The End of History?

My question is this: are we coming to end of history as we know it?

The President says, “We will recover; we will rebuild.” History “says” he is correct given the broad expanse of American history---the continual economic booms and busts that dot our collective history. We’ve always come out of these busts in the past. But is it different this time? Are we sinking into an economic black hole from which there is no return? Will I be alive if and when we do come out of it? Will I be properly dressed for the occasion? Will there be enough soft food for me to eat? Will I recognize the country by the time we do come out of it? Or will my neighbors hiss and curse at me under their breath because my turban is not the same color as theirs.

I fear we face the end of literature. Online digital reading will kill literature. Who is going to read Tolstoy anymore? (Actually, who reads Tolstoy now?) Who is going to read anything of substance anymore? Will reading the labels on oatmeal boxes begin to count as literature? Will the bookstores only carry Terry Pratchet and Twilight? Once all the independent bookstores vanish will there only be one bookstore in every town the size of mine? One Wal Mart bookstore---take it or leave it?

When the money runs out for all of us, will we remember the days when we actually carried this paper and copper in our possession and that we could swap these things for real tangible THINGS? Will we miss THINGS like houses and cars and fresh vegetables?

As I get older and my mind gets shakier, will I live increasingly in the past or will I forget the past? Will I be able to tell the difference anyway? At a certain point will the past and present coexist in my mind like intertwined DNA strands so that one becomes the other and vice versa? Will I be able to remember my wife’s name and all the wonderful times we’ve had together, or will the memory of my first puppy be the highlight of my latter years.

The political partisanship becomes shriller by the hour. What if Rush Limbaugh (the head of the Republican Party) became President? After all, he knows it all. If Limbaugh were to become President, would Oxycontin become available over the counter? Would hate speech become the most popular means of public communication? Would Ann Coulter be Vice-President? And maybe Sean Hannity Secretary of State? What about Joe the Plumber? Chief of staff? Palin would have to stay in Alaska. Limbaugh could never handle that diva.

By the way, was Abraham Lincoln our first President? Did World War I come before or after the Civil War? Did Al Gore invent electricity?

If the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off, who will warn us of the next great crisis? Dogs sniff the ground to keep up with what’s going on. Will somebody clue me in before I lose it and start doing likewise?

P.S. I believe that lurking somewhere beneath my prose is profundity. If anyone finds it, do let me know.