२४ जुलै, २०२०

"Like most baby boomers, I’ve been a hope junkie most of my life. I rejected the Vietnam War and materialistic values..."

"... and worked for peace, civil rights and environmental protections. I believed that we were living at the dawn of a new age and that the world was getting more democratic, just and free through the power of love.... But at some point, boomers lost their way.... We bought into a system that we knew was wrong.... There’s no particular moment when I gave up hope; it’s been a gradual, inexorable process.... Some 25 years ago, a Tibetan friend told me his spiritual practice involved pondering death every day. This struck me as somewhat morbid at the time, but not so anymore. Now I, too, live with the thought of death daily.... I think we may even be on a path toward rapid economic collapse, climate chaos, social unrest, famine and near-term human extinction.... Life gets more precious when you live with the presence of death. Giving up hope, and facing my imminent demise, has been a kind of liberation. I’m now more alert for ways to love my loved ones, and everyone else, with as much grace and beauty as I can. I’m noticing the needs that arise around me.... I’m deep in the 'don’t know' phase about what’s next in life. But I feel strangely calm, more curious and interested than anxious. I find myself paying attention to synchronicities, to song fragments and random comments that move me and to my memories and dreams. I’m listening for what is needed and wanted, and what is mine to do. And I know that the joy and sense of purpose I feel now would not be possible without first experiencing hopelessness."

From "Feeling Hopeless? Embrace It. And then take action" by Eric Utne (NYT).

६२ टिप्पण्या:

ga6 म्हणाले...

Oh poor baby..go nap and you will feel better..

rehajm म्हणाले...

OT, but hope for the good guys today:

On 2/19/19, I filed $250M defamation lawsuit against Washington Post. Today, I turned 18 & WaPo settled my lawsuit. Thanks to
@ToddMcMurtry
&
@LLinWood
for their advocacy. Thanks to my family & millions of you who have stood your ground by supporting me. I still have more to do.

2 down 6 to go.


- Nicholas Sandmann

Gordy म्हणाले...

Typical NPR listener.

I'm Not Sure म्हणाले...

"But at some point, boomers lost their way.... We bought into a system that we knew was wrong...."

Oh good grief. There are over 71 million boomers in the US. "We"? Really? You're speaking for all of them?

Maybe that's where YOU lost YOUR way.

whitney म्हणाले...

Does anyone else think that he sounds insufferable?

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent म्हणाले...

Sounds like you’ve been a drama junkie most of your life. There’s a certain kind of Boomer, usually female I’m afraid, who is so convinced of their pure compassionate nature, but who is actually grotesquely entitled and self-centered. The world will be a better, more honest, place when they’re gone.

Leora म्हणाले...

There's a reason that despair is considered a deadly sin.

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

I looked up his age. He's 73.

Sebastian म्हणाले...

"Now I, too, live with the thought of death daily.... I think we may even be on a path toward rapid economic collapse, climate chaos, social unrest, famine and near-term human extinction."

And that's progressivism for you. A death cult.

By the way, is climate "chaos" a new trope? First we got global cooling, but that failed; then global warming, another fail; then climate change, bound to be true, but who cares; so now "chaos"--as vague as "change" but conveniently ominous?

Mark म्हणाले...

"Like most baby boomers, I’ve been a hope junkie most of my life. I rejected the Vietnam War and materialistic values and worked for peace, civil rights and environmental protections. I believed that we were living at the dawn of a new age and that the world was getting more democratic, just and free through the power of love.... But at some point, boomers lost their way

No. That was never "hope." That was merely a different, earlier form of the nihilism you revel in now.

policraticus म्हणाले...

I think we may even be on a path toward rapid economic collapse, climate chaos, social unrest, famine and near-term human extinction....

Keep hoping. Keep dreaming. Someday, somewhere, someone who believes this will turn out to be right. That person will be the first They will be lucky enough to go into the darkness with the satisfaction of having finally been right.

daskol म्हणाले...

Isn’t that the first commandment—abandon hope all ye who enter here? Good advice anyway, whether bound for a hit spot or more pleasant climes. Together with the latest polls, I take this as a poor sign for Biden’s chances.

Michael K म्हणाले...

Baby Boomers are like locusts. They destroy what ever they find.

PubliusFlavius म्हणाले...

