I can't remember a time when the country wasn't heading for disaster. No, I do believe we have serious problems, perhaps even terminal ones, but it always seems that way, and it has always seemed that way as long as I can remember. And the olden days were no picnic either. We tend to be nostalgic about the past, usually because we were younger, stronger, and more optimistic about life back then. And we had plenty of time for things to get better, and we felt we were capable of doing something about it.

Just one example. Even though overall prosperity has been declining since the 70s due to long term business and historical cycles, we generally see the past as a time of growth and optimism. Why, because WE were growing, thriving, developing our lives and building our careers and carving out a place for ourselves in life. We also tended to hang out with people like us, and because of the baby boom, there were plenty of them. The world seemed better in retrospect because WE were better off every day. But remember how our parents felt about our brave new world?

Now as our lives level off and wind down, we are faced with an inevitable period of personal decline and overall slowdown. It may be perfectly normal and to be expected, but it is also unfamiliar to us, so we tend to project it to the society as a whole.

Don't get me wrong, we have enormous problems, and we could be facing catastrophe if any one or any combination of them spiral out of control. I don't make light of our problems. But it's always been like that. Within my lifetime, and that of people I have talked to at length, we have faced Depression, Fascism, World War, Cold War, McCarthyism, Global Communism, Viet Nam, Racial Conflict, Potential Nuclear Annihilation, Social Rebellion, Constitutional Crisis and a totally unprecedented technological, demographic, social, cultural and economic revolution. And just think of all those disasters that if they were not actually avoided, at least were postponed: the Energy Crisis, the Population Bomb, Pollution, Third World Poverty, and the Resource Crisis.

What do we have to worry about now, really, that we haven't seen coming for decades in some form or another? Islamic Jihad? War on Terror?, Debt Crisis? Unemployment? Stock Market Collapse? Climate Change? But to our grandchildren, our current problems will seem like "the good old days".

Whether its actually the end of the world or not is still too early to tell yet.