I read a good amount of science fiction. One of the saddest books was one called "Childhood's End" by Arthur Clarke. Written in 1953, it was a statement built on the changing society from the early to middle 20th century. It discussed a generation gap in brutal terms. In the story mysterious Overlords begin to systematically destroy human civilization by removing or negating all vestiges of culture. Indeed, some parts of culture become toxic in order to dissuade subsequent generations from honoring.
The saddest part of this story is the end, where the youngest generation begin to manifest powers. In the case of what was then Cold War Europe these were written as what we would called supernatural behaviors with the youngest children being the most profoundly impacted. Eventually the children become dissociated with older generations and drift away to the unknown, disappearing one by one.
Perhaps you see where I am going. During Clarke's time the biggest fear was nuclear war as promoted by the Soviet Union. Today it is a cultural tug of war that resembles a WWE tag team death match more than a civil discourse as envisioned by the Founders. But who are the Overlords? Right now it appears that Academia has been a secure nest for radicalism to hatch it's adherents. They in turn lure, intimidate and attack all opposition without facts and with the blessings of the same Academic Overlords.
As people who have worked our entire lives seeing families survive through intimidation brought about by lack of oil, too many taxes, mindless regulations, corrupt manipulations of the market, we more than anyone else should have some sort of say in what the future holds. But we are being denied that opportunity. The epithet "Okay Boomer" is every bit as dismissive and offensive as any racial, gender or religious slur. Unlike the folks out on the streets embracing anarchy, we've seen this before, but never here.
Our children are being turned against us. When you take out those that vote for socialism because they've always supported it, the majority of supporters for socialism are young. They have had it much easier than earlier generations. Many of them do not remember a time before cell phones and computers. These same groups, cossetted and protected by a trophy for everyone mentality, seem to think their words are golden. In fact so much do they believe this that even when discussing facts, they refuse because it's not on their own carefully curated sources of information.
Beyond Academia, this is an issue of limited media sources. When I worked in a newsroom 30 years ago there were reporters writing local stories or writing stories on state and national issues with a view toward how it impacts their city or town. Now those writers are gone. There are columnists-who are more often the official spox for whatever views the editorial board holds. But the straight news meant for local consumption doesn't exist outside of the Sports Pages. Instead we have glorified copy boys and girls who take a wire story from AP or Reuters or CNN or McLatchy and relabel it as their own. When you narrow the sources of news, you can more easily control it. And when you see the prevailing narrative presented, it lets you know who is controlling it.
Between Academia with a mission and Journalism with a grudge, we have seen launched an idea that freedom of speech is only okay when you agree and intimidation using violence is honorable. When you watch Republicans being threatened and assaulted outside an event, harassed at dinner, doxxed, followed home and harassed and realize the glee with which the media is showing this, it should tell you all you know about the confluence of the MSM and the Left. When you consider these things never seem to occur to Democrats, it's a tell and a wink from the media that they know who's paying them behind the scenes.
The end of the book "Childhood's End" goes like this:
"The Overlords are eager to escape from their own evolutionary dead end by studying the Overmind, so Rodricks's information is potentially of great value to them. By radio, Rodricks describes a vast burning column ascending from the planet. As the column disappears, Rodricks experiences a profound sense of emptiness when the children have gone. Then material objects and the Earth itself begin to dissolve into transparency. Rodricks reports no fear, but a powerful sense of fulfillment. The Earth evaporates in a flash of light. Karellen looks back at the receding Solar System and gives a final salute to the human species."
I'm not suggesting this election is the end of the world. But it may be the end of our world as we know it. Some of the propositions from the Sanders' platform, blindly accepted by the DNC (although nearly a third of the DNC convention delegates opposed it.) is so economically catastrophic that our nation would be transformed and not in a good way. Add to that demands of Antifa and BLM to seize the assets of others to appease their own politics of envy and you have the basis for what could be the destruction of the union and the conversion of the USA into Venezuela. This election matters. Vote like you have a brain.
