tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post1164352457036770616..comments2024-03-28T15:48:11.151-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: MEDITATIONRobert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-63078368081781147852012-09-29T14:36:53.948-04:002012-09-29T14:36:53.948-04:00There have been a series of post-World War II tran...There have been a series of post-World War II transformatons, starting with the death African colonialism, then of the Soviet Union, now of the Arab Spring, that give one reason to be glad to have been alive to see them. My focus in this meditation is on America, but those other moments are historically equally or more important.Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-56490034599286661522012-09-29T14:21:06.748-04:002012-09-29T14:21:06.748-04:00As a member of a (slightly) younger generation who...As a member of a (slightly) younger generation who spent a Cold War childhood wondering if things might turn hot and staggered into the Reagan years fearing for my own children's future, I wonder whether there might not be another moment worth adding to your list: the annus mirabilius of 1989 when, overnight, a wall that we'd grown up assuming would never be breached (except by force) was broken down by citizens reclaiming their city. By Christmas its pieces were being sold as souvenirs. <br /><br />Four years earlier, I'd attended a lecture at which a well-known sociologist explained that the United States and the Soviet Union represented unique political regimes: "permanent empires." Then, in the space of a few years, one of them was gone. Bliss it was even to be middle-aged in that dawn — a reminder of how suddenly things can change.James Schmidthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00253489501148201892noreply@blogger.com