From 28 February 2020, my worst prediction ever:
"[The] pandemic disease sweeping this country [...] will [...] bring Americans closer together in the effort to
cope with it, rallying around the banner of our shared response rather
than for or against any particular politician."
In hindsight, my sunny optimism was delusional. The fractures were already there and plenty of people were beginning to hammer in wedges in pursuit of partisan nonsense or accelerationist agitation. It taught me valuable lessons, mostly that my childhood insight that half the people one meets are sub-par was right and I should never have let myself be convinced otherwise.
Pandemic aside (and I hope it stays aside!), we're in a mess up to our necks now and I very much doubt matters will get better quickly.
Predictions are akin to assumptions in making asses of us. Welcome to the club.
ReplyDeleteI remember being out and about on 29 February 2020, and standing in the Target, saying to myself "well, this will likely play out like OG SARS did and be gone in a couple weeks, but I maybe should buy some extra tp and canned goods just in case"
ReplyDeleteand then, two weeks later, all the S hit the F, my university went all-virtual, some businesses here (even here!) shut down for several weeks....the fight about mask-wearing started a good bit later, and then the fight about vaccines once they arrived.
I dunno. I made it this far. There were times in mid 2020 when I didn't think I would. But I don't like seeing the ugly underbelly of American culture that was probably always there and I only now noticed
You're right.
ReplyDeleteMy optimistic side says, to fix: "10 years minimum, and the departures-forced or otherwise-of a whole generation of politicians".
That's the optimist.
The realist says: "Race to the bottom in a permanent, crippling vortex".