THE DIAGNOSIS This generation of Americans has become so steeped in greed and social Darwinism that it can no longer distinguish between cheating and achieving, between enterprise and crime and can’t bring itself to criticize winners any more than it knows how to be nice to losers. An increasing number of Americans agree that…
Climate change is manifest by extreme weather events. Over the past two days the backyard has soaked up so much water that a footfall instantly produces water welling up around my shoe. It’s 6PM and rain continues to fall. Recently I read that Anglo-Saxon England of the 10th century was also going through a…
A comment left by a friend last night reminisced on the Legend of King Arthur. The legend suggests that merry ole England was ruled by a chivalrous king and nobles. This could not have been further from the truth. We love our myths: American exceptionalism, manifest destiny and everyone’s favorite “the American dream.” The…
Am reading about England of 1000 AD. The book by Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger is an enjoyable read of the conditions of life in the Middle Ages, dealing with Viking raids, settlements by the Norsemen, and the development of Christianity. I imagine the story as a time capsule sent to me from my…
Yeah, I know the word “luck” is totally plebeian, tarnished with the soil of ignorance and superstition. We may resist using the term preferring instead gussied up circumlocutions such as “in sync with the universe.” Is there any difference? Does not luck in all of it’s variations touch the finite nature of our knowledge,…
The primal law that governs all living: not love not hate not hope but fear Its universality is the cause of every abomination in the shitty chaos called human history. The trick is not to become unbalanced, punished, ruled by it. Any fool can be a pessimist; it takes no imagination, no guts. Remember…
Is this how a member of a bomber crew felt upon return from a WWII mission upon sighting the cliffs of Dover and England below? Maybe. At the end of a visit to my home town, I hope to board the American Airlines jet shortly, for transport back to Chicago. A visit to my…
We have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time— when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest…
Our first day in town featured dinner at Dame’s Chicken and Waffles on Main Street. The rather small restaurant-bar delivers on it’s promise. “Southern fried perfection meets sweet European decadence.” The menu reflects an era when jazz musicians would finish their gigs in New York City. They’d find a Chicken and Waffles joint open till…
By noon I will be boarding an American Airlines plane at O’hare. After enclosure, sardine like, in the silver-aluminum tube, with good fortune, I will emerge two hours later in North Carolina. I expect the air to be warmer and scented with pine needles. The people will be vaguely familiar with respect to voice…
