"Human life is reduced to real suffering, to hell, only when two ages, two cultures and religions overlap. A man of the Classical Age who had to live in medieval times would suffocate miserably just as a savage does in the midst of our civilization. Now there are times when a whole generation is caught in this way between two ages, two modes of life, with the consequence that it loses all power to understand itself and has no standard, no security, no simple acquiescence."
-- Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf
-- Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf
We have been in a long transitional period between two ages and will continue that way for a long time to come. The people who belong to each age are incapable of understanding one another. I guess it's "better" for we who belong to the subsequent age because history is moving with us, but then again those who belong to the prior age have the heady excitement and self-absorption of the rebel and the romance of the Doomed Tragic Figure. And of course the transition to the new age will most likely leave those of us who think we belong there (a) long since dead, and (b) hopelessly damaged and compromised by the transitional period to be much use in it anyway. God bless limited lifespan.
In any case, the change is happening way above the pay grade of all the people involved. We can't hurry it and they can't stop it. What we can both do is try to avoid bloodshed as one age overtakes the other. Palliative care at a civilizational level. I am worried about a decent into a violence / vengeance cycle because that has accompanied most other transitions in human history.
There seems to be Ozone in the air. It’s not exciting, at least not to me, it’s dreadful in the full sense of the term.
Does anyone else feel like we are coming up to the lip of a canyon we might not be able to easily get out of?
Anyway, this is a thread for the social and cultural stuff that doesn't fit easily into headlines or politics or religion or the courts. There's plenty of it out there.
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