When I was born in 1947, WWII had just ended and there was hopefulness and peace in the minds of many. Despite the evolution of the atomic bomb into ever deadlier forms, the 1950s were a time of recovery and prosperity for many; though not for all, as the civil rights struggles well into the 1960s revealed. It was also a time of illusion and ignorance of what was brewing worldwide.The cold war turned hot in Korea and Vietnam. No attempts at isolation by various countries could overcome the global interconnections that spread everywhere, including rising pollution and discontent. I think Einstein's theories became a metaphysical reality we still have not grasped. Human existence has become a blight upon the the Earth, a deadly blight that could erupt in war, pollution on a cosmic scale, destruction of most other species, and eventually our own. The truth is simply too hard to handle; thus most people, including our leaders, retreat into religious superstition, mindless entertainment, or head in the sand indifference. Diogenes, alone and long dead, haunts us with echoes of cynicism: Best never to be born; 2nd best, to die as soon as possible.
Personally, I remain loyal to Epicurus, enjoy simple pleasures, realize the world is doomed, stop and smell the roses while they last. My last couple of decades I shall devote to what pleasures remain as I accept, gladly, an end to awareness of what humanity has wasted, what beauty lost, what irreversible damage done.
The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of the Japanese city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945 rose some 11 mi (18 km) above the bomb's hypocenter. --Wikipedia.
--Jack
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