It’s the way it is, but it’s stupid. Old people who have only a few years to live drive as if they were going to live forever. They even walk, talk and eat as if they had a thousand tomorrows. Now kids in their late teens know there is no tomorrow. They haven’t time to abide speed limits or stop signs. Tonight’s party is the last of a lifetime. And any dinner that is time consuming must be avoided at all cost. Even their music (?) is in a hurry. They don’t walk the Boardwalk or a mall, they overpower them. The only time they slow up and gear down is when they report for work.
Now wrinkle up your little brows and reading the following. It could have been written yesterday but was actually penned 2,450 years ago by an Insider named “Thucydides,” the first Greek historian.
“Human history is a cycle. Which excess of power keeps revolving question upon question. Primitive despots start the wheel rolling. The more power they get, the more they want, and they go on abusing their authority until inevitably opposition is aroused and a few men, strong enough when they unite, seize the rule for themselves. These too can never be satisfied. They encroach upon the rights of others until they are opposed in their turn. The people are aroused against them, and democracy succeeds to oligarchy. But there again the evil in all power is no less operative. It brings corruption and contempt for law, until the state can no longer function and falls easily before the strong man and promises to restore order.”
Now that you’ve read it, read it again, then look at the world around you. Noting is ever new. History, the life, just keeps repeating and repeating itself.
And here’s another little 2,450-year-old Greek gem for you to ponder: “Liberty depends on self-restraint. Freedom is freedom only when controlled and limited.”