I hear ya, Bro. Not much about the world you see in front of you has seemed quite right from the beginning. Adults have drilled into you at every turn that you have to be honest, patient and kind, take turns, not be greedy, don’t cheat or steal or think you’re better or more deserving than anyone else.
Practice the Golden Rule, don’t prey on those weaker, keep your promises, honor your commitments.
But it seems everywhere you look, venality and aggression, vulgarity and dishonesty rule the day. Film stars, politicians, coaches, corporate titans, clergy and teachers knee deep in sex scandal, billionaires spending parts of their fortune every election cycle to ensure they’ll get billions more in tax breaks from a Congress that seems rarely in session and whose members bloviate performative nonsense when it is.
Invasions, wars, rebellions and genocides rage across the globe, a glide path to a primitive state of nature seeming to beckon.
Algorithms run our lives, young men sink into basements with their porn and games of gore while “influencers” build careers and fortunes on “content” lighter than air.
It is only humans who harbor those same instincts but then overlay them with campfire stories about the hunt, sardonic jokes about its failures, concern (and arguments) for just apportionment of the spoils, and even whether to eat prey or share it at all.
Guns proliferate like mushrooms in the night, too often used for previously unthinkable ends of wanton slaughter.
Faster and cheaper is all you ever hear at work, the bosses anxious, the shareholders wobbly, let’s cut out those breaks now, we have to protect the bottom line and you’re lucky to have a job anyway.
Tightly packed houses and “luxury” condos built on the hurry-up with half-million dollars and more price tags have descended on every square inch of open space in your modest town, none of them even remotely affordable on the two incomes you always assumed would get you a slice of a fable called “the American dream.”
The deck seems stacked, and no one beyond a few intimates really seems to care about anything but getting ahead at all costs, mano a mano, dog eat dog.
All while the most powerful figure in the world sounds increasingly like an escapee from a mental asylum.
“How can it go on like this?” you ask. “How can I?
“And why?”
***
***
It’s hard to argue with your fundamental analysis of much that is amiss in this world. Human beings and their institutions seem to fall far short of every ideal ever propagated by religion, psychology, philosophy, and every self-improvement guru who has stared stupidly grinning at you from bookstore bestseller tables promising a whole new you.
All the gurus promise to fix what’s wrong in us—which is where they go wrong. Not that human beings don’t need fixing, but that has been the case for millions of years and will undoubtedly continue for a good many more.
Shorter-term (or at least until AI chatbots complete their takeover of all things human!), we need forgiveness and understanding as a major component of our fixing. We all need such forgiveness for being a little slow on the uptake from our roots in the animal kingdom.
Sure, from one angle, we’ve come a long, long way from our ancient ancestors prowling the savannas and crouching in caves eating bugs and rodents and anything else that might slide down their gullets to afford them another day of life.
But the truth is those creatures live still large inside us, in the rumbles of our stomachs in hunger, the roiling of our loins looking for mates, and the terror pounding through our hearts when threatened.
Those hard-wired instincts we share with all the animal world have become overlaid, courtesy of consciousness and culture, with a whole host of customs, norms and laws that have been successful to varying degrees in dampening our genetic endowments of aggression and fear of the stranger. Kindness, concern and generosity do win many days in many people in the year 2026, but to think we have fully overcome our dark survivalist instincts and should no longer be subject to their regular intrusions is to ask far too much of us at this point in our development.
We’re just not there yet, is the simple truth of it. It’s like expecting a child to halt his tantrum simply because we understand he’s tired and we tell him we realize that fact.
***
***
The truth is that lions and snakes and fish have it easy. Yes, daily survival is always a challenge, but morality, guilt, shame, resentment, disdain, self-doubt and deep questions about meaning, relationship and death are the sole province of us humans with our outsized brains and ever-nagging conscience.
A lion gets hungry, pounces upon a prey, fills its gullet, shares some with cubs and community, then leaves the rest for scavengers, utterly unmoved by the suffering of any world wider than its pride.
It is only humans who harbor those same instincts but then overlay them with campfire stories about the hunt, sardonic jokes about its failures, concern (and arguments) for just apportionment of the spoils, and even whether to eat prey or share it at all.
