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(I can't believe nobody commented on this one?)

You write some really good things in 2.800 words There are so many seeds of ideas that should be expanded upon. I will add things to my blog. I think that you are a natural optimist. I am not, while not really a pessimist . I am thinking that so many of our institutions, commercial, financial and governmental, are in such a grid-lock, I don't see how they can be corrected from the inside. But I am definitely not a revolutionary either. I am not denying what you say, but let's look at a fuller picture. It is not so simple on all fronts.

1. Timing: Years stretch out and they are hard to grasp, Seasons are good for farmers, months don't mean much, accept for kids looking forward to summer vacation. I began to say that you have 4,000 weeks of life. The point being; what did you do with last week? Merely flush it through the portals of time?? So, life is only what you make out of it, please get with it.

The three eras;

2. "Some young live for the future". Boy, they have to have a vision, from their parents and good teachers. I'd say many don't have any concept at all of a future. From their role-model, you go to work every day, you come back exhausted and irritable, complain to the wife and kids, and judge that I'm not excelling enough. (Perhaps they mean well)? "I used to get to play, but now I have to do all the things that they tell me that I'm no good at."

At 20, I am over the hill, all washed up. I'll go out and see what interesting trouble all the other young "losers" are getting into. I say that it is very tough for millions and millions. This is the major challenge for society.

I also agree that there are millions of the lucky ones, your quote: "What they do have, though, are optimism and freedom. Free from the framing effects of ideas and able to look at things with fresh eyes, the young can see connections and ideas that adults or seniors would miss." The connections are all there for everyone to see, but the adults are captured in T. I. N. A. (There Is No Alternative).

3. Adults can also live in dreams. But when they get some financial stability, and/or various expertise's, like they can work in business, or software or be a building contractor, or construction worker, they believe they have income options, and they begin to take on OBLIGATIONS.

Cars to pay for, sports equipment, travel, houses, not to mention a family and children, school expenses, health of the family, really endless. Obligations are a present tense balancing act, which force adults into the never ending present, (the grind). You make it sound good, like "priorities", and optimization, but also use necessities, and head-above-water metaphors. While their objectives are in the present, their state of mind is anywhere BUT in the present. (That is a very big discussion.)

They can also conceive of something radical. but they can't afford to risk jumping onto a new horse. So many already know that their life is not optimal, or even, it doesn't work, but there is no "cushion" to give time for an alternative search. They're locked in.

4. The old do what they did before. If that was little or nothing, they do nothing. Or just dote on the grandchildren, and program in all the defects like they did to their own children. Give all the unfounded hope, (unfounded as proved out by their own life), under the guise of optimism and conventional wisdom. It is very difficult - I don't say deflate children's optimism. Frankly I don't know how to handle it, for it is a very delicate ground.

I know some seniors very very well. They have past experience but they don't live in the past at all. They are more in the present than at any other time in their life. Really they are oligarchs, (on a small scale), all of their time is their own, and their creativity is un-bounded. With that vibrant attitude, their health is also vibrant. (Of course, like you said in the beginning, they will have to "check-out" of the hotel-world at some time.) Maybe they consider that they have 500 weeks left, and will use every one to the maximum.

5. Jobs are dependent on what is the prevailing practice. In the past when enterprises were small, they also were many. So innovation and competition forced the prevailing practice to innovate and use human capital to the max. In this age there is great consolidation, the small are forced out of business, by the so-called competition of the Goliaths. So jobs become whatever those few enterprises decide they are, and customers have to swallow it.

I'll give one example: Call your bank, (or any other consolidated company). You get to talk to a computer. (It is called "intelligence" with the greatest stretch of the imagination). First they run you around to waste your time, so maybe you won't call back. Then they say "Please say that again in 3 to 5 words". Where is the "job" in that scenario?

6. The child’s exploratory tendencies take a back seat to preparing them for the world their parents believe in. Basically the child's natural learning is crushed, and they become mechanical (if they submit), or the become rebels. In America so far from Jan to July 2023 there have been 340 mass shootings (defined as where more than 4 people were shot). Tracked by "Gun Violence Archive".

I really like this sentence: "In fact, what happens appears closer to permanent adolescence - that period where the young PRETEND to be adults without full understanding what it means to be adults. We do not understand why we do what we do, only that it is something that other adults do."

That is why you and I are writing. You said it before: "The goal is to one day be able to understand the world around you – to see the currents of current events, rather than feel adrift in an endless ocean of chaos."

7. Then you talk about TRANS. Wow, that is brave of you, such a toxic subject. I maintain that not only do trans people not understand gender. NOBODY DOES. A post should be written on Gender, what is it? I have my ideas, but not in a comment on Future/Present/ &Past.

8. One step further – technique presupposes well-articulated goals and measures, many of which will naturally conflict, and some of which will be mutually exclusive, and therefore, convergence to a single solution is impossible. So then, "technique" is the precursor to fascism? You write a lot about technique. I think that you mean organizing mass efforts, and the formula for it. It is the opposite of freedom, which, I think you're saying that old-fashion freedom is obsolete, (In this gigantic enterprise environment.) "Struggle with a worthy reward" is another wonderful topic, but later.

9. Declining fertility rate is the compromise with lifestyle that a family can no longer afford. So don't start a family. I also think one population segment has been disillusioned with their own childhood, parents under stress, and they want nothing to do with it. It must be different in different parts of the world.

10. At one point you said that past trends and methods may no longer be relevant. Will Seniors miss the new modern opportunities? Well, maybe they won't see all the beauty coming out of the "Gig-Economy", where no social benefits need be offered to anyone. But they are not dreaming of returning to the past. They just see the alarming trends in dumbing-down society, and the limited range of choices, climb onto Facebook and Youtube or your GIG will die. It is a very perilous existence in this age, and you can be de-platformed and even de-banked at any time on a false whim. Some people have been disallowed a bank account anywhere in their own country.

I'll stay tuned.

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