Frank Rich: Nothing You Think Matters Today Will Matter the Same Way Tomorrow

[LiberalElite]

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/10/frank-rich-1964-flaws-of-presentism.html?mid=google&google_editors_picks=true

-snip-

ISIS, Khorasan, Ferguson, Gaza, Putin: The summer of 2014 had been deemed America’s “worst ever” well before Ebola, the Ray Rice video, and the Secret Service debacle kicked in. One sees the point even if it requires historical amnesia about other bad summers (like, say, that one with the Battle of Gettysburg). But you also have to ask: What was a great American summer, exactly? Lazy, hazy 2001, when a peaceful country and its new president nodded off through Labor Day, worrying about little more than an alleged uptick in shark attacks?

-snip-

[TwilightGardener]

1. Most of what happened bad in the world didn't actually happen TO US here.

Maybe people don't know what real catastrophes are anymore, in this country. The GOP and the media are exceptionally gifted at turning everything into a fucking crisis. Does anyone remember the hair-on-fire about the child immigrant "crisis" three months ago? Yeah, I'm still reeling from that, it really impacted me...not.

[BobbyBoring]

2. A long but fascinating read!

Especially if you were around in 1964.

[pscot]

3. November of '63 through November of '68

Talk about interesting times! Mercy, mercy.

[bemildred]

4. We don't have the foggiest idea what's coming down the pike at us.

We always think tomorrow is going to be like today, but different. It's going to be a lot different. We live in the single period of most rapid change in human history.