The pendulum swings, still

For those that have never heard of a pendulum, it is just the weight that swings under old time clocks to help them “keep time”. Now modern quartz type watches and clocks do a much better time keeping job, and are so much better for we “masses” that still like knowing the time. Most of us still like knowing the time, or need to for our job, or so I think. And with GPS and TV and other such things, even the old time short wave broadcast of BBC time hacks seem to be passing.

The idea of the pendulum swinging in colloquial terms to me means the swing of our body politic, in all ideas, mostly societal values.

Hence I enter ideas of the old (before I was even born in the USA in 1948), and after I will die (probably in the USA, maybe Belize). Now I can be prejudiced, too, since I have been around the World and the USA. In other words, I have been exposed to many ideas and values. For example, in the 8th grade my best friend was Mike Lopez, back when southern California grew oranges. Now I live on the Upper Cumberland Plateau in eastern Tennessee, and that obviously influences me, too.

Anyway, as the pendulum swings, here’s what I think and can report.

First the old days.

• An awful lot of eloping went on in the 1930’s
• We had orphanages
• Birth control depended mostly on females
• We had homes for unwed mothers
• We married our relatives (usually distant in family history but still local) more than we do now
• Ideas like ethics and shame were dominant throughout society
• We worked hard, and some did better than others
• As an America, we were isolationist
• As an America, we were rural, mostly
• As an America, we still did not have public electricity, and all the wonderful machines that have come from it.
• We were thinner then, as in less “heavy”. We even walked back then because we had to.

Second the “new” days. Who really knows, and of course it depends on where you live.

• Generational “war” is coming as the recent Western idea of social security to dump our old time relatives on to the government as compared to the old time system of taking care of our old time relatives. Much friction is coming
• Shame and ethics are rebounding in Western societies
• Birth control will revert to females
• What’s wrong with working for a living?
• The age of the modern masses hedonism is coming to an end.
There is “no free lunch”, which most know. Those that do not know will find out when they suffer in their local community. Maybe the adults are in charge in some local communities?
• Going cold and hungry makes a big impact!
• The Western idea of voting is so important. Think about security for our families, clean water, waste water treatment, and educating our children. Now our local leaders can decide, or we, the voters, can. I expect much future friction.
• A small percentage of we humans are criminals. I think we will begin to lock them up more than we have been doing just to protect we humans and our families
• Public health will become a priority. Nobody wants to get Malaria, for example. Now I even read about bed bugs in New York City. In the end I sure hope it is a voter decision, in the end, again. I myself choose DDT, for example.

We reap from what we sow. Is this idea simple enough?