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There's something very Twenty-Twenties about attempting and failing
to "turn the page" on inconvenient truths that can't and don't go
away. That's why each year tends to repeat the last. I wouldn't
call that "moral cowardice," because people do not, and cannot,
really ignore the pervasive problems -- they do see them, and tend
to complain quite consistently about the same issues, year after
year. But, without ever getting much done about them. It's rare to
see any public problem that's analyzed, agreed-upon, confronted,
dealt with and dismissed. All the "crises" tend to thrive, and to
mutate into long-term shambolic debacles. It's a decade that feels
the need to marinate in its own distresses -- doomscrolling as a
way-of-life.
"When you can't imagine how things are going to change, things
change in ways that are unimaginable."