Make America Great!
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This post did not contain any content.wrote last edited by [email protected]
As I got older and I reflected on all the grumpy old men waving at the clouds and complaining constantly about this-or-that being better in their days when I was a kid, I realized why.
Now I'm the old man and I avoid becoming bitter my reminding myself of the following truth:
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When you're a kid, the world belongs to the grown-ups - your parents, adults of authority around you.
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When you reach teenage years, the world starts being yours: you've developed tastes for things people your age do and create. As you go through puberty, your identity is reinforced with things of your time, and other young people your age with which you do the same things. You all have a bright future in front of you.
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When you get out of puberty, hopefully you get our of school and start working: the world is fully yours. The trendy things in the world are things you find trendy too. Other people speak like you. You're not a powerless kid and you're not weaker old guy/gall yet. You're fully part of it and it suits you. You may not like the world, but it's yours. It shares your values and your values are what makes the world go round at that point in time . Your personality, your cultural identity and the cultural norms you respect, and your value system are fully developed, and a pure product of their time.
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And then they stay that way. But the world keeps evolving. Slowly but surely, the things you learned become deprecated. The things you like become old. The way you speak becomes strange to younger ears. The values you believe in no longer apply. The world slowly shifts beneath your feet, but it's happening very slowly, year after year, until...
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You reach an age at which you're very visibly and obviously out of sync with the world. Even you notice it at this point.
And here lies the trap: you can either reflect on how the world has changed and acknowledge that it's not your world anymore, but it's younger people's now. People who are now the age you once were: it's their turn to have a go at owning the world. You're just in it for the ride.
Or you can take refuge in your old values, wallow in the old things you've liked for decades, and bitch and moan about the world going to shit. It's not going to shit, but it feels that way to you. It's easier to reject the world around you than admit it's just not how you like it anymore, but it's poisonous: it turns you into a bitter person everybody hates.
I choose to ignore the things I dislike - which, at this point, constitute a lot more of the world than the things I like from the past, from my youth. But I also choose to not pass judgment on them because they're not from my world: they're from today's youth's world, and I have no say in it.
If you're old and angry, think about this. You might find some comfort in letting go.
The corollary of all this is: there is no better America in the past: the past simply seems rosier to older eyes. America has always been as great or as shit as you find it to be today.
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It probably wasn't so bad and internationally disruptive pre-settlers.
Indigenous people being humans means there were violent conflicts between different cultures and groups within cultures like anywhere else in the world. It was relatively less violent than colonial occupation like how Europe was less violent than during the world wars.
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As I got older and I reflected on all the grumpy old men waving at the clouds and complaining constantly about this-or-that being better in their days when I was a kid, I realized why.
Now I'm the old man and I avoid becoming bitter my reminding myself of the following truth:
-
When you're a kid, the world belongs to the grown-ups - your parents, adults of authority around you.
-
When you reach teenage years, the world starts being yours: you've developed tastes for things people your age do and create. As you go through puberty, your identity is reinforced with things of your time, and other young people your age with which you do the same things. You all have a bright future in front of you.
-
When you get out of puberty, hopefully you get our of school and start working: the world is fully yours. The trendy things in the world are things you find trendy too. Other people speak like you. You're not a powerless kid and you're not weaker old guy/gall yet. You're fully part of it and it suits you. You may not like the world, but it's yours. It shares your values and your values are what makes the world go round at that point in time . Your personality, your cultural identity and the cultural norms you respect, and your value system are fully developed, and a pure product of their time.
-
And then they stay that way. But the world keeps evolving. Slowly but surely, the things you learned become deprecated. The things you like become old. The way you speak becomes strange to younger ears. The values you believe in no longer apply. The world slowly shifts beneath your feet, but it's happening very slowly, year after year, until...
-
You reach an age at which you're very visibly and obviously out of sync with the world. Even you notice it at this point.
