Our dystopian world-I blame myself.

[Ray9]

In 1962 when I was 15, I couldn’t figure out why the school kept making me read dystopian novels like 1984, Brave New World and Animal farm. I remember an incident where some of my classmates broke into the high school at the end of the year and left farm animals in Mrs. Collins English classroom. They put maple syrup on the heads of some chickens so they would peck themselves to death and wrote Mrs. Collin’s Animal Farm on the blackboard. You’ll have to take my word that I was not involved.

The third time they kicked me out of school for growing my hair too long, a guidance councilor told me I had the third highest IQ in the sophomore class, and I was lazy. He was right and I take some responsibility for the way the world has turned out. I ended up in a rock band and escaped Vietnam due to a congenital eye defect. They classified me 1-Y not 4F. In the case of a national emergency or a nuclear attack they would call me-I didn’t sit by the phone waiting.

Today I know why they made me read those novels. I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis and shoveling dirt against the cellar windows with my father because we had no fallout shelter-that nuclear attack was only about 90 miles away.

Today right here in this county Bernie sanders is wildly popular with the young. Sanders is essentially a Jewish Fidel Castro. All the crazy scenarios in those dystopian novels seem to be coming to pass. Elementary school children are jazz handing at politically correct rallies and college students are screaming that you and I should pay their gambling debts-tuition expenses. Latin is no longer taught at most colleges and universities so “Caveat Emptor” is Greek to most kids. The US is coming full circle.

Education is indoctrination and now I know why most will not get the pensions I enjoy or the employee medical insurance I had. US industry is flocking to faraway places where people die in the gutter when they get sick-it’s perverse global capitalism evening the playing field with you and I eventually living a one world/third world existence. They’re just waiting for us to either die or end up swallowing our faces in nursing homes.

I don't blame the world for the way I turned out but I do partially blame myself for the way the world turned out. I should have paid attention to what was happening.

 

[Correll]

That is the standard critique on the Baby Boomers.


On the other hand, you did avoid the Big Contingency and manage to win the Cold War without ending civilization, so that is something.

 

[Ray9]

That is the standard critique on the Baby Boomers.


On the other hand, you did avoid the Big Contingency and manage to win the Cold War without ending civilization, so that is something.

We didn't win anything-we are becoming the enemy.

 

[Correll]

That is the standard critique on the Baby Boomers.


On the other hand, you did avoid the Big Contingency and manage to win the Cold War without ending civilization, so that is something.

We didn't win anything-we are becoming the enemy.

Well, the cost was high and the price is not yet tallied. But at least we are not living in a Mad Max wasteland. So there is that.

 

[Votto]

In 1962 when I was 15, I couldn’t figure out why the school kept making me read dystopian novels like 1984, Brave New World and Animal farm. I remember an incident where some of my classmates broke into the high school at the end of the year and left farm animals in Mrs. Collins English classroom. They put maple syrup on the heads of some chickens so they would peck themselves to death and wrote Mrs. Collin’s Animal Farm on the blackboard. You’ll have to take my word that I was not involved.

The third time they kicked me out of school for growing my hair too long, a guidance councilor told me I had the third highest IQ in the sophomore class, and I was lazy. He was right and I take some responsibility for the way the world has turned out. I ended up in a rock band and escaped Vietnam due to a congenital eye defect. They classified me 1-Y not 4F. In the case of a national emergency or a nuclear attack they would call me-I didn’t sit by the phone waiting.

Today I know why they made me read those novels. I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis and shoveling dirt against the cellar windows with my father because we had no fallout shelter-that nuclear attack was only about 90 miles away.

Today right here in this county Bernie sanders is wildly popular with the young. Sanders is essentially a Jewish Fidel Castro. All the crazy scenarios in those dystopian novels seem to be coming to pass. Elementary school children are jazz handing at politically correct rallies and college students are screaming that you and I should pay their gambling debts-tuition expenses. Latin is no longer taught at most colleges and universities so “Caveat Emptor” is Greek to most kids. The US is coming full circle.

