As someone in the UK of life long left leaning persuasion I have noticed since Brexit / Trump / Orbán / AFD etc. I frequently feel as though I am become Yeats’ doom-laden oracle. This article is helpful in prompting me to ask when, where and by whom were ‘things’ ever felt to be ‘together’ or ‘whole’?
To me, there is no question things are falling apart. All the different important things that we need to answer take a majority of the people working together. These are world and country problems. To get the majority of the world to work on something is like, I don’t see that happening before something terrible happens. And even then, history shows us we don’t learn even when terrible things happen. The good thing about it is I know that my knowledge is limited and there are many things that could happen that I cannot imagine. So I’m still hoping.
<< The part of civilization historically rooted in Christianity is the part that increasingly doubts its underpinnings.>> It's been going on for a hundred years now but is perhaps reaching its culmination, see Immanuel Todd La Défaite de l'Occident from 2024 (The Defeat of the West).
Yes, I am, but most of the non-Americans you naturally come in contact with here aren't actually from Qatar or any other Arab nation. The service industry in Qatar (as in Saudi Arabia, the other gulf state I've been to) is staffed mainly by immigrants. So I've struck up conversations with people from India, Myanmar, etc. That said, the reason I'm here--to participate in a Doha Debates segment that will air on Al Jazeera English in a few months--has brought me into touch with some people who, though not *from* Doha, are of Arab heritage, and speak Arabic.
Yes, you're the second person to point out that the poem wasn't written by "Richard" Yeats-- (presumably whichever part of my brain made this mistake had Richard Yates in mind). At least I warned you that I was still jet lagged...The correction has been made.
I knew you were tired, and figured you would make the correction. Doesn’t help that Yeats is pronounced as Yates. Nice to know you don’t fly with an AI assistant that would correct something like this.
As someone in the UK of life long left leaning persuasion I have noticed since Brexit / Trump / Orbán / AFD etc. I frequently feel as though I am become Yeats’ doom-laden oracle. This article is helpful in prompting me to ask when, where and by whom were ‘things’ ever felt to be ‘together’ or ‘whole’?
To me, there is no question things are falling apart. All the different important things that we need to answer take a majority of the people working together. These are world and country problems. To get the majority of the world to work on something is like, I don’t see that happening before something terrible happens. And even then, history shows us we don’t learn even when terrible things happen. The good thing about it is I know that my knowledge is limited and there are many things that could happen that I cannot imagine. So I’m still hoping.
Will Jackson
The growing sense that the center will not hold may account for the sharp drop in the number of young adults who own a home, marry, and have children.
Plummeting fertility won't unleash "mere anarchy," however. It will see the Western world end "with a whimper, not a bang."
https://x.com/NatHalberstadt/status/1988673314924253207
<< The part of civilization historically rooted in Christianity is the part that increasingly doubts its underpinnings.>> It's been going on for a hundred years now but is perhaps reaching its culmination, see Immanuel Todd La Défaite de l'Occident from 2024 (The Defeat of the West).
I'm trying with every fiber of my being to resist spending a ton of time on a rare day off to go down a Falconing internet rabbithole lol
It's amazing how people across the world still can't see the AI flood that will uproot their entire existence.
Let us not forget our own nation’s falconer-in-chief, the honorable Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. May the road kill always be at his back.
I do hope you also get to speak with people other than American expats.
Yes, I am, but most of the non-Americans you naturally come in contact with here aren't actually from Qatar or any other Arab nation. The service industry in Qatar (as in Saudi Arabia, the other gulf state I've been to) is staffed mainly by immigrants. So I've struck up conversations with people from India, Myanmar, etc. That said, the reason I'm here--to participate in a Doha Debates segment that will air on Al Jazeera English in a few months--has brought me into touch with some people who, though not *from* Doha, are of Arab heritage, and speak Arabic.
We are running on fumes. Feels like Wile E Coyote staring down in the canyon.
W. B. Yeats wrote this poem I believe.
Yes, you're the second person to point out that the poem wasn't written by "Richard" Yeats-- (presumably whichever part of my brain made this mistake had Richard Yates in mind). At least I warned you that I was still jet lagged...The correction has been made.
I knew you were tired, and figured you would make the correction. Doesn’t help that Yeats is pronounced as Yates. Nice to know you don’t fly with an AI assistant that would correct something like this.