[potlatch]

Yeah. It looks bad. Everyone I know thinks so, too.

It is bad, but have you ever thought about it this way; There have always been bad things going on all over the world, but before the days of instant cable news we didn't hear about it.

Now, we hear about everything right away, and all the 'talking heads' on T.V. give their views. Then the people on the other side of the world react to that, and things just seem to get worse!?

[liberallarry]

There are lots of questions to ask - Do I remember correctly? Am I wiser or more observant now? Is "history" an accurate guide? Like that.

I remember other bad times - the threat of nuclear armaggeddon in the '50s, the Viet Nam war, the confrontation with Russia over Cuba. But none of those felt like this.

Those were classic military confrontations with a foreign enemy, or bitter political disputes. This is a world-wide breakdown in civilized behavior, a challange to basic values. Sometimes good things happen when people have to rethink basic assumptions but it's pretty hard to see the bright side.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

There have always been bad things going on all over the world, but before the days of instant cable news we didn't hear about it.

While it is true that bad things have always happenned (shocked, shocked), it is certainly not true that the increase in the stories about them is an artifact caused by increased communications. This kind of stuff would have been much bigger news in previous decades, IF IT HAD OCCURRED. The increase in vile behavior in the civilized world is statistically irrefutable.

[liberallarry]

Perhaps people living in Europe between the two world wars felt like we do now. I don't know. History leaves out so much that we take for granted when we actually experience an event.