While I feel relatively certain that virtually every generation since the beginning of time has come into middle age and then looked around and declared "You know what? The world's gone crazy!" I can't help but think that the times we are living in are unique not just because I perceive them to, be but because things feel more unstable than they ever have.
I'm not denying that change can be a good and positive thing, and that sometimes the stodgy and stagnant nature of government, or personal habits, or lifestyles, or whatever it may be could use a shake-up... but sometimes we go overboard.
I think that in its current state, the world has genuinely gone overboard.
If there is anything that concerns me, it is the extraordinary levels of extremism and reactivity we are living with these days. And when you marry a high degree of reactivity to a slightly insane level of extreme entitlement, to always wanting your own way it becomes a pretty volatile mix.
Maybe my perspective is skewed by the fact that I am currently living in the USA which seems to be at the center of much of the chaos and controversy these days, but instability seems to be the norm in many corners of the world.
When I was a little kid (and into my early teens) we live with a certain degree of perpetual fear because I grew up during the so-called Cold War of the 1960s and into the 1970s.
Living in Denmark, we had a pretty peaceful life but at the same time there was always this undercurrent of worry that at any moment the Russians and the Americans are going to start throwing atom bombs at each other. And while tiny Denmark would have no general role in the process, we would nonetheless be turned into cinders in a matter of minutes.
And although that is only a faint memory at this point in my life, it is also disturbing that I am starting to feel that way again... except now for a different reason, here in 2026.
It seems like laws are being violated and ignored left, right and center, and people are being stripped of their freedoms and rights without any kind of due process and even though there are allegedly systems in place to control such things they are definitely not working. Shades of 1920s Italy...
Although I am now into what most of the world would consider "retirement age," I have to admit that I am not quite ready to end up in the ground, pushing up daffodils in spring, quite yet!
We've often had thoughts like "hopefully saner heads will prevail," but I'm starting to wonder where the saner heads are, and whether there even are any saner heads!
I suppose there is one school of thought which is "don't worry about things you have no control over," but it's very difficult to just close your ears and eyes and not think about these things which are very well documented and real.
Writing about it helps a little... and that's what journals/blog are for!
How about YOU? How do you feel about the state of the world? Is it unrestful where you are, or is it purely a USA "syndrome?" DO leave me a comment — engagement matters! Communities are built because people INTERACT with each other through the content that's created! This is SOCIAL media, after all. So share your opinion, be part of the conversation! I do my best to answer all worthy comments!
Sequence: 105 — Timestamp: 2026.09.03 - 19:38 PDT
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