The past week has been a "soft pants" week. I've been wearing sweatpants all week, and don't think I've left the house for any reason for the entire week, other than to have an extraordinarily bad anniversary dinner at what laughingly claimed to be an Italian restaurant. That's retirement for you.
There are so many problems with modern society that they are too numerous to count. One large problem is that everyone today has a megaphone, which makes the cultural noise level pretty much unbearable as far as paying attention to it is concerned. Civilization is on the brink, according to everyone. Democracy is threatened, the economy is on the verge of collapse, the auto industry will soon fail, we will be overrun by gays and immigrants and transgendered people. The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
Well, if you study human history even only a little, you'll come to realize that the sky is always falling. Human disaster is always around the corner. There's always hatred to be had in large amounts somewhere in the world. There's always profit in fearmongering, and so you will find that going on to fleece the ignorant and fearful. There's always someone lusting for riches and power, and so that particular human activity can always be seen in any form of government at any level; local, national, international. Oppression is an element of life in large parts of the world, as it's always the case that some humans seem to believe that they are superior in some way to other human beings, and so feel the need to stamp out the inferior segment.
I do not know why humans are wired to behave this way. Throughout the course of human history we have improved in every way possible except where it counts the most - how we treat each other. Since I don't see that changing for the remainder of my lifetime, the only sane choice is not to concern yourself with it. People who are out there "changing the world" seem to believe that, if you can change laws or governments or economies or other external factors, the world will become a better place. The truth, however, seems to be that evolution, not change, is the key factor. Until humans evolve and begin to live up to the various higher principles they seem to know exist, but choose to ignore, the sky will always be falling.
