Living History

From Fareed Zakaria

Some of us--especially those under 60--have always wondered what it would be like to live through the kind of epochal event one reads about in books. Well, this is it. We're now living history, suffering one of the greatest financial panics of all time. It compares with the big ones--1907, 1929--and we cannot yet know its full consequences for the financial system, the economy or society as a whole.

For the record, I never had any urge to live through an 'epochal event' ... Reagan and Bush were quite sufficient, thank you very much. The worst part of such 'epochal' moments are that you aren't sure when they will end--or--more importantly--if they will ever end.

The Chinese have a word for people that are curious in this way--the word is 'interesting'. As in ... 'May you have an interesting life'.

This is also sometimes known as the Chinese curse.