“We’re getting more ridiculous all the time.”
I jotted that line down a little while ago after it whizzed by my ears as I listened to an audiobook; it was a character’s assessment of what was going on in the world, of course. I can’t remember if it was a recent novel or one of the old 19-teens or 1930s books I like to peruse.
It would be comforting if it was an older book, because then the silliness of our contemporary era wouldn’t be so disconcerting. If people had said, “We’re getting more ridiculous all the time,” 90 years ago, then we could be comforted to know that people have always been ridiculous. It feels as if things are getting more ridiculous lately, but maybe it’s because I don’t take anything as seriously as I once did, and so it’s easier for me to find the silliness in our great debates.
In The Wizard of Oz film, 83 years ago, Oz The Great and Powerful was revealed to be a buffoon spinning wheels behind a curtain, which was pretty ridiculous — and surely the men and women behind the curtain nowadays are buffoons, if we examine them carefully enough.
I’m glad the myths about our great and powerful wizards have long ago been exposed as such. Imagine what it would be like to be ruled by greedy, grasping folks who have no greater ambition than to win the next election. That would be, well, ridiculous.