National Propaganda Radio

n.n म्हणाले...

at the dawn of a new age and that the world was getting more democratic, just and free through the power of love.... But at some point, boomers lost their way

Majority rule, really? Social (i.e. relativistic) justice anywhere is injustice everywhere. Freedom through regulation, intimidation, violence, and cancellation. #HateLovesAbortion

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM म्हणाले...

damn he sounds like he could use a good bible thumping

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM म्हणाले...

or any large, hardbound book would do

effinayright म्हणाले...

All he needs to do is to sit in the lotus position in a darkened room and chant "ommmmmmmmm" until he reaches satori---or death.

Take yer pick.

Mr Wibble म्हणाले...

"Like most baby boomers, I’ve been a hope junkie most of my life. I rejected the Vietnam War and materialistic values and worked for peace, civil rights and environmental protections. I believed that we were living at the dawn of a new age and that the world was getting more democratic, just and free through the power of love.... But at some point, boomers lost their way

Probably right about the time you decided that you were at the "dawn of a new age". Nothing good ever comes from believing that you can recreate mankind.

stevew म्हणाले...

I'm a late age, i.e.; younger, Boomer, born in 1957. I've never identified with the sort of thinking expressed by this older Boomer; in fact, I've always despised it and them. Rather than thirsting after power from those in charge I decided to take care of myself, get a job, make friends, marry, raise a family. That all seemed so much more productive than spending my energy on HOPE. It's worked out pretty well.

Zero sympathy for this grown child and his 'predicament'.

stephen cooper म्हणाले...

A relevant (I hope) comment (on the subject of hope versus pessimism): When I was a kid, there used to be this thing called "parlor games" - I think some of them are still around, like "truth or dare" and "20 questions", although younger people than me probably think of them as games they played in the back seat on long drives.

Anyway, I thought of a good one today. You can actually play it by yourself, or with someone else. Here's the simple rules of the game:

Answer, in five seconds, these two questions ----- then answer them again (either when it is your turn again, or wait a minute or two). The answers are interesting in themselves, no matter who you are, and the changed answers (if you change your answer) are always interesting too.


One ----WHAT IS THE BEST COMPLIMENT ANYONE EVER GAVE YOU,
and
Two ---- WHAT IS THE BEST COMPLIMENT YOU WANTED TO GET, WHETHER OR NOT YOU GOT IT?

I'll go first.

One - Last week, I was talking to a friend of 50 years about his daughter, who is a beloved social worker in one of the five boroughs. I said to my friend, about his daughter, that she is the sort of person that, whenever she walks in the room, she makes people happy. Out of nowhere, and totally unexpectedly, my friend said "Everyone I know who knows you thinks you are like that too".

Two - And --- the best compliment I wanted to get, I did get it, in a year ending in the numeral 7 in a decade long ago . I was in love, and I wanted the woman I loved to say something nice, along these lines ----- I've never wanted to marry anyone as much as I want to marry you. And one evening she did say it, in an apartment on the 20th floor or so, near one of those sliding door windows that overlook a balcony, while outside the snow was endlessly falling.

That single moment paid me back a millionfold for every debt the universe ever owed me.

Fernandinande म्हणाले...

"Sometimes I think I’d be better off dead.
No, wait, not me, you." -- Handey

mezzrow म्हणाले...

Soft as the voice of an angel
Breathing a lesson unheard
Hope with a gentle persuasion
Whispers a comforting word.

Wait, till the darkness is over
Wait, till the tempest is done
Hope, for the sunshine tomorrow
After the darkness is gone.

Whispering hope
Oh how welcome Thy voice
Making my heart
Any sorrow rejoice.

Rob म्हणाले...

Better than nothingness is a high standard.

Fernandinande म्हणाले...

In case anyone dies, here's pretty good all-purpose epithet, er epitaph, er obituary:

His philosophy of life was a simple one. “I’m-a no look-a for trouble, because-a trouble, she’s-a no good,” he would often say, in his beloved fake Italian accent.

Bill, Republic of Texas म्हणाले...

Fucking Boomers. Enough. Die already.

Bill, Republic of Texas म्हणाले...
ही टिप्पणी लेखकाना हलविली आहे.
Not Sure म्हणाले...

I'm sure his obituary will be somewhat interesting. Can't wait to read it.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil म्हणाले...

I was born in '60. I know many decent early boomers. The elderly hippies? I want them to die too - and horribly.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM म्हणाले...

Rob @8:53
lol

FGH म्हणाले...

A Case for Jefferson

Harrison loves my country too,
But wants it made all over new.
He's Freudian Viennese by night.
By day he's Marxian Muscovite.
It isn't because he's Russian Jew.
He's Puritan Yankee through and through.
He dotes on Saturday pork and beans.
But his mind is hardly out of his teens:
With him the love of country means
Blowing it all to smithereens
And having it all made over new.

