have you ever just thought about the nature of memories? intentionally tried to pull up a random memory? just jumble up everything in your head and then pull a single recollection from the collection? it’s like trying to think about all the cards in a library card catalog and then randomly thinking about only one of them. i can’t seem to do it.
random memories, sometimes a random memory, will just appear. is it accurate? do i remember it correctly? what caused that one to come to my conscious mind?
here
the word ‘here’. a weird word it is.
“i’ve been here before.”
a particular place? a particular time? a specific time in a place? a specific place in a time?
i was telling jodi the other day that it ‘feels’ like the 60s and early 70s all over again. the 60s were before my time and i barely remember the 70s. the memories are just blurry images. single frames from a lost film feel. out of context but, and at the same time, with some context.
there was no particular or specific cause for the feeling. or so it seemed. it was just a feeling. i began to think about it. pull up memories. some of the memories are simply of my life due to the after-effects of particular situations and events that occurred. some are direct experiences of events.
mass vaccinations
60s saw mass vaccinations for polio. mass vaccinations now for SARS-COV-2.
brink of nuclear war
60s had the cuban missile crisis. ‘duck and cover.’ we seemingly just had a direct nuclear threat.
right-wing politics
60s saw the rise of extreme right-wing conservative politics within the republican party. john birch society then. q-anon now. barry goldwater then. donald trump now.
petroleum uncertainty
gas crises in the 70s from opec. opec quotas and nordstream today.
civil rights
then and now civil rights are in turmoil about what groups should and should not have them and to what extent.
privacy and the press
60s and 70s saw the beginning of the end for american privacy and a ‘free’ press. we are feeling that again with social media and tech giants along with the further erosion of our idea of a free press with consolidation, bankruptcies, and corporate and government interference and influence.
inflation
déjà vu all over again.
history is repetitive
was any of this stuff new then? is any of it new now?
i have theories and opinions on all of it, but my opinions and theories don’t really matter. it all really doesn’t matter. it does, but it also doesn’t. we all survived then. we will all survive now.
the world has been here before and it’s all rather blurry.