So maybe there's a silver lining in all this
/One of my daughters called me Thursday night seeking reassurance that the world wasn’t going to be blown up soon; I made no promises, but did tell her I thought it unlikely. But what astonished me is that this girl, very bright, but a product of modern education and deep immersion in a peer group that believes in unicorns and the universal goodness of man, seems to have been jolted awake in the best sense of that word..
Not only has Putin helped her discover that there is evil in the world, but she suddenly sees how dependent we are on oil and, more significantly, how all the talk of green, renewable energy has produced practically nothing we can use now. Paraphrasing, she said something along the lines of what I’ve been saying (but not to her; we keep up our loving relationship by steering clear of politics): '“they’re shutting down oil before there’s anything to replace it”.
Yes, they are, and if my daughter can understand that (with the help of $4.50 gal. gasoline, and a heating bill that’s soared), maybe others of her generation will, too. Not all of them, of course, but there are a lot of intelligent young adults out there who’ve been lulled into the modern equivalent of that groovy mindset of the 60s, the world of tie-dyes and bell bottoms, and they’re suddenly running headfirst into reality. I had my own epiphany at 19, thanks to a small band of conservative professors at my college (none of whom would be hired today), but the indoctrination program wasn’t as far advanced in 1973, and today’s generation seems to be taking longer to reach maturity of thought. My fear had been that they’d never reach that point, but Biden et al seem to be accomplishing what we couldn’t.
Years ago, Stewart Brand, the man responsible for the Hippie’s bible, the Whole Earth Catalog, looked back and summed up what we’d learned from the 60’s utopian back to nature movement: “Domes leak”. May his insight be shared by his grandchildren.