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Two Perpectives: That of a 62 year od historian and a 14 year old

Tony Judt is a well-known historian and author of many well-received books. His son, Daniel, is aged 14.

The New York Times has an interesting co-ed contribution "Generations in the Balance" from both".

Example.....

Daniel: "I have become hugely pessimistic about the moral resolve of our government and corporate world."

Tony: "Well, I am 62 and I did vote for Barack Obama. I held out no great hopes. It was clear from the outset that this was someone who would concede rather than confront — and that’s a shortcoming in a politician, if not in a man. We have seen the consequences: not in the Middle East, nor in economic regulation, nor over detainees, nor in immigration reform has Mr. Obama followed through. The audacity of hope?

As for the corporations, we baby boomers were right to be cynical. Like Goldman Sachs, oil companies are not benign economic agents, serving a need and taking a cut. They are, in Theodore Roosevelt’s words, “malefactors of great wealth.” But our cynicism dulled our response to truly criminal behavior: “They would do that, wouldn’t they?” It is one thing to watch while Goldman Sachs pillages the economy, quite another to be invited to stand aside while BP violates the Gulf Coast. Yes, we should be a lot angrier than we are.

We are staring into our future and it does not work. The gush of filth is a reminder that we have surrendered our independence to a technology we cannot master. Our energies are misdirected to expensive foreign wars whose purposes grow ever more obscure. We rail at one another in “cultural” clashes irrelevant to our real problems".

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