Education is indoctrination and now I know why most will not get the pensions I enjoy or the employee medical insurance I had. US industry is flocking to faraway places where people die in the gutter when they get sick-it’s perverse global capitalism evening the playing field with you and I eventually living a one world/third world existence. They’re just waiting for us to either die or end up swallowing our faces in nursing homes.

I don't blame the world for the way I turned out but I do partially blame myself for the way the world turned out. I should have paid attention to what was happening.

You escaped Vietnam

So don't be too hard on yourself.

Dodging bullets, that's what life is all about. Even at that, it's insanely short no matter how "perfect" you turn out.

 

[Gdjjr]

I've made similar, though not as eloquent, public confessions. However, I didn't take "blame", only responsibility, for my part and "blamed" the point in time where trust in gov't was a part of the environment, or so I believe, at least in retrospect. I too read 1984, but, in the 9th grade what can a kid think about something that 'far fetched'. I don't recall a discussion about it- maybe there was, maybe there wasn't, but, if there was it obviously didn't stick with me, though, I have in the not too distant past (15 or so years) related to what I can remember about the gov't watching everything we do - I also don't remember discussing the Declaration of Independence, or, the Constitution. To me, that lack of discussion should be partly to "blame" and might even be one of the reasons I decided school wasn't for me- it was too authoritarian for my tastes- do as I say or else mentality.

I joined the Navy in May 1965 and had never heard of Vietnam until my Mother said she hoped I didn't have to go there. I didn't go on land there, but, the ship I was on, (USS Yorktown CVS 10) did make several forays into the Gulf of Tonkin.

In my recent, later years, I've come to realize our situation is not even close to what I believe men like Jefferson (very few, were, IMO, in his league even then and none are now) were trying to attempt, so, I've come to my own conclusions, based on a natural tendency to be observant and some formal Failure Analysis training (which I spent a goodly portion of my 'professional' career working at), coupled with a natural curiosity and naturally analytical personality- and I pass on what knowledge (conclusions) I've come to, hoping to do what I can do to leave my space a little better than I found it-

 

[Crepitus]

In 1962 when I was 15, I couldn’t figure out why the school kept making me read dystopian novels like 1984, Brave New World and Animal farm. I remember an incident where some of my classmates broke into the high school at the end of the year and left farm animals in Mrs. Collins English classroom. They put maple syrup on the heads of some chickens so they would peck themselves to death and wrote Mrs. Collin’s Animal Farm on the blackboard. You’ll have to take my word that I was not involved.

The third time they kicked me out of school for growing my hair too long, a guidance councilor told me I had the third highest IQ in the sophomore class, and I was lazy. He was right and I take some responsibility for the way the world has turned out. I ended up in a rock band and escaped Vietnam due to a congenital eye defect. They classified me 1-Y not 4F. In the case of a national emergency or a nuclear attack they would call me-I didn’t sit by the phone waiting.

Today I know why they made me read those novels. I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis and shoveling dirt against the cellar windows with my father because we had no fallout shelter-that nuclear attack was only about 90 miles away.

Today right here in this county Bernie sanders is wildly popular with the young. Sanders is essentially a Jewish Fidel Castro. All the crazy scenarios in those dystopian novels seem to be coming to pass. Elementary school children are jazz handing at politically correct rallies and college students are screaming that you and I should pay their gambling debts-tuition expenses. Latin is no longer taught at most colleges and universities so “Caveat Emptor” is Greek to most kids. The US is coming full circle.

Education is indoctrination and now I know why most will not get the pensions I enjoy or the employee medical insurance I had. US industry is flocking to faraway places where people die in the gutter when they get sick-it’s perverse global capitalism evening the playing field with you and I eventually living a one world/third world existence. They’re just waiting for us to either die or end up swallowing our faces in nursing homes.

I don't blame the world for the way I turned out but I do partially blame myself for the way the world turned out. I should have paid attention to what was happening.

And we should take you seriously why?

The word of an aging slacker is worth what?

