Tag Archives: Ecclesiastes 1

March 1, 2016

It Was Ever Thus

I’ve written about this before, the idea that there’s nothing new under the sun — that it was ever thus. The claim is usually made in the face of complaints about how “things are going to hell these days, and how much better it was back then.”

Some cite the ancient Greek⁽¹⁾ who said something about how things never really change (except he was just commenting about kids not respecting their elders). Others cite the famous passage in Ecclesiastes⁽²⁾ (which also gave us a favorite tune by The Byrds⁽³⁾).

So, what do I think is new under the sun?

17 Comments | tags: change, Earth population, Ecclesiastes 1, Ecclesiastes 3, information, John Naisbitt, moral compass, morality, Pete Seeger, Plato, relative morality, scientism, social change, social mores, Socrates, technology, The Byrds, The Republic, Turn! Turn! Turn! | posted in Opinion

April 18, 2014

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

By Wyrd Smythe

Coins I’m surprised that, despite writing in a lot of comments about how — and if — the world is changing, I’ve never actually written a post about it. I suppose it’s implicit in some of the things I’ve explored, but I’ve never focused on it directly. That’s odd because it’s a key topic of interest, and I’ve always intended to get into it here.

Maybe I tend to avoid it because, as a misanthropic aging curmudgeon, I basically think the world is going seriously downhill, and that’s not a point of view most people want to hear about. And, to be honest, it can be hard to separate out stuff I don’t like from stuff I think isn’t good. This is, in part, a search for objective criteria (and comment).

Premise: The world has changed, in many ways for the worse.

19 Comments | tags: change, changes, changing world, communications, Ecclesiastes 1, global village, Marshall McLuhan, movie violence, TV violence | posted in Life, Opinion