Sometimes I can understand nostalgia for times past when all the atrocities of the world didn't occupy our awareness to any degree.
Two hundred years ago, a gal like me, living in middle-class bliss, would have been completely unaware of genocide in Darfur, oppression and revolt in Myanmar, war in Iraq, child abuse, and other catastrophes.
Of course I wouldn't have had indoor plumbing either, so everything's a trade-off.
Times like this, though, I'd almost prefer an outhouse and ignorance to the overwhelming nature of the death and despair in the news.
1 comment:
Not to pull the plug on your outhouse dream (ooooh, not my best metaphor), but 200 years ago, in 1807, you probably would have been aware of a French madman involving the civilized world in the greatest war ever known, and the child abuse probably would have been going on next door.
That's the trouble with being a history major. It's really hard to find the good old days.
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