An excerpt from historian, Tony Judt's book "Ill Fares the Land" is found within this link in an interview he had with Terry Gross of "Fresh Air" on NPR.Right from the get-go I am hooked when I read these words:
"Something is profoundly wrong with the way we live today. For thirty years we have made a virtue out of the pursuit of material self-interest: indeed, this very pursuit now constitutes whatever remains of our sense of collective purpose. We know what things cost but have no idea what they are worth. We no longer ask of a judicial ruling or a legislative act: is it good? Is it fair? Is it just? Is it right? Will it help bring about a better society or a better world? Those used to be the political questions, even if they invited no easy answers. We must learn once again to pose them."
The one question above that most stands out to me is: "Will it help bring about a better society or a better world?" Perhaps this is the rebellious child of the 1960s coming out. I think in the '60s and '70s many of us were fixated on making this country & the world a better place. Certainly, I wanted to see an end to the Viet Nam War and an end to apartheid in America.
In my mind the War was purely political; it was about saving face of the United States. It really didn't have anything to do with national security, but about winning a conflict because we always won in war. However, this was a different war. We did not know who were the enemies... we could not tell the good guys from the bad because we were fighting a guerrilla war. There were no front lines; no clear definition of who to trust. For me and most who objected to the war it was not about hating our soldiers or wishing them ill... it was about getting them out of a no-win situation; getting them out of harm's way.
And then there was the problem of race at home. It was time... PAST TIME... for black people to share in the same rights and privileges as whites. This revolution was for all people of color. Today we are still fighting for the rights of individuals whether they be immigrants, people of color, of various religious persuasions, or sexual persuasion.
I have passed the point of wanting to be part of demonstrations or to confront people who think differently from me. However, I have not stopped writing about the things I think are wrong with our society... and I have not stopped VOTING. When I look back on that last sentence it seems I write about what is wrong... time I looked for what is right.
For me tolerance is the issue. Perhaps tolerance is not quite the right word. Perhaps embrace is a better one. We should EMBRACE the rights of ALL; not just tolerate them. We have Civil Rights and Religious Rights and Human Rights in our wonderful country. For all it's faults this is a great country, but we do not have to alienate our neighbors just because they look differently from us, think differently, have a different life style, or religion.
It should not make us less Christian, less Muslim, less Jewish, less Human to accept people as they are. Violence and hatred are our enemies. Open-mindedness, inclusiveness, and acceptance are our allies.
I hope you will consider looking at the book which I am recommending: "Ill Fares the Land". It is a wake-up call for us, for the old ones like me and for the middle and young generations. Here is another excerpt:
"For thirty years students have been complaining to me that 'it was easy for you': your generation had ideals and ideas, you believed in something, you were able to change things. 'We' (the children of the '80s, the '90s, the 'aughts') have nothing. In many respects my students are right. It was easy for us — just as it was easy, at least in this sense, for the generations who came before us. The last time a cohort of young people expressed comparable frustration at the emptiness of their lives and the dispiriting purposelessness of their world was in the 1920s: it is not by chance that historians speak of a 'lost generation'. "
Tony Judt died Friday of complications from ALS. He was 62.