Then it’s onwards to planning strategies for future hunts and tool-making to make future hunts more efficient and productive.
What a glorious mess we are!
***
***
Look, pal: human life needs you. It needs your fair-mindedness and concern for others, your kindness and compassion. Billions of people around the globe share those same qualities—not every minute of every day, but predominantly!
And just as important: billions of our ancestors did, too, struggling through horrific wars, oppression and natural disasters with their dignity, hope and good intentions intact, all too aware of the ubiquitous suffering and injustice of the creation but carrying on in spite of those facts darkening many a day.
Despair and its cousin Cynicism do nothing to carry forth those noble people’s work. They dishonor the legacy of the countless dedicated souls who have given of their time, energy and very lives to help shore up the foundations of the ongoing construction project for a more just and decent world.
You, me, everyone alive today, owes it to them, should take pains not to fail them, in at least trying to carry on their work. That work has always been difficult and will always be required because the very structure of existence—and most certainly the structure of the human mind—is difficult and complex beyond our full understanding, and will likely always remain so.
But in our partial understanding, we do know what goodness and generosity and a heart brimming with love and tenderness and appreciation for the creation are. We’ve seen it in others and, I daresay, feel it in ourselves in our better moments.
And it’s there, waiting, begging even, to be built on.
As it always has been.
***
***
See and hit the Follow button at https://www.facebook.com/andrew.hidas/ for regular 1-minute or less dispatches from the world’s great thinkers, artists and musers, accompanied always by lovely photography.
Deep appreciation to the photographers! Unless otherwise stated, some rights reserved under Creative Commons licensing
Homepage rotating banner photos (except for library books) by Elizabeth Haslam https://www.flickr.com/photos/lizhaslam/
Library books by Larry Rose, Redlands, California, all rights reserved, contact: larry@rosefoto.com
Hands thrashing in water by Tim Marshall, Auckland, New Zealand https://unsplash.com/@timmarshall
Cave visitor by Joshua Sortino, San Francisco, California https://unsplash.com/@sortino
Lion pride by Catherine Merlin https://unsplash.com/@camerlin
Happy crowd by Michele Canciello, Naples, Italy https://unsplash.com/@mic_canciello
America, it’s raining absurdity. We’re in deep shit, and there’s a critical shortage of toilet paper. Let’s review some of the recent events hitting the proverbial fan. First, the war in Iran really stinks. Trump said the decision to bomb Iran was based on a gut feeling; I fear most of his gut is lined with Big Macs. Not a good taste. Second, a federal court judge rendered a “stop digging” order on Trump’s White House ballroom, monstrosity adorned with fake windows and stairs that lead nowhere. Apparently, his disdain for function in architecture will also seep into his Presidential library; its centerpiece will be a golden escalator that doesn’t escalate. Paradoxically, it will be the first library named for an individual who’s never read a book. In fact, the only reading material housed there will be his eerie, early morn texts on Truth Social and X. Third, gas prices are now higher than Willie Nelson on the road. Fourth, Ralph Norman, a South Carolina representative, vowed he’d never vote for a bill that doesn’t fund ICE. He said it’s a slap in the face to law enforcement. Nonetheless, he was one of Trump’s most vocal supporters pardoning the January 6th rioters whose patriotic enthusiasm injured or killed many Capitol Hill police officers. (Thank God we’re rooting hypocrisy out of our government!) Fifth, his cabinet is falling apart. It’s unhinged. Kristi Noem, the homeland security enforcer, was sent packing to the outer reaches of some unknown land called the Shield of the Americas. Then, as expected, Trump’s axe fell upon Attorney General Pam Bondi’s neck, forcing her public soul to transition to a private purgatory of sorts. Yesterday things worsened. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned from her position amid cries of misconduct, and FBI director Kash Patel sued The Atlantic for $250 million after the magazine published an article on his excessive drinking and bizarre behavior. Finally, the strangest of all. Brit tabloid The Daily Mail published a picture of Bryon Noem, Kristi’s husband, sporting over-inflated balloon breasts and pink poly spandex. To add insult to injury, the sign above Mr. Noem’s insurance office in Castlewood, South Dakota, proclaims “Old Fashioned Service…easy as pie.” I wouldn’t be surprised if some local restaurant entrepreneur might add “Hot Cross Buns” to the dessert menu. Perhaps I’m being too flippant here. Your letter to the young man mired in despair is sobering to the nth degree, but reality is trying my patience. Anne Frank wrote, “Paper has more patience than people.” I think I’m a ream. But she also wrote, “I believe in the sun, even when it rains.” I’ll end my rant on that pearl of positivity.