And here lies the trap: you can either reflect on how the world has changed and acknowledge that it's not your world anymore, but it's younger people's now. People who are now the age you once were: it's their turn to have a go at owning the world. You're just in it for the ride.
Or you can take refuge in your old values, wallow in the old things you've liked for decades, and bitch and moan about the world going to shit. It's not going to shit, but it feels that way to you. It's easier to reject the world around you than admit it's just not how you like it anymore, but it's poisonous: it turns you into a bitter person everybody hates.
I choose to ignore the things I dislike - which, at this point, constitute a lot more of the world than the things I like from the past, from my youth. But I also choose to not pass judgment on them because they're not from my world: they're from today's youth's world, and I have no say in it.
If you're old and angry, think about this. You might find some comfort in letting go.
The corollary of all this is: there is no better America in the past: the past simply seems rosier to older eyes. America has always been as great or as shit as you find it to be today.
The only problem I see with that is, even though I’m 40, the government and corporations are all still run by people older than me.
Hell, some of the folks in Congress are older than my parents.
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The more history I learn the more I understand that every country is awful, and people have been terrible forever.
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The only problem I see with that is, even though I’m 40, the government and corporations are all still run by people older than me.
Hell, some of the folks in Congress are older than my parents.
That's the tragedy of government: rulers and lawmakers need to be old enough to be wise, but age also disconnects them from the needs of the world of today.
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Get outta ma head Charles!
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As I got older and I reflected on all the grumpy old men waving at the clouds and complaining constantly about this-or-that being better in their days when I was a kid, I realized why.
Now I'm the old man and I avoid becoming bitter my reminding myself of the following truth:
-
When you're a kid, the world belongs to the grown-ups - your parents, adults of authority around you.
-
When you reach teenage years, the world starts being yours: you've developed tastes for things people your age do and create. As you go through puberty, your identity is reinforced with things of your time, and other young people your age with which you do the same things. You all have a bright future in front of you.
-
When you get out of puberty, hopefully you get our of school and start working: the world is fully yours. The trendy things in the world are things you find trendy too. Other people speak like you. You're not a powerless kid and you're not weaker old guy/gall yet. You're fully part of it and it suits you. You may not like the world, but it's yours. It shares your values and your values are what makes the world go round at that point in time . Your personality, your cultural identity and the cultural norms you respect, and your value system are fully developed, and a pure product of their time.
-
And then they stay that way. But the world keeps evolving. Slowly but surely, the things you learned become deprecated. The things you like become old. The way you speak becomes strange to younger ears. The values you believe in no longer apply. The world slowly shifts beneath your feet, but it's happening very slowly, year after year, until...
-
You reach an age at which you're very visibly and obviously out of sync with the world. Even you notice it at this point.
And here lies the trap: you can either reflect on how the world has changed and acknowledge that it's not your world anymore, but it's younger people's now. People who are now the age you once were: it's their turn to have a go at owning the world. You're just in it for the ride.
Or you can take refuge in your old values, wallow in the old things you've liked for decades, and bitch and moan about the world going to shit. It's not going to shit, but it feels that way to you. It's easier to reject the world around you than admit it's just not how you like it anymore, but it's poisonous: it turns you into a bitter person everybody hates.
I choose to ignore the things I dislike - which, at this point, constitute a lot more of the world than the things I like from the past, from my youth. But I also choose to not pass judgment on them because they're not from my world: they're from today's youth's world, and I have no say in it.
If you're old and angry, think about this. You might find some comfort in letting go.
The corollary of all this is: there is no better America in the past: the past simply seems rosier to older eyes. America has always been as great or as shit as you find it to be today.
Welcome to conservatism!
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That was a pretty great time for middle class white people!
Well if we could try that era's tax policies again, but without Jim crow this time, that would be a great starting point...
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That was a pretty great time for middle class white people!
Middle class white males. Though granted, white women probably had it best out of all women.
