{"id":384,"date":"2017-04-19T20:25:52","date_gmt":"2017-04-20T03:25:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joesays.ca\/?p=384"},"modified":"2017-04-20T15:17:01","modified_gmt":"2017-04-20T22:17:01","slug":"the-time-may-have-come-to-give-up-hope-and-just-have-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joesays.ca\/?p=384","title":{"rendered":"the time may have come to give up hope and just have fun"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A little over a year ago, I crossed the physically and emotionally daunting threshold into my \u201860s\u2019.\u00a0 It is an interesting time.\u00a0 More than any other decade marker (so far, at least) this one seems to encourage real reflection and assessment of one\u2019s life.\u00a0 60 may be the new 40, but 70 is indisputably a helluvalot closer than it was twenty years ago.\u00a0 However one looks at it, time is getting if not short, then shorter.\u00a0 One adjusts one\u2019s expectations accordingly.<\/p>\n

First, there is the inevitable consideration of \u2018how much time do I have<\/strong> and what do I do<\/strong> with it?\u2019<\/p>\n

But our time in history has thrown up another complicating factor: given the state of the world, what hope do any of us have for any kind of future?\u00a0 Now, before I\u2019m accused of sensationalizing or over-dramatising the situation, allow me some context.<\/p>\n

I was born in 1956, on the receding edge of the baby boom.\u00a0 Throughout my life, global affairs have been moving in a certain direction which has been almost universally accepted as both desirable and inevitable.\u00a0 The adoption of liberal democracy has been the accepted wisdom of my generation.\u00a0 The movement toward it has been my entire life\u2019s experience, and is so deeply ingrained in my consciousness that no other pattern seems even remotely negotiable.\u00a0 This is the way the world is \u2013 and should be \u2013 evolving.\u00a0 End of story.<\/p>\n

Yet, some sixty years later, the world is riven by populist movements rejecting this perceived wisdom.\u00a0 The most powerful nation on the planet has ceded its leadership to a wildly-unpredictable Twitter-addicted narcissist who is baiting every country that has any dealings with America with a message that boils down to: \u2018My way or the highway\u2019.\u00a0 Russia, China and other lesser players are rubbing their hands in untrammeled anticipation of the chaos that is coming, and the openings it will provide for them to advance their geopolitical objectives. \u00a0Nation states that were turning our way \u2013 Hungary, Turkey – are suddenly executing U-turns into authoritarianism.\u00a0 What rogue states like North Korea are planning one can only speculate \u2026<\/p>\n

At the same time, the European Union appears to be slowly but irretrievably disintegrating, rendering what was one of the modern world\u2019s most commendable and progressive multi-national projects into a fractured, inoperable shell of its former self.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, those of us in the small, by-standing countries lie awake at night, fearing for collateral damage\u2026<\/p>\n

Yes, this is the reality of life in 2017.\u00a0 There are forces in play that are so large, so malevolent, and so destructive that they do not bear thinking about, especially as we have so little power to affect or control them.\u00a0 And into this gloomy frame of mind comes a thought from noted astronomer and committed humanist Carl Sagan, voiced some decades ago:<\/p>\n

Science is more than a body of knowledge. It is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time when the United States is a service and information economy, when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have\u00a0slipped away to other countries, when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues. When the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority, when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Frighteningly prescient, no?<\/p>\n

So what to do?<\/p>\n

Well, my first and instinctive response is to armour up (emotionally) and shut down.\u00a0 Cocoon into a safe environment.\u00a0 But that\u2019s a pretty shallow way to live out one\u2019s remaining years.<\/p>\n

Alternatively, as stated above, one can just give up on hope, and have some fun.\u00a0 Indulge yourself.<\/p>\n

A couple I know \u2013 roughly my contemporaries, recently retired \u2013 have done just that.\u00a0 They consciously sold up almost everything they own \u2013 house included \u2013 and embarked on a lengthy program of world travel. I don\u2019t know that their decision was driven in any meaningful way by the political realities on the ground as by a neat alignment of motive and opportunity.\u00a0 But they sold up, packed up, and are now happily tramping around South East Asia.\u00a0 I don\u2019t necessarily envy their choices, but I sure admire their spunk.<\/p>\n

For myself, I\u2019m doing my best to adopt a similar mindset: forget the long game. Do what matters to you now. \u00a0Carpe diem and all that.\u00a0 Because I know the long slide is starting.\u00a0 I just want it to be filled with better things than darkness and superstition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A little over a year ago, I crossed the physically and emotionally daunting threshold into my \u201860s\u2019.\u00a0 It is an interesting time.\u00a0 More than any other decade marker (so far, at least) this one seems to encourage real reflection and assessment of one\u2019s life.\u00a0 60 may be the new 40, but 70 is indisputably a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-facts","category-filosofy-c"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joesays.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joesays.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joesays.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joesays.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joesays.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=384"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/joesays.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":391,"href":"https:\/\/joesays.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions\/391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joesays.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joesays.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joesays.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}