Preface When those who live in an age peer out from the sticky morass of compelling moments and memories and attempt to define that age, they may be startled by the difficulty of what seemed self-evident. The vitality of being is a strong filament but a partial one. For, to begin with, how do people know they live in a certain age, an age being more than the rule of a king or a leader, an age being some sort of metaphysical entity writ large in time? Is Zeitgeist like air and water, something that naturally gets into everyone’s system? The pervasiveness of the modern seems especially specious. In usage since the sixteenth century, the invincible word has been a totem to indicate the up-to-date, the contemporary, the with-it. How much better it is to be conversant with what is new and technologically happening, to say nothing of being alive rather than dead. How good it is to be modern! A smug yet perky aura of self-congratulation predominates: “I’m modern and good. You’re old-fashioned and bad.”
I’m looking forward to this series. I’m grateful that I can afford to live a pretty authentic life. It seems like it will all come down to giving access to land to more and more people.
In the face of the inevitable acceleration of accelerating change, timelessness of this ilk is humanity's only hope of survival, should we prove worthy of surviving. Thank you for this important contribution.
The Exciting Nightmare: a Year's Worth of Topical Essays about Modern Times
I’m looking forward to this series. I’m grateful that I can afford to live a pretty authentic life. It seems like it will all come down to giving access to land to more and more people.
In the face of the inevitable acceleration of accelerating change, timelessness of this ilk is humanity's only hope of survival, should we prove worthy of surviving. Thank you for this important contribution.
An astute exploration of our times and the human condition. Thank you for doing this. I will read each one. They are nourishment.
Baron,
This is so generous of you. I am looking forward to every essay.
Richard