11-19-2020, 08:29 PM
(11-19-2020, 05:00 PM)sbarrera Wrote: This is a great thread idea.
I always thought that one advantage of knowing S&H theory was being better prepared for the changes to come.
To make it through the 4T, I think the main thing you need is a support network. A 4T is a time of gathering and reassertion of community values, so you want to make sure you are part of a community. The ones who will suffer the most in this 4T are the rootless and dispossesd (think of all those unfortunate refugees on the US southern border). This is an especially meaningful warning for Generation X. If you have a community to belong it in this 4T, you will come out better in the 1T.
As for surviving Cold Civil War II, well clearly the key is to be on the winning side. So far in American history the progressive side has won every conflict, and I think it will work out that way this time as well.
With Asperger's, and stranded in a community ill suited to my character (I think like a "coastal elitist" but live in a hick town), the COVID-19 lockdowns (we are going into the second one) has shown how shaky my mental health can be. Getting along in a hick town means accepting its limitations as a blessing; life may be simpler in allowing fewer options, but it is more complex in human relationships. Happiness devolves to having a solid family life and being heavily involved in religious, civic, or fraternal organizations. Maybe I should have joined the Masonic Lodge that my father and grandfather were in? Maybe I need to find a church even if I have big questions about theology... like "Why would God send people to Hell for failing to accept the Trinity?" "Do I really believe in God if I can't accept the bosh in the first nine chapters of Genesis?"
I never realized how much my parents covered for me... maybe too much for my good. Now they are no more, and I only have nightmares involving them. I ended up broke -- and emotionally wrecked.
But if that is bad... being the victim of malignant decisions of a dictatorial leader (and Trump is the most despotic President that we have ever had) is far worse. "They're bringing crime, they're bringing drugs... and some of them might be good people!"... that's ugly. I'm about half German in ancestry and I know where that leads. If we really did have to stop an 'invasion' of illegal aliens, many of whom are fleeing economic nightmares that result from American addicts supplying the revenue for drug traffickers taking over national economies. (One thing that goes with Asperger's is a complete lack of empathy for addicts and alcoholics... and you may have seen my Modest Proposal about what to do with the children of meth fiends. Piecing back together what I lost will be difficult.
Quote:From what I know about these people, they really do believe in family; they don't have much else. But I would give them citizenship under one condition: that they adopt the kids who will be taken away from meth fiends and opiate addicts, and treat them like their children. The kids will learn Spanish, which really is a good thing to learn (bilingual people are better at acquiring language skills). With even a modest level of work ethic, these Hispanic families will establish a better model in a work ethic. So what do the kids of meth fiends and opiate addicts have to lose?
We need policies that promote human goodness, rational thought, stewardship of assets (environmental as well as financial), and overall caution. None of that describes Donald Trump. Trump exemplifies all that is potentially wrong with an Idealist except for (as was so with the slave-owning planters before the Civil War) that his exploitation is charity: selfishness, arrogance, and ruthlessness.
With the Boom Generation, mine can no longer get its way without qualification, the strongest of our factions at the time setting the agenda for the rest of America. We are still too numerous and even talented to ignore, but other generations will choose what part of the Boomer universe they want influencing them. The more erudite, visionary, and principled among us will be useful. Trump is none of those and never will be.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.