My favorite quote from all those David Eddings books were from the without-a-doubt best character, Silk, who would periodically say: “I didn’t make the world, xx, I just try to live in it.” I stole this quote with such alacrity that some of you probably think I made it up. Sorry about that.
Anyway, this quote, from a great series of essays, captures the mental nook where I have come to rest.
Long ago I stopped expecting ‘the world as such’ and ‘society as a whole’ to provide solutions for me on a silver plate. The only sensible strategy is an eclectic path to define quality of life for yourself, and use all tools in whatever customized fashion to forge your path. In other words: the planet is in shambles, but you can try to help and still carve out a meaningful, peaceful & happy existence on it.
The Internet is the epitome of that concept: barely in its infancy, in a deplorable state between ‘not quite there yet’ and ‘already half fallen apart’, unruly chaos, ugly, confused, appealing to the worst base instincts, but: you can use it in entirely unprecedented ways to enhance your life ambitions, with more choices, options and knowledge than any crowned heads in history.
Defeatist? Kinda. Sad? I suppose. But sad with a bottom. Is that maturity? Cowardice? Dunno. Don’t care. I didn’t make the world, guys. But I have to live in it as best I can.