One of the great things about getting older is that you have perspective, you have history, and you have some long term idea of what is likely to repeat itself.
On one hand that’s great because you tend not to get blindsided, on the other hand you find yourself wandering into “crazy old guy” territory as you mutter “Back in my day….!”
So here it is:
Trump will likely win, and the US will go headlong into some mighty ugly, racist, and bad-for-everyone-not-rich madness.
AI, like Crypto before it, and various 3D goggles before that, will crash and burn. Sadly a large part of the Internet will also crash and burn.
My guess is that the western economy is on the brink of another great depression. Really, when you step back and look at it, North America in particular stopped producing anything of actual value a decade ago. Instead all manner of venture capitalists and hucksters now are making billions by buying then stripping healthy companies, and otherwise throwing both people and products out the door in the race for ever shorter term profits.
But hey, we’re also on the brink of a climate disaster, one that everyone can see coming, that experts predicted decades ago, and that no politician is willing to actually try to avoid. How about those oil companies in Alberta?
OK, enough doom and gloom. You know what’s positive? There’s a reasonable chance that I’ll be long gone before the worst of this hits. Especially since I’m living in Nova Scotia, which has about the sorriest health care in Canada.
Now, I’ll admit that every day when I wake up with the sunrise here in Western Head I look out the window and marvel at the skies. And the birds that are eating us out of house and home with their voracious appetites.
I’m still surprised that in recent months I’ve come to love the gym, and the machines, and the weights, and marvel at the clothing that doesn’t fit my now muscled body.
And I’m once again reading book after book, real books, not Kindle books, and am loving it. And I’ve added a turntable, which means buying real vinyl records from real record stores.
After three decades - or more? - of on-line life I’m relearning the value of real things, tangible things that I can hold in my hand. I’m realising that the thousands of songs sitting on my hard drive are nowhere near as satisfying as putting a record on the turntable and lowering the needle.
And, or course, liner notes.
Similarly, real printed books offer a much better experience than e-books, just as real, home-cooked food is more healthy and satisfying. And yes, my lovely French cashmere jacket is so much better than whatever is on sale at Winners or WalMart.
I guess that ultimately these are, or course, the Best of times, and the Worst of times.
(I wanted to post I Love My Shih Tzu’s Birthday Song, but this is the only one of their tunes on-line. I truly hope that someone, somewhere, is building a shrine to them, and to the Dik Van Dykes.)