Friends have mostly pivoted from sending me "it'll be fine, X will save us" takes to "there's nothing we can do, everyone will be infected" takes.
Have we become a nation of passive optimists and passive pessimists, who just look out the window and watch the world go by?
Have we become a nation of passive optimists and passive pessimists, who just look out the window and watch the world go by?
We've become too used to the idea that problems go away on their own.
The USSR killed itself while we mostly watched.
The Great Recession was blunted by the Fed and then mostly just went away on its own.
It's been way too long since America had to WORK to solve our problems.
The USSR killed itself while we mostly watched.
The Great Recession was blunted by the Fed and then mostly just went away on its own.
It's been way too long since America had to WORK to solve our problems.
Calvin Coolidge once said: "If you see 10 troubles coming down the road, you can be sure 9 will go in the ditch and you have only one to battle with."
The problem is, we've interpreted "9 out of 10" to mean "10 out of 10".
The problem is, we've interpreted "9 out of 10" to mean "10 out of 10".
Herbert Hoover wrote of Coolidge's statement: "The trouble with this philosophy was that when the tenth trouble reached him it had by that time acquired such momentum that it spelled disaster."
Ironically Hoover himself failed to do enough when the Depression came.
Ironically Hoover himself failed to do enough when the Depression came.
The Depression and World War 2 taught us that sometimes we need to do a LOT to proactively solve our problems. Then we unlearned the lesson, with failures like Vietnam.
Well, it's time to learn it again...
Well, it's time to learn it again...
Americans: There is a third option besides optimism and pessimism.
It is called activism.
(end)
It is called activism.
(end)
