I'm old now

I suddenly came to the realization while driving that I was old. I was on the highway driving 60 mph and listening to NPR. How sad. Recently, since it is an election year there is a lot of coverage on the GOP presidential nomination. I dislike politics because of the divide that it wedges between people. So I was less than optimistic about the change in my regular schedule on the radio. However there is so much coverage that now I cannot help but be drawn into thinking about it and how it could affect my future. During this time I am taking a humanities class that covers early modern civilization and what we are currently focused on is the renaissance and the reformation. Comparing current civilization to the past great civilizations I am beginning to see some scary similarities between the two just before their collapse. The Roman Empire fell due to corruption and the huge gap between the wealthy and the poor. I would assume it was somewhere around the 1% being the wealthy and the remaining being the poor. We are beginning to see people organize in protest against things like economic hardship and a clash between those in authority and the oppressed (Occupy Wall Street). What is going to happen when one of the two sides use lethal force? Hopefully that will not happen. Much of that depends on where the countries leaders go from here.