We’ll never live to see it is a common phrase. We spout that when talking about ideas for change that are far too ambitious for the reality at hand. When I was younger, I naively saw this world as a place that would get better and better because of the unstoppable march of progress with the help of enlightened thinking and a strong public will to work toward righting wrongs.Part of that thinking had to do with the United States of America, which I thought was the good-intentioned agent that would foster the change: end hunger, clean up the worlds pollution, make education possible for all, ensure basic health care for every human, and spread democracy by example. As a Peace Corps volunteer in the heady 1960s, I thought that way.
Now at 60, I am amazed at how many times I have come to realize how much wont change in my remaining years on this earth. It is as if I have given up, or that my idealism has been compromised, or that I have lost confidence in what we can or will do. Much of it, of course, is a much better understanding of human vices, especially the ruthlessness that comes to those with power and money — and politicians especially have both. Its that way across the world.
On July 6, George W. Bush joins our growing group of Baby Boomers hitting 60. He has talked a lot about it already. Look from him to reflect on it more. He can affect this generation and the next ones more than anyone.
Things have gotten so increasingly out of balance — the wealthy and powerful having their way in all sectors of life — that its difficult to see the nations and worlds lower and middle classes every again having a chance. My pessimism grows with the mantra of the security-at-all-cost crowd. Civil liberties and freedoms no longer seem worth protecting to the conservatives who are driving the discussion and who once championed individual rights. So many who are deeply religious and faithful are aghast at how much mayhem is being committed by those spouting values, righteousness and devotion to God. A great tragedy has been how the fear of terrorism drumbeat has so perfectly silenced us, especially the more easily manipulated lesser educated.
With global warming seemingly moving to that tipping point of no return, with this administration so successful in chipping away at our rights and liberties with such a steady cadence that is hardly protested and with corporate-driven democracy so profoundly in place, I wont be so foolish to believe we can turn things around. Not even at the polls, given how rapidly free elections have become an endangered event in America because of technology, cunning and the high stakes of politics.
I wish I could say people of faith, through prayer, wont let the bad happen on this planet. But I fear we have become too polarized to willingly discuss together the common great threats. We are too unwilling to put so much aside to stop the many kinds of tyrannies around us. I imagine my being 70 or 80 or 90 now. How much would I simply accept as “the way its just going to be for the rest of my life”? At what point in a lifetime, does the heart stop believing that things can change?
