degringolade

Aurelian was glum today. He wasn’t inaccurate, but he definitely didn’t raise my spirits.

Look folk, we have it pretty damn good, even with all the crap going on. But I am thinking that the party may well be coming to an end and we are going to need to be more careful, more frugal, and think a lot more before we speak.

I am a gray-haired white male of European descent. I grew up not-quite believing the tales of what that particular identity meant. I also watched that identity become a thing of scorn. Such is life. But the problem with being of the scapegoat class is that there really isn’t a societal structure that is on the horizon to replace the now-outmoded system of which I am a part and I may well become quite obsolete.

I suppose that I am grateful that I lived when I lived. You could make an argument that I lived in a golden age with the only problem being that golden ages always come to an end. Always. My descendents will most likely live in a world/society that is more constrained than the historical aberration that was American society post WWII.

I suppose that the society that I currently inhabit is like a set of jenga blocks well into the game. I am not all that certain that the original tower was set up all that well, it appears to me that the structure was on the tippy side from the get go, but that is neither here not there and is a bit of an inconsequential whine on my part if we are doing full disclosure here. But it was good enough for a long time and the tower held together as pieces were removed.

But truthfully, the parts that we pulled out were the parts that didn’t add anything to the structure at first. Sometimes simply reducing the weight of a structure improves overall strength. We are well past that now. The tower is teetering because of decisions made and the consequences are ours. We can blame the poor sad bastard who is making the decisions, but he is doing what needs to be done if the tower is going to hold on for any time. But the decisions being executed far away are only being done so that the tottering tower will stand up long enough to satisfy short term desires.

I think that we are at the place where you can’t really turn back. When the tower falls, we will have to rebuild it on short rations and lowered expectations. It won’t be a choice, it will be a requirement.

I am watching this with an attitude of macabre fascination.