What happens when the promised elixir (*) that has been touted for centuries as guaranteed to promote health, heal the wounds, cure disease, alleviate pain and prevent the noxious viruses from returning does not deliver on the hoped-for happy outcome? What is left for us to conclude when we observe the sick and infirm, the injured, the newly infected, bedridden souls, walking wounded, still vulnerable to the onslaught of malignant microbes? Has the original situation fundamentally changed? Do we delude ourselves by claiming progress? Are we to say, behold the amazing power of the elixir that only here and there, haphazardly and unpredictably works its magic? Because many have closed themselves off from the healing effects and thereby prove unworthy of a cure? Is that it? On the basis of such glaring evidence, could one not reasonably begin to question the purpose of the elixir itself? And if the elixir has not been working out as advertised, have we in fact misunderstood it?
Over in that parallel universe next door where plastic bags have disappeared and there is no road rage....Cats can be trained and wars end in a tie....the sunlight is not melting Greenland - or at least Miami is in no danger of sinking irretrievably like some forlorn Venice of the eastern Atlantic... People are moving in droves to the Dakotas - and short-wave radios are more popular than cell phones...Taxi drivers prefer classical music to anything written after 1953...Gambling still occurs but on camping trips - not in large casinos....Ice cream is still popular....Jeans are in fashion... And democracy or something like it exists - but without all the fanfare and media coverage...not as much hand-wringing and worries about impending malaise...I envision something in many respects similar to what we find here with some necessary adjustments - a still-functioning power grid, mom-and-pop convenience stores, verdant farm land, forests and reservoirs not-so-starved of water...But mor...
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