Dear Friends:
The best explanation of ISIS, what it means/says about our world today and why the world is now experiencing a Third World War, is to be found in The Guardian newspaper of Saturday, July 25. It’s an article by Pankaj Mishra and I recommend you look it up on the Internet and give it a careful read. Among the many salient points is the thought that ISIS is often called “medieval” but in fact is very modern–a horrific expression of a widespread frustration with a globalize western model that promises freedom and prosperity for all, but fails to deliver. But read the article as it offers a very thoughtful and sophisticated analyst of the political world today.
On a very different matter. I came across the following passage in the book “Paper Cities” by John Green. Given my own situation at the moment I suspect it will be clear why It resonated with me so strongly:
“Did you know that for pretty much the entire history of the human species, the average life span was less than thirty years? You could count on ten years or so of real adulthood, right? There was no planning for retirement. There was no planning for a career. There was no PLANNING. No time for planning. No time for a future. But then the life spans started getting longer, and people started having more and more future, and so they spent more time thinking about it. About the future. And now life has become the future. Every moment of your life is lived for the future–you go to high school so you can go to college so you can get a good job so you can get a nice house so you can afford to send your kids to college so they can get a good job so they can afford to send their kids to college.”
In short, the future is robbing us of our now!
Love,
Jim
