I remember my childhood mostly as a happy, oblivious one, affordable food, the usual disagreements between liberals and republicans, but nothing unhinged (say taxes, migrants or abortion). At least it looks reasonable today.
Now it’s like everything is unhinged: politics seem to be based on purely emotional reactions and the other side is hell bent on destroying the country: texas starts heavily gerrymandering to secure 5 extra republican seats at the next midterms? california starts lobbying for doing exactly the same and dismantling an independent redistricting commission texas never had.
When I was younger it seemed politics were more rational and cruelty never seemed to be the point of doing nothing. Now we execute people with nitrogen gas, meaning a conscious person has to breathe something he knows its going to kill him during 4 minutes. This is somehow not cruel and unusual. And nobody bats an eye.
I still don’t get how populists can be so popular now, they simplify complex issues most people without a degree in the matter, cannot grasp. This includes me.
I’m now 35 and wonder if I’m already talking like an old person who misses his young days so hard. I see that in people in their 60s and hoped never to become one of them, but here I am. To a younger person I may look like one of those old guys who lives to rant.
Am I going to feel even more detached and depressed with each passing day?
A tad older. My response was the same as yours. I dream of fixing it but how?
Then I remember so many people voted or walked towards this. A handful of greedy have been pushing this and other humans were happy to enable it, and millions more accept it.
Which leads me to think maybe I am the minority.
I know this sounds cliche as, but I just try to fix it one smile at a time.
Mum used to tell me this story and it has stuck with me for more than forty years.
Two kids were walking at the beach when they saw thousands of beached fish, gasping for their lives. So one kid picked up a fish and threw it back in the water. The friend said, “there’s thousands of them, you’re not making a difference!”. “Well, I did for that one”.