Am I simply living on the wrong side of the tracks? Or is it cynicism? Perhaps I am seeing the present distorted by rose colored glasses from the good old days?
Is it economic — society has robbed many of the good life?
Maybe I never noticed before? Maybe nothing has changed?
Judge me as you like, but as I move through life these days, as I watch my fellow citizens in the groceries and pass me on the sidewalks, as I interact with homeless people a few times a week, as tattoos proliferate, as marriages end more often, as birthrates drop, as, like all of us, I am conscious of school shootings, of other horrific crimes and of divisive politics, I conclude: Society has changed, and not for the better.
I find myself less comfortable in the city I was born and raised in, and have lived most of my life in, than in times past, even 10 years ago. I am not talking about my status as a Jew and the growing issue of anti-Semitism. I am talking about my status as a human being.
I sense less happiness, less meaning, less pursuit of goals. I sense less literacy and a distinct diminishment in delight in literacy and in its corollary: reading and the acquisition of knowledge. I sense less curiosity.
I wonder whether I just never noticed poverty, or whether it is more evident now because it is, in fact, more prevalent.
I am certainly aware that the study of the humanities has been supplanted, in significant measure, by the the inclination to seek after practical matters, but, with that, I do not sense an increased satisfaction that these supposed practical benefits bestow.
Is it economic? It is just an unfortunate reality that the preference for the practical has not delivered on the “good life,” which the humanities supposedly never could?
Is it that the humanities have suffered their own disappointments, now often colored by harsh retrospective judgments based on current ideological fads?
Am I just living in my own bubble? Am I missing a bustling civilization all around me? Am I deaf to the joys of life filling the streets of Denver? Is it simply that I can’t see what’s out there?
Judge me as you like, but somehow I don’t think so.
Civilization now offers people many more choices as to what they want to be, many more ways to live, many more substances to imbibe or smoke or breathe, and many more legitimized opportunities for gambling. For all these seminal changes, all billed as advancements, is civilization any the happier, or satisfied? On the individual level, many are happier or more satisfied, or both; but am I just hidebound as I observe a deeper malaise over how American society proceeds and sees itself and feels about itself, and its future?
Am I making this up?
I don’t work “on the other side of the tracks,” but in the neighborhood where I do work, and certainly on the streets that I drive along, there are people sleeping on the pavement, or holding up signs asking for food, or standing next to a child hoping to peddle a flower for $5, or dragging along a bent shopping cart filled with paraphernalia that I, and, I suspect, you, would just throw out. I am not looking for these people, as if there were so few that I wouldn’t see them otherwise; no, there are many, and I don’t need to make a special effort to see them.
Was I simply unaware of them as I grew up and moved into adulthood? Maybe — judge me as you like — but somehow I don’t think so. I think society has changed. I wonder: What kind of public schooling did many of my fellow citizens, who appear, at least, to live on so little, both materially but spiritually, receive? What kind of families did they grow up in? How did poverty or pointlessness or bad luck or bad choices become normalized?
Did you ever greet a person and see that many of his or her teeth are missing? I greet such people a few times a week. For my simple little gift of food or chilled water (in the summer), their smile is wide and genuine and appreciative — also, their absence of dental care is glaring. Am I the last to know? Has it always been this way in post-WW II America, and I just never noticed? Somehow, I don’t think so. I think society has changed.
This fills me with sadness and depletes my hope for the future, because I cannot think of a solution, or solutions.
America is coming up on its 250th birthday. It is a signal, magnificent achievement against the canvas of history’s rampant cruelties and authoritarians. But it is also a time for deep introspection — if my observations are correct.
Perhaps you disagree.
© IJN 2026