It’s because our entire society has become inauthentic, and therefore almost nothing arises organically out of a prevailing Zeitgeist. To the extent there is a Zeitgeist at all, it’s the sullen, joylessness of the DDR, mixed up with the occasional brutality of the Ceausescu regime in Romania.
I’m old enough to have memories, clear and lasting memories, of the many countries I’ve lived in over the decades. I love this country above all others, as any immigrant should of the Homeland they adopt and make their own; but the good I still sense now seems to belong to the realm of memory, a pleasant hangover that will soon pass. When that pleasant hangover is gone, I will have to confront what is truly there. I know it’s ugly on the other side of the haze.