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Tuesday
I suspect I’m not the only American thoroughly confused by the present political climate. On the one hand, this country is doing remarkably well, not only economically but in many other realms, especially with regard to technological advances and medical breakthroughs. We also have a remarkable university system which educates those who go on to make possible many of societal and life style benefits we have come to take for granted. Millions around the world would love to emigrate here.
Yet at the same time, we regularly hear open calls for civil war from various quarters, and while an authoritarian ignoramus like Donald Trump may have lost the last election, he still commands a following in the tens of millions. At his instigation, some of these stormed the Capitol while others carry out lone wolf programs of mass shootings.
We have such a strong military that we fear no invasion—think how few countries have been able to say that in world history—and yet we never know when lethal violence will break out in this school or that church/synagogue/ mosque. Meanwhile, the same technology that allows us unprecedented mobility and comfort at contributing to extreme weather events that overwhelm us.
If ever there were a time to cite the opening lines to Charles Dickens’s Tale of Two Cities, this is it:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.
Maybe I’ll just leave it there, adding only that—in the course of the novel—the human heart ultimately shines brighter than human evil and human ignorance. For all the damage caused by the “worst of times,” Dickens assures us that the destroyers don’t get the last word.