By Joel Bowman, on October 26th, 2019% The first time I encountered the expression, May you live in interesting times, it was attributed to Robert Kennedy, who had supposedly called it an “Ancient Chinese curse.” The idea is/was that the kinds of events that make times interesting are usually unpleasant: wars, famines, earthquakes, serious storms, and so on. A headline to the effect of “Neighbors fight to the death over a petunia patch” will create more interest than one stating, “Neighbors cooperate to raise petunias.” An old saying in the newspaper industry (and radio, TV and Internet news as well) is, If it bleeds, it leads.
It . . . → Read More: Living In Interesting Times
By Joel Bowman, on April 28th, 2019% The saying, “May you live in interesting times,” has often been attributed to Robert Kennedy, who referred to it as an “ancient Chinese curse.” The saying has an extensive history. (See “Quote Investigator” for details.) Regardless of the saying’s history, war, rumors of war, and civil unrest are more “interesting” than times of peace and prosperity. At present (April 2019), we have a lot of civil unrest, not only in the States, but also in many places around the world. We also have wars (and rumors of wars) in many parts of the world. In fact, we have pretty much . . . → Read More: Living in Interesting Times
By Joel Bowman, on June 30th, 2018% It’s no longer a matter of living in interesting times. Democracy in the US has always been on a roller coaster. We got started on a big hill by men (women only in the background at that point) who were flawed giants. Their principal flaw was owning slaves, In their defense, we can say that slavery was common at that time, and it hadn’t yet occurred to many that slavery was (and is) an evil institution. The country has had a variety of ups and downs since its founding, we’ve had numerous wars, including the military actions required to complete . . . → Read More: Bad to Worse
By Joel Bowman, on December 27th, 2017% The expression, May you live in interesting times, is usually considered an ancient-Chinese curse. Whether it’s true that it is an ancient Chinese curse is doubtful, but the part about the curse definitely seems true. The reason the expression is considered a curse rather than a blessing is that interesting “times” result from political intrigue and wars rather than from peace, happiness, and tranquility. We (and that includes the mass of humanity at this point) are living in interesting times. Charles Dickens begins his great novel, A Tale of Two Cities with the following paragraph:
It was the best . . . → Read More: Living In Interesting Times
By Joel Bowman, on November 20th, 2016% Although all presidential elections in the US are “historic,” our most recent election will probably go down in history as the most historic of all. As most of you already know, the election featured the first woman candidate to be nominated by a major political party, and the first major oligarch who pretended to be the candidate of the people. It also featured more—a lot more—of the usual yelling and screaming—and sometimes punching and shoving—than most US presidential contests.
One of the influencing factors was, of course, accomplishments of President Obama, many resented him because he was the first . . . → Read More: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Coronation
By Joel Bowman, on June 4th, 2016% My last blog post was about the so-called ancient Chinese curse of “living in interesting times.” All the problems I cited in that post are not only still with us, but also have been amplified. Donald Trump is now the presumptive Republican nominee for President of the US. Although the nominee for the Democrats has not been finally decided yet, Hilary Clinton is the likely candidate. Although I am still paying attention to US politics, I am doing so with an increasingly heavy heart. Even so, some other things have caught my attention, including website advertising, LGBT concerns and legislation, . . . → Read More: Paying Attention
By Joel Bowman, on April 2nd, 2016% The wish, “May you live in interesting times,” is assumed to be an Ancient Chinese Curse because “interesting times” typically meant war, rumors of war, and loss of economic and political stability. Regardless of whether it really is an ancient curse, when you read and/or watch news of today’s events, you’ll see just how many of the factors that make times “interesting” are present today. Here’s a partial list:
In the Mid-East, we have ISIS, an on-going war, the destruction of ancient cities, and millions of refugees.
In Europe, we have millions of refugees seeking a place they can . . . → Read More: Living in Interesting Times
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