Is it just me or is the 21st century....rather boring?

[pbrower2a]

(04-29-2020, 09:14 AM)Blazkovitz Wrote:

(04-28-2020, 05:07 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: My 11 year old daughter might disagree:  to her, the difference between a horse drawn carriage and an automobile may seem smaller than the difference between a wireline phone that could only carry voice and a modern smartphone.

A smartphone is a bad computer, bad telephone and bad camera put together in one device. Hardly a breakthrough in technology. I suspect they will go out of fashion.

I still like to keep my camera, computer, and mobile phone separate. They may perform similar functions, but 
it is obvious which ones do certain functions best. 
  

Mickey123 Wrote:Soon enough, things will be very exciting, even more exciting than a global pandemic. The U.S. will be at war with China, or in the middle of a civil or revolutionary war, and excitement will be had by all.

Wow, so you think wars and mayhem are exciting? Something must be wrong with you For me, the sooner the 1T starts the better.[/quote]

Don't be sure, Mickey123. We have the mass death of a war; more Americans have died in the Plague of Trump than in either the Korean War or the Vietnam War. World War I combat deaths are next -- in a couple of weeks. 

Howe and Strauss did not count Crises that far back, but I suspect that they would consider the Black Death a Crisis even if wars and persecutions were less prominent in history.  

COVID-19 has the potential for forcing major changes in culture, political life, and economic reality in America. Many Americans have shown their willingness to put up with economic regimentation as severe as that of WWII in America to avoid losing a struggle against an insidious, destructive, lethal enemy. I expect people to try to return to normal because much that is essential in human nature can be deferred but not forever denied -- but much of the reality will be different, with new opportunities emerging and some old practices either dead or moribund. Americans have always preferred a largely-free market to a command economy and I expect such to recover fully by 2025. Of course people court and marry, many Americans are religious and will remain so after COVID-19 dies, people in certain communities will insist on coming-of-age ceremonies such as a cotillion, bar mitzvah, or a quinceanera; Americans will insist upon being there if at all possible at live theater, sports, and other ceremonies. The Final Four, the Masters, the NHL and NBA finals, the Kentucky Derby, the Indy 500, the World Series (which will probably not be played this year) and quite possibly the Thanksgiving parades, the Tournament of Roses parade, and the Super Bowl will return in full glory (I am not saying which ones will be cancelled). The 2020 Olympics will apparently be delayed until next year. Likewise opera, symphony, and live theater seasons. 

There was no showy celebration of the 75th anniversary of the surrender of the Devil's Reich this year, so that opportunity really is gone this year. I expect an 80th anniversary to return.  Do you have video of the fireworks of the last Fourth of July celebration? That, or someone else's will be what you have this year.     

For Americans on the Home Front, life might have been far less exciting than what was going on in... (gaak!) Poland -- a short but bloody war for both Germany and Poland (the Polish campaign in fact expended the lives of surprisingly German soldiers; the Poles fought hard even if they had no chance), massacres, and factory-scale genocide, revolts and repressions, and finally a takeover of the country by a political order utterly alien to Poland. I'd pass on that sort of excitement -- wouldn't you?

We do not have to be at war with China or any other major power. We may find this Crisis at an end with Americans committing to fundamental reforms of the political system unlike any in scope and scale since the establishment of the Constitution.  Even if the reforms exist solely to close the seams in our system to make things more difficult for a would-be dictator or despot who knows how to exploit such seams, such will be major change. 

2020 looks like a rotten year for almost every American. I would have to win the Super-Duper Megabucks Lottery for this to be a truly great year. I don't play lotteries, as I well understand the math behind them. The big event for an inordinate number of Americans will be the Presidential election which will be a huge bust if one's favored candidate loses. For may, life will boil down to that.