And I blame you too, by the way. Every single time you voted republican was another step to the mess we're in now.

Now shape your shit up, it's never too late to get an education.

 

[JLW]

The world we live in goes back to the 2000 election. If Gore had won we would live in an entirely different world. Elections do have consequences and these consequences are permanent.

 

[Ray9]

In 1962 when I was 15, I couldn’t figure out why the school kept making me read dystopian novels like 1984, Brave New World and Animal farm. I remember an incident where some of my classmates broke into the high school at the end of the year and left farm animals in Mrs. Collins English classroom. They put maple syrup on the heads of some chickens so they would peck themselves to death and wrote Mrs. Collin’s Animal Farm on the blackboard. You’ll have to take my word that I was not involved.

The third time they kicked me out of school for growing my hair too long, a guidance councilor told me I had the third highest IQ in the sophomore class, and I was lazy. He was right and I take some responsibility for the way the world has turned out. I ended up in a rock band and escaped Vietnam due to a congenital eye defect. They classified me 1-Y not 4F. In the case of a national emergency or a nuclear attack they would call me-I didn’t sit by the phone waiting.

Today I know why they made me read those novels. I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis and shoveling dirt against the cellar windows with my father because we had no fallout shelter-that nuclear attack was only about 90 miles away.

Today right here in this county Bernie sanders is wildly popular with the young. Sanders is essentially a Jewish Fidel Castro. All the crazy scenarios in those dystopian novels seem to be coming to pass. Elementary school children are jazz handing at politically correct rallies and college students are screaming that you and I should pay their gambling debts-tuition expenses. Latin is no longer taught at most colleges and universities so “Caveat Emptor” is Greek to most kids. The US is coming full circle.

Education is indoctrination and now I know why most will not get the pensions I enjoy or the employee medical insurance I had. US industry is flocking to faraway places where people die in the gutter when they get sick-it’s perverse global capitalism evening the playing field with you and I eventually living a one world/third world existence. They’re just waiting for us to either die or end up swallowing our faces in nursing homes.

I don't blame the world for the way I turned out but I do partially blame myself for the way the world turned out. I should have paid attention to what was happening.

And we should take you seriously why?

The word of an aging slacker is worth what?

And I blame you too, by the way. Every single time you voted republican was another step to the mess we're in now.

Now shape your shit up, it's never too late to get an education.

I wasn't exactly a slacker. I was a steelworker for twenty years and then a CNC programmer for thirty years at a global producer of steel components and miniature and tapered ball bearings for thirty years. I'm getting generous pensions from both which many will likely never see. Because my income was high from years of overtime, I get a big Social Security check as well. If I end up on a college campus it will be to teach, not learn.

 

[konradv]

That is the standard critique on the Baby Boomers. On the other hand, you did avoid the Big Contingency and manage to win the Cold War without ending civilization, so that is something.

If blame is just put on the boomers, nothing will change. Who do you they they blamed for how the world turned out? Whine about previous generations and all you're doing is setting it up for generations down the road to whine about you.

 

[eagle7_31]

In 1962 when I was 15, I couldn’t figure out why the school kept making me read dystopian novels like 1984, Brave New World and Animal farm. I remember an incident where some of my classmates broke into the high school at the end of the year and left farm animals in Mrs. Collins English classroom. They put maple syrup on the heads of some chickens so they would peck themselves to death and wrote Mrs. Collin’s Animal Farm on the blackboard. You’ll have to take my word that I was not involved.

The third time they kicked me out of school for growing my hair too long, a guidance councilor told me I had the third highest IQ in the sophomore class, and I was lazy. He was right and I take some responsibility for the way the world has turned out. I ended up in a rock band and escaped Vietnam due to a congenital eye defect. They classified me 1-Y not 4F. In the case of a national emergency or a nuclear attack they would call me-I didn’t sit by the phone waiting.

Today I know why they made me read those novels. I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis and shoveling dirt against the cellar windows with my father because we had no fallout shelter-that nuclear attack was only about 90 miles away.

