The End of the World as We Have Known It

Today is a sad day on both sides of the Atlantic.  To paraphrase a comment I saw on Joe.My.God.:   On the same day that Britain leaves the European Union, America leaves democracy behind.  Nothing good will come of this.

Well, for 75 years the broad, sunlit highway that arose out of the fire and blood of the Second World War was a pretty good ride.  We were lucky to be born into that time.  It was always a route under construction, and subject to detours and lane closures - but despite all the bumps in the road, it seemed, to me at least, a fundamentally stable, generally progressive, and blessedly prosperous time for the middle and lower classes in the Western world, who by thrift and steady work could live more easily and comfortably than anyone ever had before, even in the golden palaces of kings and emperors fabled for their wealth and power in ancient times.

The poor were and are always with us, of course - but many millions of my parents' generation who started life in rural or urban poverty were able by wit and grit, and a bit of good luck, to achieve a very comfortable old age, and even leave a sizeable nest egg for the next generation.  (Sadly, this was not the case in my particular family, but that is another story, of no interest to anyone but me now.)

Prosperity and the growth of scientific knowledge led to miraculous advances in medicine and technology that nearly eliminated the famines and diseases and poverty and unceasing hard labor that had been the scourges of mankind from the dawn of history.  Not to say that there was no suffering, pain, or worry - despite the spread of peace, progress, and general affluence, there were still tears, toil, struggle, and sorrows to contend with in human life, high and low, rich or poor, which is simply our lot in this imperfect world, where the bitter must always be taken with the sweet. But on the whole and in the main, it was a mighty good time to be alive, when you consider how very much harder and more perilous life was just a hundred years ago.

(Whether the soft, effortless, push-button life we have come to enjoy is truly good for us in a moral and spiritual way is a question I defer for the time being to the philosophers.)

And until quite recently, there was, it seemed, good reason to hope that mankind's upward progress would continue indefinitely.  Despite the unending to and fro of politics, it did seem that the people at the top - most of them, most of the time - were essentially sane and decent, sincere and responsible people who profoundly respected the rule of law and the time-hallowed constitutional order.  And who were certainly not the tools of any foreign power - unthinkable!

But goodbye to all that - I'm glad I am an old man in the sunset of life, with no posterity to worry about.  I'm also glad that my parents aren't here to see the corruption and negation of their ideals, and the moral degradation consuming our government, our politics, and many other areas of life, all across the political social spectrum.

As I heard the ever-chic and lovely Joan Collins say in an interview a few years ago, reflecting on the rudeness and crudeness of modern life:  I don't like this century.

I'm taking an extended moment of silence here on the Blue Truck to reflect on the dismantling of the Western world order that once seemed so enduring. Of course the human race will go on and on as it always has, despite every kind of calamity in ages past - you know how those breeders are, come hell or high water - but the going on will not be very nice at all, I fear.  That is, unless you fit into whatever new order shakes out of all the dreadful conflicts to come, nation against nation and fanatic against fanatic.  And there are always plenty of folks ready, willing, and able to fit in, no matter which way the wind is blowing.

Maybe I'll return next week with a more optimistic attitude. But then again, maybe not.  My voice doesn't count at all in this mad world, I know.  And even in better times, I have never really fit in - too liberal for the conservatives, too conservative for the liberals, too educated for the lowbrows, too provincial for the highbrows, and always an individual, not part of the In Crowd, never one of the cool kids.  A sometimes lonely state of being - but tant pis.  It suited me, I suppose.

I am an old man, retired from the tumults and contests of life, and like an old dog on the front porch, content merely to sit in the sunshine and watch the traffic whiz by, without the slightest urge to run after it, even if I had the strength to do so.  I have lived my life and danced my dance, and now it seems I have outlived my time:  a stranger in a strange land.  A chill wind rises, and the brief candle flickers.  Who knows what tomorrow and tomorrow will bring, for good or ill?