Frazz by Jef Mallett for August 29, 2019

Never say never, Frazz. Humans have been underestimating their fellow humans’ ability to make bad decisions since the Dawn of Man.

Well, my generation rose to that challenge.

Except every generation has somehow managed… It’s the circle of life! ;-)

Just be above average.

The previous generation complaining about the current crop of dam’kids taking us to see Miss Helena Handbasket is as much a staple through history as the current generation complaining about the geezers screwing things up for them. And on and on and on and on …

But it is a good incentive to rush back to school and prepare to change things.

Humanity: “Challenge accepted. Hold mah beer.”

I notice a lot of adults my age and even more younger than me talk about ‘being on the grind’. Working as much as possible, hustling on the side, and NEVER stopping. Those who aren’t constantly on ‘the grind’ are ‘sleeping’. It’s a mindset that I’m sure the corporate world loves to hear, but is probably more out of necessity— cost of living rises, wages don’t. I’m always working towards retirement, but I might not make it there, so I try to enjoy the fruits of my labor while I can, even if it’s just a nibble.

Gotta go with the Frazzter here, though I’ll join everyone else in not specifying which one of the previous ones I belong to.

Frazz has nailed it.

Especially with Komrade Don . . .

Unfortunately, the people in charge can’t resist temptation and become power hungry and crooked.

the boomers wanted radical change and so they screwed over the entire world for the next 50 years and I’m a boomer sorry to say

Yeah, those awful, awful, horrible previous generations that inflicted electricity, penicillin, and indoor plumbing on us.

And yet we survive.

Frazz, where did this pessimism come from? You’re usually so upbeat.

I appreciate that Frazz said generations plural. A lot of people are complaining just about Boomers. Nope. Boomers were screwed over by the “Greatest Generation” and on and on back through the ages.

Next Generation: “Can’t make worse decisions? Hold my beer.”

It’s an instance of one of the most pervasively popular games of all time: “it’s always the other guy’s fault!”

For anyone who thinks, as Frazz apparently does here, that it’s all been downhill since some mythical Golden Age of the past, I suggest 2 books: Factfulness by Hans Rosling and Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker. Using hard data (not one-off anecdotes) they show how life for almost everybody almost everywhere has been getting steadily better for the last several centuries. Prime statistic in support of that assertion is life expectancy. Again, facts, not blather.

Some of our decisions have been at least moderately good. ‘Course the most recent presidential election (and the Senatorial election in KY two years prior to that) show that we’ve fallen on some pretty darn “bad decision” times lately.

Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the universe.

Blog PostsFrazz13 hrs ·

It is a curious feeling to be among the very last of the Baby Boomers and realize, on my darker days, that humanity’s best short-term goal for long-term survival is to hang on long enough to outlive … me.

This meme has gone much too long.