May You Be Born In Interesting Times, or….

 

My Level of Anxiety

23 July 2024

May you live in interesting times. I don’t know which is the correct phrasing. Both have appeared in fortune cookies over the years. Supposedly the saying comes from an ancient Chinese proverb. Unfortunately, I do not know the phrase’s provenance and am unsure about the philosophical or experiential underpinning of the maxim.

For all I know the folksy bon mot was made up by some eastern European immigrant while working in a bakery in Passaic. Maybe he crafted it while working in a place supplying restaurants in New York’s Chinatown with specialty treats. According to the fortune cookie wiki (and we all trust wikis, right?) “They most likely originated from cookies made by Japanese immigrants to the United States in the late 19th or early 20th century. The Japanese version did not have the Chinese lucky numbers and were eaten with tea.”

Origins aside the key words about when one should exist that being “interesting times” seem to have some salience for me regarding the past several weeks. I mean a botched debate, an assassination attempt, and a sitting President dropping out of his run for reelection are all momentous events that took place together to produce an "interesting time" in the world.  I mean this is the macro level of interesting times for me.

For me, there is also a micro level of "interesting times". During my visit to the US, I watched the aforementioned political drama with my young adult children. These young men are shaking their heads at what they perceive are the wrong directions America is taking again and again. But my interesting times also include a fiftieth high school reunion (damn I got old), medical visits, taking care of the old family home, shopping for various odds and ends to bring back to Europe and then enduring the circle of Dante’s Inferno that is modern air travel.

Having watched six days of nonstop political ads running in Pennsylvania back in June, seen Trump’s RNC show, and then observing Biden falling out of the race for the presidency, I can say I am more afraid of the prospects for our democracy than I was during the Watergate scandal last months. And I was scarred shitless then. Interesting times/strange days indeed.

I have to tell you hearing things like this comment from people like Ohio state Sen. George Lang, a Republican representing the West Chester district at a rally featuring the Republican’s VP nominee that if Republicans don’t win it in the fall that a civil war could be necessary to save the country is deeply frightening. Now mind you Lang has apparently been taken to the woodshed by the national Republican party. He now deeply regrets his “divisive remarks” and understands he must be more circumspect in his language going forward. But he is not alone in these kinds of remarks. It strikes me as similar to an experienced lawyer asking a highly prejudicial question during a trial only to “respectfully withdraw” the question when the judge and opposing counsel rage. Once the comment has reached the jury’s ears any instruction to disregard the question is pointless since the seed has been planted.

I am not afraid for myself. I have had a good life.  Hell, I just showed up to my 50th reunion with my aching knees and all. Also, I don’t live in America anymore so the threat to my personal integrity should things turn sideways during this election is greatly diminished. But I am worried for democracy when such language and ideas as offered by Mr. Lang above permeate election races and bubble just below what is openly said. I am afraid for my children. My boys live in a diminished world. But now they have to fear potential neighbor-on-neighbor violence when this election draws near. Unlike in previously highly disputed elections that potential is not null but actually has a value that is a whole number. We live in frightening times.