Will be interested to read your reaction.
>This "everything's going to hell" trope is more or less like some
>crotchety old geezers on a porch complaining that things were better
>in "the good old days".
Hey, trope this is not! Everything *is* going to hell, and I've got the climatological data to prove it.
Apart from the planet itself falling apart, on the topic of social decline I try to defend against accusations of being a crotchety geezer by putting the blame on entropy -- that conveys a sort of thermodynamic rigor and comes across less like the whining of an old fart. Of course, since "entropy" itself has a dated, sixties sound, my defense may be self-negating.
Carl
_________________________________________________________________ Turn searches into helpful donations. Make your search count. http://click4thecause.live.com/search/charity/default.aspx?source=hmemtagline_donation&FORM=WLMTAG