I remember my childhood mostly as a happy, oblivious one, affordable food, the usual disagreements between liberals and republicans, but nothing unhinged (say taxes, migrants or abortion). At least it looks reasonable today.
Now it’s like everything is unhinged: politics seem to be based on purely emotional reactions and the other side is hell bent on destroying the country: texas starts heavily gerrymandering to secure 5 extra republican seats at the next midterms? california starts lobbying for doing exactly the same and dismantling an independent redistricting commission texas never had.
When I was younger it seemed politics were more rational and cruelty never seemed to be the point of doing nothing. Now we execute people with nitrogen gas, meaning a conscious person has to breathe something he knows its going to kill him during 4 minutes. This is somehow not cruel and unusual. And nobody bats an eye.
I still don’t get how populists can be so popular now, they simplify complex issues most people without a degree in the matter, cannot grasp. This includes me.
I’m now 35 and wonder if I’m already talking like an old person who misses his young days so hard. I see that in people in their 60s and hoped never to become one of them, but here I am. To a younger person I may look like one of those old guys who lives to rant.
Am I going to feel even more detached and depressed with each passing day?
Yep.
It’s very important to remember that between 1991 and 2001, the US saw 10 years of a world that was the epilogue of the End of History. We had won the Cold War, and while there were problems, they were largely distant, the politics fairly civil, things like the internet changing life quickly, and even the moments of hard times gave us great music. It took 2-3 years for the effects of Columbine and 9/11 to really change the country and world.
25 years is also not nothing. 25 years before 2001 was 1976. Star Wars was new. Ford was president. Disco was HOT. Apple and Microsoft were founded. Things can change a lot.