So I've been doing much thinking these past few weeks mainly because I'm begining to hate this country and my seemingly more and more mundane life
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I certainly don't think you have a "cocky American viewpoint," and travel in Europe would be beneficial regardless if you can afford to do it. Hell, I wish I could go with you, but my work situation makes it impossible. I haven't actually taken a vacation since 2001! Actually, NY Rocky Con this July was something of a vacation, I guess, and I enjoyed it even more than I expected, but it was really just a long weekend.
I don't share your view that we are approaching civil war. Politics will necessarily become more vicious as the electorate polarizes roughly evenly, since fighting over very small stakes can be worthwhile. Nevertheless, this country has survived far worse stresses than those to which it is being subjected now, including a full-blown civil war with about 600,000 casualties in the 1860s and the Great Depression of the 1930s that led to openly Communist candidates drawing millions of votes in presidential elections. A good friend of mine says that he thinks George W. Bush is the worst and most dangerous president in his memory, which is saying quite a lot because he has written books on John F. Kennedy and on Henry A. Wallace, and covered international affairs as a journalist from the 1950s to the 1970s. He has chosen to throw his lot in with the Green Party, which I don't personally see as viable, but I can understand his reasoning. Your thinking is more apocalyptic than his, but there are similarities. He still has been finding a month or so to travel in Europe every year lately, which he is able to do because is in now in academia.
I certainly don't think you have a "cocky American viewpoint," and travel in Europe would be beneficial regardless if you can afford to do it. Hell, I wish I could go with you, but my work situation makes it impossible.
I haven't actually taken a vacation since 2001! Actually, NY Rocky Con this July was something of a vacation, I guess, and I enjoyed it even more than I expected, but it was really just a long weekend.
I don't share your view that we are approaching civil war. Politics will necessarily become more vicious as the electorate polarizes roughly evenly, since fighting over very small stakes can be worthwhile. Nevertheless, this country has survived far worse stresses than those to which it is being subjected now, including a full-blown civil war with about 600,000 casualties in the 1860s and the Great Depression of the 1930s that led to openly Communist candidates drawing millions of votes in presidential elections.
A good friend of mine says that he thinks George W. Bush is the worst and most dangerous president in his memory, which is saying quite a lot because he has written books on John F. Kennedy and on Henry A. Wallace, and covered international affairs as a journalist from the 1950s to the 1970s. He has chosen to throw his lot in with the Green Party, which I don't personally see as viable, but I can understand his reasoning. Your thinking is more apocalyptic than his, but there are similarities.
He still has been finding a month or so to travel in Europe every year lately, which he is able to do because is in now in academia.
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