Oh, it is, but not always in a noble way. The world right now feels jittery, like a washing machine stuck on spin. It seems we are on the brink of something dreadful. America, once the reassuring hum in the background of global affairs, now lurches between outrage, brinkmanship and political theatre. Each news alert seems to hint at another fracture; democracy tested, alliances strained, truth treated as optional. Every headline carries the tone of an ultimatum, every election framed as the last one that will ever matter. It’s exhausting, even from several thousand miles away while I’m having my early morning cuppa.
Add wars that refuse to end, economies that wobble, and a climate that appears increasingly unimpressed by our excuses, and it’s hard not to feel that history is clearing its throat rather loudly.
And yet — and this is where the British instinct to mutter “I mustn’t grumble” kicks in — some of us have done rather well out of timing. I am 73, British, and still receive a final-salary pension: a phrase now so exotic it sounds like something dug up by archaeologists. It arrives with reassuring regularity, without requiring me to reinvent myself as a “financially agile self-starter” or pretend I understand cryptocurrency.
More than that, my generation has lived an entire lifetime without being called up for mandatory military service. No conscription notice on the doormat, no abrupt lesson in how to fire a rifle for reasons decided far away. That is not nothing. In a century that has seen plenty of uniforms and too many graves, it’s a privilege easily overlooked.
So yes — what a time to be alive. Global unease, political noise and endless forecasts of doom. But, also a time in which one British pensioner can look around, sip his wine, and acknowledge — without boasting, obviously — that things could have been considerably worse. Yes, history may well be clearing its throat, but for now at least, some of us are still allowed to sit comfortably and listen.
What a time to be alive!
I learn as I live. We all, and I am not an exception, would like to enjoy life and live within our comfort zone.
When things go out of control, we react differently. We can be upset. We can panic. We can get mad. Or drawn into a depression.
For the last half a year, when my personal life crashed and my professional career stumbled, I’ve experienced a wider palette of emotions than I just mentioned above, including an alcohol trip, plus other things. I am sure Roger and Dean, my RUSUK co-writers, noticed something was happening to me, to say it in a polite way.
Yet, I noticed that at some point I’ve got a weird feeling about myself; I started to enjoy, in a way, what is happening in my life. I think I am getting a priceless experience that can be useful to me. It also tells me that life has plenty of facets, bright and dark ones, and those in between, to live through. Strange, but I’d even call it an interesting experience for a person. What a time to be alive!
There’s a proverb I heard for the first time in Alaska, from Jim Lanier, my life and mushing mentor. He said: ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going.’
Well, that looks like a perfect motto for my life now.
What a time to be alive!
“May you live in interesting times.”
While the quote is credited as a Chinese curse, it is believed to be by Sir Austen Chamberlain, a British diplomat and was first spoken in about 1936. Today, we certainly do live in interesting times.
I already know I will be the rebel in this blog; I have always thought mankind is improving at a steady, if slow rate. We eat better, live longer, and have more technology than ever before. That’s something our great-grandparents could have also said. We have more freedom, more rights, and more education than ever. My great-grandfather was named Walter Lewis and he could have made the same statement when he moved to Ohio in 1878.
But, unlike our great-grandparents, you will live to see the rate of change explode. I say this because several things are all coming together at once:
- Electricity most likely to become crazy cheap in 20 years.
- Life extension medicine and genetic engineering
- Artificial Intelligence will be here, shortly
I probably should expand on these bullet points:
1. There’s a form of nuclear power called fusion; as opposed to fission, which is the current standard. Think of it as nuclear power without all the bad, radioactive stuff. While development has been going on for years, it’s getting close to deployment now. This will end the combustion engine as the primary motive power source.
2. As you know, genetic engineering has been around for years now. Scientists can now edit an exact gene for a specific issue. Cancer is an example of the kinds of things that may soon be cured with a shot.
3. Artificial intelligence is another example of something that’s been floating around for years that appears to be only a couple of years away now. Unfortunately, this technology has drawn the attention of greedy oligarchs so we are going to have a taxpayer-funded correction. However, the underlying technology is sound and machines that are smarter than us is a foregone conclusion.
Of course, there’s more. Things like reusable rockets, robots, and self-driving cars are also coming. But each of these rely on the underlying technologies I’ve listed above.
There is also a coming clash between the 1% and society. These technologies will never become fully democratized until their control is released. The US went through a similar period in the 1890’s with the Robber Barrons. Hopefully it will not require a Great Depression to break their grip this time.