Well, I'm no boomer. I was born in 1967. But I have made a lifelong pastime out of listening and learning. I was a little kid in the 70s and my first personal awareness of a world beyond my own little personal part of it came in about 1979, I think just a little before the hostages in Iran.
As I said, I listen. That's what I am doing on this website.
To come to the point, what is happening today reminds me (vicariously) of what went on then. And it is enough to make me puke. I've had a lot of sleepless nights over the last few months, or nights when I wake up in the middle of it and just can't get back to sleep. This is one of them.
What is different this time, I think, is that in the 70s the US was still the only game in town, as it were. We were still fat, dumb and happy after all we made in winning WWII. That's part of why we so recklessly got into Vietnam. Now, the world is a whole 'nuther place. I read somewhere that big business wants to farm out our farming to offshore sources. We get two or three telemarketing calls from India per week at my house. (Humorous story: a couple of days ago my oldest daughter answered the phone and a pushy guy was trying to sell us satellite this or that. She finally had to inform him that we don't have a TV. We don't. Well, she said the guy on the other end of the line said,"You are an American and you do not have a television?") Anyway, if we can't even keep telemarketing jobs here, what are people going to do for income to pay for all these allegedly cheap goods we are buying from abroad?
Back to my stomach. Two and a half years ago when oil went through the roof and gasoline with it, I heard some government paid pointy-head say that this wouldn't have the same effect on the economy as in the 70s because we are not as dependent on oil as in the 70s. I would call that bull****, but you can use bull**** to grow a good garden and that comment wasn't worth anything. Yeah, we're not as dependent on oil now as in the 70s, we're even more dependent now. Have you noticed how far people now live from the store and work, even in big cities?
Well, people alive in 1973 had no idea what 1983 or today would look like. I challenge anyone to tell me what 2009 or even the rest of 2008 will be like. We're like passengers and crew in a twin prop plane. One engine is dead and the other one sounds kind of sick. We can only pray and also hope that the second engine stays alive long enough to get us to an airport. If not it's going to be a hard landing. Either way, we're in for an awefully bumpy ride and some or all of us are going to get hurt. No matter which side of the toast you butter, we are all in this together.
I don't know if I said anything useful, and I don't know if I vented enough to get back to sleep, but that's all I've got.
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