Robert Frost, 1947

Foose म्हणाले...

How does what he's talking about differ from the Christian Memento Mori? The devout grandmother of Mary Queen of Scots had her own coffin set up in the passage outside her chapel, so she passed by it several times a day. Oh, Eric's insight came from a Tibetan, which is so much cooler than boring old Christianity. "Death, Judgment, Heaven, Hell" - to the Four Last Things add "and pontificate about it in the New York Times, too."

Flat Tire म्हणाले...

Speak for your self, wimp.

n.n म्हणाले...

Fucking Boomers. Enough. Die already.

Hey, they're still viable, but not in New York City, Seattle, and other forward-looking urban holes... whores h/t NAACP

Oso Negro म्हणाले...

@ stevew - I'm with you, born in 1957. Today I bought a motorcycle, and it's in the back of my truck with the skull of a Longhorn steer. I'm working hard, traveling with four pistols, two rifles and a shotgun in case of encountering a BLM riot. I have five girlfriends ranging in age from 19 to 30. Fuck inner peace. I'm riding to the end of the line.

bagoh20 म्हणाले...

You know, you could do all that positive stuff without the perfunctory whining first. It would actually really be something wonderful if you had that self-control. It's like you cook us a great dinner, but when presenting it, you tell us you made it from the bones of your poisoned husband, who you loved despite him never existing. Stay happy, my friend.

Narr म्हणाले...

Boomer self-regard . . . and poorly written too.

Best compliment I ever got . . . "Hublhbahw! You're really light on you feet for a big man! Scared the shit out of me." I wasn't even trying to sneak, either. Good thing he wasn't a she.

I can't remember any of the other kind(s).

Narr
Always look on the bright side of life!

bagoh20 म्हणाले...

I thought it was a woman. I still do.

bagoh20 म्हणाले...

It's a hippy with delusions of grandeur.

The Godfather म्हणाले...

I'm a pre-boomer, born in 1943, but that's close enough to comment. Yes, I knew plenty of people like Eric, who thought, as he does, that everyone in their generation believed the same way. Most of them grew up. Apparently Eric didn't notice. Yes, in the 1960's there was a great crusade for civil rights and voting rights and a war on poor people -- oops, I mean on poverty. That's half a century ago. Right now, instead of trying to make life better for Blacks and other under-privileged people, the children and grandchildren of the boomers seem to think that the important thing is to occupy and/or burn parts of downtown Anywhere USA, to vandalize statues of people whose lives, actions, sins, or accomplishments they don't need to bother to learn.

Look, Eric, like me you're now an official Old Fart. If you haven't changed the world by now, your time has passed. You could use your remaining years to help the youngsters to avoid some of the stupid mistakes that you (and I) made in our youth. Maybe if they read your article in the NYT they might see that. But does anyone under 50 read the NYT?

DavidUW म्हणाले...

When will all the boomers die already.

Bilwick म्हणाले...

"Boomers lost their way." Translation: "They didn't all become statist Eloi like me and my friends."

Michael म्हणाले...

I contemplated death whenever an issue of Utne Reader came in the mail.

chuck म्हणाले...

Poor guy, got off to a bad start and never grew up. Now he's reduced to writing for the NY Times.

Mark Jones म्हणाले...

By pretty much any measure you care to employ, life on earth has never been better for more humans than it is right now. The number of people living in poverty is lower than ever. Most natural resources are cheaper and more plentiful than ever, providing the human race with more wealth and higher technology (and all the practical and comfort-based advantages it brings) than ever before. We produce more than enough food to feed everyone--and what famines do exist are mostly the result of tyrants using starvation as a weapon against their enemies. Medical technology has never been better. Wars are fewer and less destructive than ever.

And yet we have generations of soft-headed leftists crying that the end is nigh for one reason or another (overpopulation, global starvation, ice ages, acid rain, deforestation, desertification, global warming, climate change, whatever). They've been proven wrong time and again, yet they continue to screech that we're all doomed until and unless we buy into their scare tactics--and their prescription for salvation. Which always involves surrendering our freedom and our wealth. But only every single time.

Ralph L म्हणाले...

Utne? No reader, me.

Michael E. Lopez म्हणाले...

Jeff Goldblum's character in The Big Chill was going off about the jaded Boomers and their "lost hope" in 19-fucking-83.

traditionalguy म्हणाले...

