type this on the 4th. But what has to be faced for the sake of all the ten year olds in the world is whether you people keep paying for this crumbling hegemony or begin to demand that it winds down. Since many American citizens share the paranoid vision and attending hubris of their CIA and MIC in general, which they continue to willingly pay for, I have my doubts the US will wind anything down unless it is forced. Better for everyone that YOU and your fellow citizens wind it down before the world collectively winds it down for you."

That was about as pompous and arrogant a display of sanctimonious superiority as I have ever read here.

Do yourself a favor and look up the word "discussion" in the dictionary. It's one thing to give an opinion. What you do is quite something else. Bednar comes to mind for some reason.

And, since you missed it. The point I was making is that no one knows for sure what is happening in the future (except apparently you) and there is more to consider regarding what may be in store for today's ten year olds than some "sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows" future.

And screw your "God Bless America" should be the national anthem religious drivel.

I was always a little pessimistic in the past. However, I am waking up.

I for one, and possibly one of few others, believe that things will in fact not only get better through technology and other things already developed but in fact much better for all people of the Earth.

I 'believe' we will all get some insight within this coming year, possibly sooner than later. (another psychic prediction)

Just think of significant inventions in the past and how it seems they have dried up ----- I believe we will see amazing things come about soon. Get ready for a complete shift!

Probably as it should be. Age brings different perspectives.

Kentish Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Probably as it should be. Age brings different
> perspectives.
===============================
As youth, struggling to "make it," we chase ageless myths not knowing.
Over years the myths reveal themselves as the mirages they have always been.

Each generation is convinced theirs will save humanity.
Each in turn becomes what was despised.

Even so, it is better to see.

I'll actually admit it is my birthday today. I don't like being wished happy birthday so I always deactivate fb and keep the date secret, so I really don't want to be wished happy birthday. My mother seemed to think I liked surprise parties and I hated them, and my sister still complains that she didn't get surprise parties.

I took a drive to Brigham City to put something on my parents' grave. I was thinking about my grandparents. My grandfather was in WWI and was missing in action for a long time. They kept moving him from troop to troop as all the others were getting killed. My great grandparents were surprised when he came home. He was an absolutely wonderful man. His name is Romeo. I lucked out in the grandparent department. I had the best grandparents--the very best. My mom's parents were both deaf and she was their voice from a very young age. She learned to sign before she learned to speak. She took care of them until their deaths.

My boyfriend often says that he is sure our parents watched the news back in the 1960s and wondered about the future and somehow it all worked out. He keeps telling himself and me that. He is expecting his first grandchild in August. He is 68. I just turned 64 and I have no grandchildren and neither of us have been concerned that we have no grandchildren. If my daughter is able to and wants to have children, then I'll help her out and love them to death, and do everything I can to leave them something to help them through.

The homeless that Done and Done just talked about. There are so many things.

I don't know what the answers are for everything. I hate the idea of leaving my children behind when I die. Especially my son as he has mental illness.

If there is to be an end, why doesn't it happen? I have said before that New Years Eve 1999, I sat on the sofa with my dog (kids were elsewhere) and HOPED it really would end. I knew it wouldn't, but I so wanted it to. And here I am 21 years later.

so, "Happy Birthday"
-- we're the ones who are happy :-)

Young guy: “Hey! Let’s try this!”

Old guy: “Tried that. Didn’t work.”

Young guy: “Die Old Man!”


So much for experience and the wisdom that comes from it…

Just look at Easter Island. It was once an island forest. The population exploded there because of prosperity. Everyone cut down trees to build and heat homes. Then all at once, they ran out of trees. The last tree was cut down at one point. In that moment going forward, no one could build or heat their homes. They couldn't even build boats to leave the island. Some people may have left early at signs of trouble. But a majority of the population died there. When the island was discovered, there were no people living there. Only many stone statues remained. Hopefully that isn't the fate of our planet.

Easter Island was inhabited when Europeans discovered it.

Oh, I was mistaken. Maybe they were just trapped there without any means to make boats. I thought they had all died. But maybe they were just trapped there.

No, they had been there for generations. The island was sufficient for the relatively small community. As late as the middle 19th century there were several thousand people there, people who had their own written script.

Luckily LW was there with the facts, but your analogy still speaks volumes and is a metaphor for much of what we are still doing as humans. We need to put the kind back into mankind.

Building and heating homes wasn't the problem. It's a subtropical island. They used the trees to make boats for fishing, and as rollers to move the statues.

They also brought rats to the island. They cut down trees until it looked like "oops, think we went a little overboard here." By the time they decided they really needed to rebuild their stock of trees, the rats kept eating the saplings and seeds. And then there were no trees.

They cobbled together fishing boats from what wood was remaining, but eventually that wore out or rotted away, at which point they were well and truly screwed.

The population crashed by about 90% by the time Captain Cook showed up, from ten thousand down to a thousand, but the island was still populated.

An excellent recounting the collapse of Easter Island is in the book/audio files of "A Brief History of Progress" by Ronald Wright. A 15th anniversary edition of the book has recently come out. The audio version is from the 2004 Massey Lectures in Canada, on the CBC program "Ideas". It is in my humble opinion one of the finest presentations Ideas ever did, and believe me, that is really saying something.

Here's a link to the audio version. The tale of Easter Island is in episode 3, starting about 7 minutes in.

I highly recommend the entire series. It is 5 hours, in one hour episodes. Yeah, I know - 5 hours. It's worth it.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/the-2004-cbc-massey-lectures-a-short-history-of-progress-1.2946872

Today it is a more immediate dilemma. Will the display of my English flag (red cross on a white bachround) in support of the big game today be misinterpreted because of thr other celebration this weekend? Lol.

Dilemna

Well, cl2, how about, "I hope you have a great day!" :o)

My Mom is 93. She has been through the Depression, World War II, and several other wars. Her mother was from Ayr, Scotland and my Mom spent several years living there as well. The ship they came home to Canada on was hit and sunk by a German sub on the way back to the UK. She lost the captain and some sailors that she'd made friends with on the journey home to Canada.

The news right now really depresses her. But with all that she has been through, she says, "In all my 93 years, I have never seen anything like this pandemic." It's the one thing that stands out to her the most.

Being separated from her family (except for me, because I live with her) has caused her a lot of anxiety and depression. Today is my brother-in-law's birthday and my Mom woke up feeling lonely and depressed because of the almost year-and-a-half that we have had no family celebrations.

I think that being separated from loved ones has caused a lot of people to have some major mental health issues, which could cause problems down the road. My niece is 17 and she has found the separation from her school friends to be extremely difficult, emotionally.

Me, I'm thriving, because I'm an introvert. I'm really happy working from home, and my social life mostly exists on my computer anyway. I'm hard-of-hearing and I don't have to worry about trying to hear people when I'm just typing on-line.

But my Mom is the President of her choir and she has a grief group that she has found great comfort and support from after my Dad died four years ago. She misses her activities a lot.

But she and I are at such a great risk from Covid that we have really had to try and stay home, and not get together with other people. My Mom says she has never seen anything like it, and she really hates it.