I see what I’m going to have to do here, Robert—crank out a “Letter to An Old Man in Despair” for a future post. Stay tuned!
Drew, how could I omit Trump’s AI-generated Jesus post? Too much absurdity to keep track of.
Another brilliant post, Andrew, including a fine musical offering by Brandi Carlile! There is no doubt that we are living in seriously dark times. Indeed, it strikes me as more important than ever that we put our energy into daily acts of kindness that help to keep our personal and communitarian “ships” afloat. I was instantly reminded of my Tuesday morning volunteer gig with our local Food Bank, providing healthy food to local folks in need. Our “crew” is a juicy mix of old folks (like yours truly), high school & college kids – a veritable cross-section of all kinds of folks who choose to lend a hand. We provide plenty of fresh produce, bread, cheese, yogurt, eggs, and more, along with baby diapers & such. I would guess 70% of the folks are Latinos and probably 80% female. The big smiles on a grandfather’s face as he looks over at his smiling granddaughter while we “load ’em up” in their backseat warms the heart!
Ahhh, Kevin, you’ve got that exactly right. Life goes on, and it needs people to help move it along across a billion+ venues. Carry on, Brother!
Andrew, in the age of TikTok and Instagram, how do we get your wise, humane, and beautiful post before the eyes of those young men (and women) in despair? How do we get them to read it, sit with its wisdom?
I think it may be up to us sometimes pessimistic, but still hopeful oldsters to turn things around enough through resistance, protest, and elections to get rid of our autocrats (hurray, Hungary), rein in our oligarchs (tax the bastards and hold them accountable for the damage they’re doing to our environment, our health, and children’s mental health), and put some people in office who are committed to basics (universal health care, affordable housing, college, and child care, a livable planet). Maybe then younger folks feel that they’ve got a shot at a decent life and shed some of that despair. Tall order, I know, but our generation has, in many ways, shafted those who came after and from us. Past time to do what we can to make amends.
Hey David, I seem to have missed this at the time but just ran across the post again, so pardon the delayed response! Your first question has an easy answer, the second a much more difficult one, alas…
I probably don’t mention enough (never, actually) that readers are encouraged to send links on posts that make them think of someone, in the hope it might resonate with that someone in one form or other. Spread it far & wide, is my strong and best advice—and thanks for doing so!
But as to your second question: therein lies the rub. It’s true that my “long-form essay” is under duress in the age of Tik-Tok and Instagram, something I can’t do much about other than keep writing and hoping enough of it finds the ever fewer number of people disposed to longer & chewier material. And that shorter attention span isn’t just limited to young people, either (unfortunately). I think data clearly show even adults are reading less, are more distractable, less patient, more prone to hop & skip around the Internet for short punchy blips rather than settle in for extended reads. But that doesn’t mean the audience has disappeared—yet! Even as humanities programs are being decimated in colleges nationwide, there’s beginning to be some pushback from even techy AI types that people who can think, read and analyze will be in demand once again to manage what AI ultimately can’t—the more nuanced parts of life that can’t be swept up and algorithmed into meaningful agents of contemplation and change. Here’s hoping…
As for your second paragraph, yes, yes, and a thousand more affirmatives atop those. At some level, every generation falls short of what it might provide the next, the huge differences today being the technology that has grown so voraciously along with our generation and the fact we’re living so long that we’re just not getting out of the way as humans have in times past. We’re no doubt the richest generation in world history (rich, of course, being a relative term), but at least two questions present themselves off the top of my head: Can the planet support ever richer populations and all the stuff that such wealth buys, and will the wealth in any case be widely enough shared to maintain adequate social cohesion? Tall order indeed, and food for much more thought & discussion.