Old Wisdom, Young Foolinsness.

[Laird]

In my opinion flying requires a mixture of intellect and intuition to achieve the best results from a pilot.

I wasn't trying to argue otherwise.

Many of us grew up in a world where we just talked to one another, there is something very worrying about the way technology has changed the lives of people growing up in this world. I have no way of picturing a typical childhood nowadays, and comparing it with my own. It is a chasm that is hard to bridge.

I'm only pushing 40 but feel the same way. It could be pure sentimentality: A world I knew and loved is quickly passing out of existence. Dostoevsky, the novelist, wrote that memories of the good from our childhoods could save us from ourselves as adults. I hope that still holds.

A world I knew and loved is quickly passing out of existence.

The one I grew up in is long, long gone.

I am so grateful for my childhood memories, they already are a place of refuge.

I too enjoy my childhood memories and that world is long gone.

That said, I really love my adult memories, primarily, those of being a parent.  I feel reasonably sure my kids will feel as I do when they're my age (i.e., fond of their childhood memories (my adult memories), acknowledging that world is no more, and thrilled about their adult memories presently being formed as parents).

The earth continues to spin.

I'm only pushing 40 but feel the same way. It could be pure sentimentality: A world I knew and loved is quickly passing out of existence. Dostoevsky, the novelist, wrote that memories of the good from our childhoods could save us from ourselves as adults. I hope that still holds.

Interesting quote!  Makes me wonder if it's just memories of happy times as opposed to something about the consciousness of the child having more access to "The Good" which we need to relearn to connect with.

I'm in my late 60's. I've experienced all of the technological changes that have occurred and their effects as well as the excitement for what progress might bring to enhance our lives. I'm aware how subsequent generations tend to see current levels of technology as normal and how older generations might see advancing tech as threatening. My childhood and adolescence went from the first dial phone to answering machines, pagers, cell phones, smart phone's . . . . . 
Today tech claims to better humanity for me, are filled with trepidation as well as a modicum of defuse hope. Even the atom bomb(which is still an issue) didn't concern me as much as the ability of tech to intrude in our lives as well as enabling the greedy, power hungry and criminal elements to accrete power and control over our lives.

I am curious as to whether my present concern is more typical of the experience every generation goes through regarding instability and threat or if the state of the world is truely on the edge of a precipice

I am curious as to whether my present concern is more typical of the experience every generation goes through regarding instability and threat or if the state of the world is truely on the edge of a precipice

Some things may just be part of a human lifecycle, shifting perspectives as we age. The world in general, for me the greatest problem, one which remains largely unaddressed is habitat loss. Many species are unable to continue to exist and thrive as their natural habitats are encroached upon. This includes human populations in parts of the world where they may have lived in much the same way for many hundreds or even thousands of years, and their habitat too is disappearing or has long gone. I do have a sadness for some of these changes which are not reversible, and are not confined to the brief span of a human lifetime. We may look back with a kind of museum-visit curiosity at the fate of the dodo. But future generations will have a much bigger list to fill their museums.

Interesting quote!  Makes me wonder if it's just memories of happy times as opposed to something about the consciousness of the child having more access to "The Good" which we need to relearn to connect with.

Hmmm, since the book is about trying to keep your sanity and morality in a collapsing culture, while evil and antipathy erupt all around, and has a very spiritual bent, I'd say both, but with an emphasis on the later.

Speaking of which, I love this song. The lyrics are beautiful and of a rather philosophical nature. It's performed here by Van Morrison and is originally a poem by Peter Handke.


Here are the words.

When the child was a child
It walked with arms hanging
Wanted the stream to be a river and the river a torrent
And this puddle, the sea
When the child was a child, it didn’t know
It was a child
Everything for it was filled with life and all life was one
Saw the horizon without trying to reach it
Couldn’t rush itself And think on command
Was often terribly bored
And couldn’t wait
Passed up greeting the moments
And prayed only with it’s lips
When the child was a child
It didn’t have an opinion about a thing
Had no habits
Often sat crossed-legged, took off running
Had a cow lick in it’s hair
And didn’t put on a face when photographed

When the child was a child
It was the time of the following questions
Why am I me and why not you
Why am I here and why not there
Why did time begin and where does space end
Isn’t what I see and hear and smell
Just the appearance of the world in front of the world
Isn’t life under the sun just a dream
Does evil actually exist in people
Who really are evil
Why can’t it be that I who am
Wasn’t before I was
And that sometime I, the I, I am
No longer will be the I, I am

When the child was a child
It gagged on spinach, on peas, on rice pudding
And on steamed cauliflower
And now eats all of it and not just because it has to
When the child was a child
It woke up once in a strange bed
And now time and time again
Many people seem beautiful to it
And now not so many and now only if it’s lucky
It had a precise picture of paradise
And now can only vaguely conceive of it at best
It couldn’t imagine nothingness
And today shudders in the face of it
Go for the ball
Which today rolls between it’s legs
With it’s I’m here it came
Into the house which now is empty

When the child was a child
It played with enthusiasm
And now only with such former concentration
Where it’s work is concerned
When the game, task, activity, subject happens to be it’s work

When the child was a child
It was enough to live on apples and bread. And it’s still that way
When the child was a child berries fell
Only like berries into it’s hand. And still do
The fresh walnuts made it’s tongue raw. And still do
Atop each mountain it craved
Yet a higher mountain. And in each city it craved
Yet a bigger city. And still does
Reach for the cherries in the treetop
As elated as it still is today
Was shy in front of strangers. And still is
It waited for the first snow. And still waits that way
When the child was a child
It waited restlessly each day for the return of the loved one
And still waits that way
When the child was a child
It hurled a stick like a lance into a tree
And it’s still quivering there today

The child, the child was a child
Was a child, was a child, was a child, was a child
Child, child, child
When the child, when the child, when the child
When the child, when the child
The child, child, child, child, child

And on and on and on and on, etc. And onward
With a sense of wonder
Upon the highest hill. Upon the highest hill
When the child was a child
Are you there
Shassas, shassas
Up on a highest hill
When the child was a child, was a child, was a child
Was a child, was a child, was a child…

I feel reasonably sure my kids will feel as I do when they're my age (i.e., fond of their childhood memories (my adult memories), acknowledging that world is no more

I'm sure you're right. Yet I also fear our age may deprive them of some important perspectives and experiences. (Not your kids of course, they'll be great!)

Yet I also fear our age may deprive them of some important perspectives and experiences.

Not sure I'm following here.  Can you expand?

Not sure I'm following here.  Can you expand?

With pleasure. Despite your being a CIA disinfo agent, I always appreciate the thoughtfulness and curiosity with which you approach viewpoints other than your own.

Okay, I'm generalising, but here we go: less input, more imagination, a less compressed sense of time, a more incarnate world, a more incarnate setting for creativity, more one-to-one communication, making do with less raw material for play, making your own amusements, the art of boredom, disappearing into a world of your own creation, being forced out into the world to find adventure..... 

Again, I'm generalising, and I'm not saying these things don't happen anymore, but you get the idea, right? 

I have also noticed that the 'infinity scroll' nature of current media consumption is leading to a slight sense of jadedness in some of our young 'uns.

Additionally, as a culture, we are increasingly estranged from the natural world. We are moving further and further into the grip of an abstraction, an electronic and psychically terraforming dream.