[net.women] disappearing traditions

colonel@sunybcs.UUCP (Col. G. L. Sicherman) (10/04/85)

> Until you can show me undenialble proof that you and all of us know
> where we are going, I will choose to remain in the past, after all, the
> past worked and has spoken for itself (there wasn't a 50% divorce rate)
> the present doesn't look too healthy, and the future is cloaked in the
> vagueness of experimentation.

We're all going to the grave.  And you and all of us know it!

I've heard it over and over: the Past was great, the Present is awful.
Politicians on the left and on the right; fundamentalists in Iran and
in America; black supremacists and white supremacists; educators and
agitators; the man in the White House and the man in the street; all
telling me with pathetic earnestness that Things Have Gone Downhill.

But could we please keep such talk off the Net?  If your life doesn't
satisfy you, of course the past will seem better--you didn't live it
firsthand.  If you're getting old, of course things seem to be going
downhill.  It's a tiresome lament, and I for one would rather listen to
the beating of my heart.

		"Miniver Cheevy, child of scorn,
		  Grew lean while he assailed the seasons.
		 He wept that he was ever born,
		  And he had reasons."

percus@acf4.UUCP (Allon G. Percus) (10/07/85)

> Until you can show me undenialble proof that you and all of us know
> where we are going, I will choose to remain in the past, after all, the
> past worked and has spoken for itself (there wasn't a 50% divorce rate)
> the present doesn't look too healthy, and the future is cloaked in the
> vagueness of experimentation.

If you want it that way, remember the old saying:

"Things ain't like they used to be -- and they never were."

                                         A. G. Percus
                                  (ARPA) percus@acf4
                                   (NYU) percus.acf4
                                  (UUCP) ...!ihnp4!cmcl2!acf4!percus