Today right here in this county Bernie sanders is wildly popular with the young. Sanders is essentially a Jewish Fidel Castro. All the crazy scenarios in those dystopian novels seem to be coming to pass. Elementary school children are jazz handing at politically correct rallies and college students are screaming that you and I should pay their gambling debts-tuition expenses. Latin is no longer taught at most colleges and universities so “Caveat Emptor” is Greek to most kids. The US is coming full circle.

Education is indoctrination and now I know why most will not get the pensions I enjoy or the employee medical insurance I had. US industry is flocking to faraway places where people die in the gutter when they get sick-it’s perverse global capitalism evening the playing field with you and I eventually living a one world/third world existence. They’re just waiting for us to either die or end up swallowing our faces in nursing homes.

I don't blame the world for the way I turned out but I do partially blame myself for the way the world turned out. I should have paid attention to what was happening.

And we should take you seriously why?

The word of an aging slacker is worth what?

And I blame you too, by the way. Every single time you voted republican was another step to the mess we're in now.

Now shape your shit up, it's never too late to get an education.

I believe the same for people who vote for demrats. Call it even.

 

[Correll]

That is the standard critique on the Baby Boomers. On the other hand, you did avoid the Big Contingency and manage to win the Cold War without ending civilization, so that is something.

If blame is just put on the boomers, nothing will change. Who do you they they blamed for how the world turned out? Whine about previous generations and all you're doing is setting it up for generations down the road to whine about you.

But, I am not whining about them. I offered a defense of them.


Sooo, I am setting it up from future generations to defend me?

 

[konradv]

That is the standard critique on the Baby Boomers. On the other hand, you did avoid the Big Contingency and manage to win the Cold War without ending civilization, so that is something.

If blame is just put on the boomers, nothing will change. Who do you they they blamed for how the world turned out? Whine about previous generations and all you're doing is setting it up for generations down the road to whine about you.

But, I am not whining about them. I offered a defense of them. Sooo, I am setting it up from future generations to defend me?

My post was more of a general statement, rather than explicit comment on yours. Sorry.

 

[Correll]

That is the standard critique on the Baby Boomers. On the other hand, you did avoid the Big Contingency and manage to win the Cold War without ending civilization, so that is something.

If blame is just put on the boomers, nothing will change. Who do you they they blamed for how the world turned out? Whine about previous generations and all you're doing is setting it up for generations down the road to whine about you.

But, I am not whining about them. I offered a defense of them. Sooo, I am setting it up from future generations to defend me?

My post was more of a general statement, rather than explicit comment on yours. Sorry.

NO, that is cool, I was sort of making the same type of point though.

I agree with you, with what is normal behavior. I'm thinking that we should change it up.


We look at history as a list of wars, too often.


Giving credit for AVOIDING a war, I think would be a good thing.

 

[whitehall]

The greatest Country in the world... dystopian=undesirable or frightening? Maybe you listen to too much democrat party propaganda.

 

[Votto]

The greatest Country in the world... dystopian=undesirable or frightening? Maybe you listen to too much democrat party propaganda.

You have a point. If you look at world history, you will see a not so pretty picture of human nature. Most men who have walked the earth have either been a slave to the state or in the military and dying for the state with example after example of mass human genocides conducted by the state scattered across the millennia.

Then you had a small bump in the road for statists as Europeans flocked to America for religious freedom, the society that the Founding Fathers sprung from. For a small moment in human history, you had freedom loving, God fearing people set up a government, the likes of which have never been seen. This is why to this day protesters in Hong Kong wave an American flag. But even back then, you had human slavery. What no Leftists will ever admit to though, was that these same God fearing freedom loving white Europeans fought their brothers to the death to free those slaves years later, something they never get credit for, and it all sprung from the revolution started by the Founding Fathers and their Constitution.

But as we see today, Leftism/atheism is on the rise as people scheme every day new ways to destroy our freedoms through government saturation and control of pretty much everything, other than abortion on demand and illicit drug use which Leftists want unregulated and free.