This was both heartwrenching, pointed, and true. You're describing things that have touched all of our lives with incredible poignancy. My own family has the same fractured, multi-parental structure, poisoned by hurt and resentment as a result of the fashionable divorce epidemic. Thankfully no one was lost to drugs ... but damage was done in other ways.
It's one thing to examine these issues at the level of bloodless abstraction, another to inhabit them in their full, messy human detail, and another still to bridge the gap between those modes, which is what you're doing very well.
Thanks John. The damage that has been wrought, and continues to be wrought, seems almost insurmountable at times, but I think it's waking people up. At least, it did for me.
This is true. I mention that earlier, but at the very least we can Ride the Tiger and not let ourselves get eaten by it. Maybe we can give some people a heads up, at the least, and get them thinking about it.
Also, I added a shout-out to your "Determined to Die", if that's cool with you. I meant to do it earlier but I forgot. It's a great example of weaving personal loss in with a broader argument, and one of my favorite pieces.
Great stuff, William. You aren't alone in your feeling of disillusionment with the public relations image of American life that is slowly fraying and revealing itself to be a mask for the cover of truly degenerate impulses. We need, instead, a return to a way of life that is regenerative, or at least for the time being not actively pulling at the threads that keep us bounded together as people. I'm writing this comment on the 18th anniversary of my mother's death from lung cancer when I was only 18. Her life is a reflection of so much of the ennui that results from being told one thing culturally, and then realizing the truth on your own later. Keep up the great work, I'm glad I found your Substack today.
Well, now I gotta go back and read all the parts. Hope everything is going well now with the wife. Sometimes we need to learn things the hard way. Nothing is better than having people in your life who allow you to do that and stick with you.
This was both heartwrenching, pointed, and true. You're describing things that have touched all of our lives with incredible poignancy. My own family has the same fractured, multi-parental structure, poisoned by hurt and resentment as a result of the fashionable divorce epidemic. Thankfully no one was lost to drugs ... but damage was done in other ways.
It's one thing to examine these issues at the level of bloodless abstraction, another to inhabit them in their full, messy human detail, and another still to bridge the gap between those modes, which is what you're doing very well.
Thanks John. The damage that has been wrought, and continues to be wrought, seems almost insurmountable at times, but I think it's waking people up. At least, it did for me.
I don't think we're going to put society back together on anything less than generational timescales, unfortunately.
This is true. I mention that earlier, but at the very least we can Ride the Tiger and not let ourselves get eaten by it. Maybe we can give some people a heads up, at the least, and get them thinking about it.
Also, I added a shout-out to your "Determined to Die", if that's cool with you. I meant to do it earlier but I forgot. It's a great example of weaving personal loss in with a broader argument, and one of my favorite pieces.
Thank you. I was quite surprised at the reception it got.
Great stuff, William. You aren't alone in your feeling of disillusionment with the public relations image of American life that is slowly fraying and revealing itself to be a mask for the cover of truly degenerate impulses. We need, instead, a return to a way of life that is regenerative, or at least for the time being not actively pulling at the threads that keep us bounded together as people. I'm writing this comment on the 18th anniversary of my mother's death from lung cancer when I was only 18. Her life is a reflection of so much of the ennui that results from being told one thing culturally, and then realizing the truth on your own later. Keep up the great work, I'm glad I found your Substack today.
Well, now I gotta go back and read all the parts. Hope everything is going well now with the wife. Sometimes we need to learn things the hard way. Nothing is better than having people in your life who allow you to do that and stick with you.
Things are all good now, but going through it was a miniature version of hell. She's worth it. Thanks man.
This had to have been difficult to write - but thanks for sharing. Honest stories like this are critical to understanding the world today.