Miniver Cheevy

I don't know how many of you had to read this poem from the "Spoon River" collection by...some dude...but the gist of the thing is, dude obsessed with the shiny medieval times. Born way too late. I think he kills himself at the end, but well that's obsession and a memory of six years ago (god, why does time have to keep passing) for you.

Anyway.

I, too, would like to check out a different century or two...definitely the 19th, so as to smack Napoleon upside the head for fucking things up so dramatically...but, if you think about it, the problem is not just that the histories we read are written by the winners.

History textbooks are written by people of our own time (-50 years if your school has no funding), and as for primary sources? Well, there's no reason for a person to describe every little horrible detail of his life if he's writing for contemporaries; and anyone today is hard-pressed to imagine getting used to the ubiquitous odor of large mammal shit, unless of course you decide to spend a few months in a village backwater enough to have lots of four-legged beasts of burden roaming about somewhere (FYI: highly not recommended, the smell is the least of the problems you'll face).

So, anyway. I don't think it's possible for people to be anything other than a product of their own time.

A long time ago, this wouldn't have mattered too much. But now, there's a greater gap between generations as technology increases at such a phenomenal rate, and, worse, older people are remaining in power.

Let me make this clear: I do not think that we should ever have a president from before Obama's generation again. The reason is very simple: Cold War legacies. Which I have already whined about, so I hope I don't need to rehash that argument especially when it keeps punching us all in the face every single time we have to deal with something that should be a genuine non-issue.

Yeah. That's right. It is now possible to outgrow the world.

Yay better healthcare and cushier lifestyles!