Version 2.244

What is a country? Is a country the people or the place? People, individually at least, are too insignificant to be a country and, yet, we often define the country by its people. One way or another, the place will survive the people, leaving us with little incentive to concern ourselves with well-being and prosperity; after all, misery is temporary, not permanent. It is not pleasant, but we as a species have endured unpleasant lives for millenia.

The idea that things will turn out OK is completely false. There is nothing that compells the universe to treat us more kindly than it has treated our ancestors. Thus, it is up to each of us to fend for ourselves and when we collectively fail to do so, it is us who harvest the bad crops we sow. So many times history has taught us this and so many times we have chosen to no heed the lesson.