Out With The Old

New Years eve it's generally a time to celebrate the end of the old year and associated problems and the start of n New one with expectations of a new start.

A new start holds unlimited promise and we often greet one with resolutions of things we plan to change. One of those things is frequently associated with the amount of celebrating done the night before.

A lot of us plan things like losing weight, or finding a new job going back to school or any number of things to improve ourselves.

Less frequently people resolve to improve society by doing more charitable work or helping others in various ways.  Experience shows us that these good intentions often don't last very long.

One wonders if the people in charge engage in any retrospection?  The ability to admit mistakes is something that conflicts with egos and we currently at least one ego running rampant.  Report after report demonstrates that three is very little in the way of introspection and that his belief in his own infallibility is detrimental to good government and management.

We see part of the government shut down, immigration issues escalating, interest rates increasing, trade issues, foreign policy changes that are impulsive and dangerous, failure to address environmental issues, and attacks on many of our institutions.

It would be nice if for the new year we started formulating forward looking policies instead of wishful thoughts about recreating a past that is better in retrospect than in reality.

The post war era was generally good for certain portions of the population, but we still had many underlying problems in this country, some of which like discrimination still exist.

We dominated most of the free world because most of our industrialized allies had been devastated in the second world war which we escaped because of our geography.  In the 60s we would start to see this dominance erode as competition increased.

We faced the possibility of almost instant nuclear extinction, a threat that seems to have receded, although it is still there.

Going back in time isn't possible and in all honesty it isn't desirable

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