Interesting Quotations

During a special comment about David Foster Wallace (who committed suicide recently) on NPR today a man asked somberly, "These days are we getting the things that we need that allow us to want to live?"

I have battled a case of severe melancholy myself during the last few weeks; these words are profound to me. I don't whine to other people about my problems, but I will disclose that they center mostly on the fact that everyone-- literally everyone-- who I met and liked when I moved to Los Angeles has moved away. My budding friendships are dead. I am experiencing the sort of displacement that I remember reading about when I studied the history of Western civilization. During the Roman empire people were generally discontent because the Romans' "melting pot"-- their blending of multiple races and cultures across three continents-- wasn't working. People's sense of identity and belonging were lost.

Also, the suicide rate in "civilized, industrial" countries is infinitely higher than in the third world. I remember reading that even during the 1700s (which is my specialty) white American settlers fled from their lives in the "cultured, civilized" towns and joined the natives in the forests.

The second quotation is from Tucker Carlson; he referred to the Sarah Palin phenomenon on MSNBC, but he might as well have made the statement in general: "Americans don't want experience. They want to be inspired and entertained."
... a sad yet true commentary about American politics