Bill and Nancy meet over coffee.
Bill: “Have you been keeping up with the news?”
Nancy: “Really depressing, isn’t it. If it isn’t the daily count of murders, the acts of terrorism, celebrities being attacked on stage, ladies on The View screaming at conservatives, rising prices, shortages everywhere, Twitter wars, actual wars, people losing self-control on airplanes, and…Well, it’s all so depressing.”
Bill: “Surely there’s good news. You know, puppies and kittens lost and found, a little kid raising money for the homeless, maybe a new cure for cancer….”
Nancy: “Where do I find that good news? I’m bombarded with the bad.”
Bill: “Well, you might have to look, but it’s out there. Things can’t be totally rotten in the state of…”
Nancy: “Even Denmark has its problems, but I just saw the Lego and Carlsberg Beer posted a profitable quarter, so I guess there is some good news.”
Bill: “We need to bring back President Monroe.”
Nancy: “Monroe?”
Bill: “Yes, President Monroe, the guy who downplayed partisanship and oversaw a period of relative unity and ‘good feelings.’ Remember? About two centuries ago, right after the War of 1812, the country entered into its Era of Good Feelings.”
Nancy: “Gotta be a myth. There’s never a time when any society is in an era of good feelings. If nineteenth-century people had TV, they would have their version of The View. I remember my history. Monroe traveled around on a goodwill tour during which he didn’t say anything negative about his opponents. New England loved him after the visit. But that doesn’t mean the times were all daffodils and dancing fairies. There was that Panic of 1819 and the Missouri problem in 1820 over slavery. You seem to think that the Era of Good Feelings was all lollipops.”
Bill: “Not exactly. I know that people will be people, that disagreements are inevitable, especially in a large and growing population. But for a brief time, people seemed to unify more than usual. I think of 9-11 and the response of most Americans in the days following the attack.”
Nancy: “Naive. Remember that Reverend Wright guy in Chicago, the “chickens come home to roost” preacher? The unity you think about is a generalization.”
Bill: “But that’s about all we can say about any period. You think I don’t know that the Renaissance was replete with its antithesis, the Inquisition? No, I know that regardless of a general nature of a period, the specifics always contradict the description. The 1930s, for example, were called the Age of Anxiety. What age isn’t an ‘age of anxiety’? We could say that about any period, say, for example, the Romantic Movement in literature, noble savage stuff at the same time industrialization and urbanization were burgeoning. I guess we want to see society in convenient terms, like using Millennials to describe an entire generation. If we call this current period of ours a Period of Discontent—how about ‘now is the winter of our discontent?— then…
Nancy: “Shakespeare?”
Bill: “As I was saying, in this current period of discontent, there are some who are oblivious to the discontentment. Not everything affects everybody. There are some who are unaware of what is happening outside their small spheres of family, friends, fashions, and favorite team. I’m guessing that there are many people who live relatively happy lives interrupted only by their personal problems. The ‘biggest picture’ they see is a closeup.”
Nancy: “So, your advice is that when things look bad, look for good things?”
Bill: “Sure, why not?”
Bill: “Have you been keeping up with the news?”
Nancy: “Really depressing, isn’t it. If it isn’t the daily count of murders, the acts of terrorism, celebrities being attacked on stage, ladies on The View screaming at conservatives, rising prices, shortages everywhere, Twitter wars, actual wars, people losing self-control on airplanes, and…Well, it’s all so depressing.”
Bill: “Surely there’s good news. You know, puppies and kittens lost and found, a little kid raising money for the homeless, maybe a new cure for cancer….”
Nancy: “Where do I find that good news? I’m bombarded with the bad.”
Bill: “Well, you might have to look, but it’s out there. Things can’t be totally rotten in the state of…”
Nancy: “Even Denmark has its problems, but I just saw the Lego and Carlsberg Beer posted a profitable quarter, so I guess there is some good news.”
Bill: “We need to bring back President Monroe.”
Nancy: “Monroe?”
Bill: “Yes, President Monroe, the guy who downplayed partisanship and oversaw a period of relative unity and ‘good feelings.’ Remember? About two centuries ago, right after the War of 1812, the country entered into its Era of Good Feelings.”
Nancy: “Gotta be a myth. There’s never a time when any society is in an era of good feelings. If nineteenth-century people had TV, they would have their version of The View. I remember my history. Monroe traveled around on a goodwill tour during which he didn’t say anything negative about his opponents. New England loved him after the visit. But that doesn’t mean the times were all daffodils and dancing fairies. There was that Panic of 1819 and the Missouri problem in 1820 over slavery. You seem to think that the Era of Good Feelings was all lollipops.”
Bill: “Not exactly. I know that people will be people, that disagreements are inevitable, especially in a large and growing population. But for a brief time, people seemed to unify more than usual. I think of 9-11 and the response of most Americans in the days following the attack.”
Nancy: “Naive. Remember that Reverend Wright guy in Chicago, the “chickens come home to roost” preacher? The unity you think about is a generalization.”
Bill: “But that’s about all we can say about any period. You think I don’t know that the Renaissance was replete with its antithesis, the Inquisition? No, I know that regardless of a general nature of a period, the specifics always contradict the description. The 1930s, for example, were called the Age of Anxiety. What age isn’t an ‘age of anxiety’? We could say that about any period, say, for example, the Romantic Movement in literature, noble savage stuff at the same time industrialization and urbanization were burgeoning. I guess we want to see society in convenient terms, like using Millennials to describe an entire generation. If we call this current period of ours a Period of Discontent—how about ‘now is the winter of our discontent?— then…
Nancy: “Shakespeare?”
Bill: “As I was saying, in this current period of discontent, there are some who are oblivious to the discontentment. Not everything affects everybody. There are some who are unaware of what is happening outside their small spheres of family, friends, fashions, and favorite team. I’m guessing that there are many people who live relatively happy lives interrupted only by their personal problems. The ‘biggest picture’ they see is a closeup.”
Nancy: “So, your advice is that when things look bad, look for good things?”
Bill: “Sure, why not?”
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