Blog Death Notice: “This commenter has been removed by its author.”

PhilD म्हणाले...

So 'Catholic' of him. Ah well, he wouldn't know that. His precious sixties threw its heritage overboard because they saw no use for it.

Rory म्हणाले...

He's an old hippie
And he don't know what to do
Should he hang on to the old
Should he grab on to the new....

MD Greene म्हणाले...

Self-congratulating twaddle, perfect for the NYT fan base.

Jamie म्हणाले...

Does anyone else think that he sounds insufferable?

Lord, yes. And he thinks he's invented something new.

It was when I was in my teens in the "Day After" era, tossing and turning nightly over the prospect of nuclear holocaust, that I first began to understand what the Church had been teaching for almost two millennia already (and Judaism for millennia before that): put your hope in God, because, little human, that's where it belongs. Hoping in yourself will only lead to disappointment in the (or "your") end.

And once your hope is where it belongs, in Something immutable and beneficent, you're free: no more need to spend your thoughts and feelings on worry about the world or the future or your death. You can instead turn your attention to (in a phrase) brightening the corner where you are.

But sure, dude, you made it up all by your lonesome.

Kai Akker म्हणाले...

This is the same ad copy he has been writing all his life. Now with a twist because he was never made head dictator's assistant after all.

mikee म्हणाले...

So, the outlook on life changes as one ages. Well, that's certainly groundbreaking information. What next, a report about teens having a sex drive different from the aged?

M Jordan म्हणाले...

Meanwhile, I discovered this large lint ball in my navel. A symbol of hope? Of rebirth? Of wonder? I have come full cycle.

virgil xenophon म्हणाले...

Oso Negro@ 9:53PM/

My Main Man!!! :)

jnseward म्हणाले...

Too bad this life long victim of bad ideas never grew out of them.

Nichevo म्हणाले...

Interesting, Steve, really? It's not rationally interesting to me. I don't go around looking for compliments. I'm not so hungry for the regard of others as to meet my expectations for myself. If I wish anything to be complimented it is my work.

If any compliments have tickled me despite myself, however irrationally, it would be the expression of sexual desire for me by women, which has always worked a treat, and by men, which hasn't and doesn't, but is clearly a compliment even if unwelcome.



Answer, in five seconds, these two questions ----- then answer them again (either when it is your turn again, or wait a minute or two). The answers are interesting in themselves, no matter who you are, and the changed answers (if you change your answer) are always interesting too.


One ----WHAT IS THE BEST COMPLIMENT ANYONE EVER GAVE YOU,
and
Two ---- WHAT IS THE BEST COMPLIMENT YOU WANTED TO GET, WHETHER OR NOT YOU GOT IT?

Nichevo म्हणाले...

Now, having read your whole post:


I said to my friend, about his daughter, that she is the sort of person that, whenever she walks in the room, she makes people happy. Out of nowhere, and totally unexpectedly, my friend said "Everyone I know who knows you thinks you are like that too".


Take a poll here-I think people find you the opposite. I at least am uniformly unhappy when you post. Your self-love will require you to think that it's me, not you, but your honesty, if you have some, should lead you to contemplate the contrary.

Bilwick म्हणाले...

If you talk about "lost hope" and are still advocating any form of statism (whether "liberal" "progressive" or whatever label you want to attach to it), you're like some moron in one of those old moron jokes who keeps slamming his head against a wall and then complaining that it hurts. Statism is the killer of hope. Also lives. (See "Democide.")

Bilwick म्हणाले...

This pessimistic "liberalism"--in contrast to the hopeful, forward-looking "liberalism" of yesteryear--I first noticed after the hated Nixon defeated McGovern. The kind of hippies I knew who supported McGovern were convinced he'd become president and usher in a new era of benevolent collectivism, economics be damned. When McGovern lost they became sour and pessimistic, like cranky grandpas complaining about the kids with their crazy hairstyles and noisy music. I think a lot of them still haven't recovered.

Narr म्हणाले...

My first political activity and vote was for McGovern. I was 19 and the voting age had been dropped to 18. Now I realize what a bullet was dodged, though I'm a long way from Nixon-fandom.

To the extent that I'm aware of the opinions of my old Boomer fellows and friends--and I only discuss serious matters with a few--they mostly live down to the cliche of White educated successful people pretending to be rebels against The Man. No tale too lurid or preposterous if it's about Trump, no spin too absurd if it protects Dims.

I've thought all along that Trump's a baboon, but the Dims are rabid chimps.

Narr
Defund the FBICIA!