History has always had me. Books. Battlefields. Politics.
I think now it’s something more, though.
I get so tired of people, sometimes–
And more and more tired of how my mind works.
I find myself wishing
Time travel was real (at least backward).
I’d like to ride that Space-Time techno dream sled
To a when, and a where, that was emptier.
Simpler. Nicer. Safer.
I know what some of you might think, “Oh, Jeeze, another old guy pining for the good old days.”
No, you have me wrong. I’m not afraid of life, of love and loss, nor the excitement of the new. But too often, the truly “new” is just another product to be sold now. We can never have enough really unique things to feed a soul, but we get precious little of that unless we unplug from all the crap and get very ruthless about seeking the gems. (see: Zoo gorilla. Entitled rapist. Whatever today’s collective outrage target is.) We’re simply telling the marketers what it is we want to die from, and they’re giving it to us.
(Here’s how I feel about marketers, in case you wondered.)
I don’t think I like some of the rules anymore, or the people making the rules. But maybe I’m just falling into the current malaise. The fact is, we here in the US don’t seem to like each other very much. And from what I read and hear from friend overseas, it ain’t so good elsewhere, either. It’s a picnic here by comparison.
America, like it or not, is a great commercial republic, the biggest, most successful, richest the world has ever known—more than the Roman Empire or the British one. And militarily, we remain the sole superpower. Our external protections are enormous, and we don’t have any real competitors.
But empires are always temporary things. Nothing lasts forever. There are two ways empires fall, historically speaking (see, I always look to history). One is because external competitors band together and take you down. There are those out there now who are trying to do that (Hi there, China! Big wet kiss to ISIS, too!), but that’s not the greatest threat. Terrorism is a minor annoyance, really. And the fundamental flaw in the latter case is they they don’t know how to build anything, just blow stuff up and kill civilians.
It’s the second threat that I’m worried about, because I am falling victim to it. We are living in a time of the lizard brain. Hatred. Disgust. I hate Trump. I hate Hillary. I hate Evangelicals. I hate liberals. I hate Southerners. I hate elite snobs in the big cities. I hate black people. I hate white people. I hate immigrants. I hate golfers. Hate. Hate. Hate.
The real danger now is that we’re tearing ourselves apart. And that is more of a threat than Osama and his band of fanatics or the Soviet Empire ever was.
Lizard brain. It will be the end of us.
P.S. I don’t really hate golfers. I’m a recovering golfer myself. Get help. You’ll thank me for it.
HemmingPlay 
The amount of hate and mud slinging rhetoric has reached epic proportions. It does make you worry about our democracy and the fear that we don’t need outsiders to destroy us. It seems we are doing a good enough job ourselves.
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