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oh, about 6,700 year ago
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This post did not contain any content.wrote last edited by [email protected]
At this point I can't see Chuckie X without thinking of the Holocaust beam.
Which... is generally what the magats are thinking of...
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That's the tragedy of government: rulers and lawmakers need to be old enough to be wise, but age also disconnects them from the needs of the world of today.
That is actually a good reason to have a wide variety of ages in government, so that there is a mix of those connected to the world today and those that have more wisdom.
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Well if we could try that era's tax policies again, but without Jim crow this time, that would be a great starting point...
Yes, but that would require learning from history and we suck at that.
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oh, about 6,700 year ago
That's an illusion.
America 7 millenia ago might have been empty enough of people to be peaceful (though I highly doubt that) but people died young of easily treatable diseases because they didn't have vacc....
Nevermind...
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That's the tragedy of government: rulers and lawmakers need to be old enough to be wise, but age also disconnects them from the needs of the world of today.
That’s the tragedy of government: rulers and lawmakers need to be old enough to be wise,
No, they don't. Under a representative democracy (what most of The West is at this point) your "rulers" are not meant to be kings who duck into their study to decide what is most Just.
Their responsibility is to surround themselves with experts and to listen to them. Your representative should not need to study economics and computer science to understand what Google is. They just need to be able to understand a wikipedia level overview so that they can communicate with the scientists and economists on staff.
Similarly, your representative should not be sitting and deliberating on what is Right. They should instead be communicating with their constituents to do what is right by them. Which works better when they aren't lugging around a canister of oxygen everywhere they go.
Which is why we tend to not use the word "rulers" anymore and instead focus on "civil servants".
There IS an argument that the President/Prime Minister needs "wisdom" because they may need to make very quick decisions. But even that is mostly about listening to the domain experts who just happen to be generals in that case.
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That is actually a good reason to have a wide variety of ages in government, so that there is a mix of those connected to the world today and those that have more wisdom.
That's not a bad idea. But then you have to outlaw money in politics, because as soon as money is in the picture, it invariably favors rich old dudes, or people with connections that can only be formed over time.
In other words, nothing like this will happen in America in my grandchildren's lifetime, let alone my children's or mine.
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That's an illusion.
America 7 millenia ago might have been empty enough of people to be peaceful (though I highly doubt that) but people died young of easily treatable diseases because they didn't have vacc....
Nevermind...
and if i understand correctly there were no horses
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That's not a bad idea. But then you have to outlaw money in politics, because as soon as money is in the picture, it invariably favors rich old dudes, or people with connections that can only be formed over time.
In other words, nothing like this will happen in America in my grandchildren's lifetime, let alone my children's or mine.
That would help, but it isn't just the money. Both Zohran Mamdani and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were able to secure offices when they were right around 30 years old and both lacked solid support from their own party. Entrenched political parties are arguably an even bigger barrier to involving younger participation in government, not just because the parties control their own purse strings but because they resist up and coming candidates by treating office holders like they have tenure.
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This post did not contain any content.wrote last edited by [email protected]
I mean how many people are fleeing America to other countries for asylum(Haiti, China, North Korea, Columbia, etc) ? How many Americans are being bombed daily(Gaza, Ukraine)? How many Americans are being killed because they are in the wrong Tribe(Africa)? How many Americans are arrested for social media post(UK)? How many Americans are getting sick because of no sanitation standards (India)? How many Americans being taxed to pay for illegal migrants arriving by boat loads (UK)?
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That would help, but it isn't just the money. Both Zohran Mamdani and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were able to secure offices when they were right around 30 years old and both lacked solid support from their own party. Entrenched political parties are arguably an even bigger barrier to involving younger participation in government, not just because the parties control their own purse strings but because they resist up and coming candidates by treating office holders like they have tenure.
Yes, and Bernie Sanders is old as dirt yet a decent politician in touch with young people.
But they're exceptions. We need AOCs and Mamdanis and Sanders as the norm in politics.
