what will history say of us?
Published 1 year, 7 months ago in My life.“We live in hideous times… they will go down in history as one of those nasty little backwaters when bad things happened to dumb people and things went wrong and nobody cared and nobody laughed and fear was the governing ethic.
People will not want to read about what happened to us “back then’’. It will be too depressing, too grim…'’
That was written by Hunter S Thompson in July 1992
Back when George H. W. Bush held grimly to the White House after four violent years that included a half-arsed and hugely popular bombing of Iraq.
Back when presidential candidate Bill Clinton won votes by not inhaling and playing the sax on late night TV.
Back when Bob Hawke’s blood was still drying on the caucus floor of the ALP and Paul Keating presided over the recession we had to have.
What would HST say of us and our time; the nasty little backwater of the early 21st century?
Back when George W Bush held grimly to the Whitehouse after six violent years that included the wholesale and hugely unpopular invasion of Iraq.
Back when fear really was the ruling ethic, when our nightmares and our politics were shaped by the specter of an illusive enemy with no country and no flag, an enemy with many faces (Osama, Saddam, Hicks to name a few) and a single, bloody purpose – terror.
Back when our excesses finally caught up to us; when we realized that we had permanently changed the climate for the worse and still nobody cared.
Back when John Howard held sway in Canberra and vulnerable people in boats were marooned on bankrupt Pacific islands and telling lies and getting caught didn’t matter any more.
Back when bad things happened and nobody cared.
Hunter Stockton Thompson shot himself in the head in February 2005. The 21st century wasn’t for him.
But what will history say? Will people want to read about what happened to us “back then’’. Or will it be too depressing, too grim?
5 Responses to “what will history say of us?”
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Unless we change our ways either:
1. there won’t be any future for us to be history of.
or
2. the future will only get worse & they’ll look back on the 21st century with longing.
I think that history will record our time as “the turning point of human civilisation” .
or the “tipping point'’
Sure its easy to focus on the negative in any century you’ll find plenty, human nature being what it is, the 21st has some good stuff too.
Terrorism now that’s become enormously problematic in the 21st but its been around a long time. Probably more to do with how we’ve handled it these days than anything.
History is cyclic. Only the names change. If you check back in history, you will find there were doomsayers in every generation. As i said, all that changes is the name.
America seems to be embracing a cyclic change at the moment.
1. There is more zero tolerance being established with law
makers, and enforcers. (Check out NY)
2. There are more people espousing religion, and it would
appear to be unwise to sprout anti religios messages
for fear of being ostracised
3 It would appear, either genuine or not, for Americans to
react to any negative scenario, human tragedy with a
pull out all stops mentality
the shadow hasnt been there, these are just his understandings from media coverage he has seen and read.
cheer up, things will change.
theshadow