Train wrecks all over the place

Well, the Pubs did it. Squirrel-Hair is their standard-bearer going into November's disembowelment.

The cascade of tweets from my fellow #NeverTrumpers says everything I would say about that.

And meanwhile, one of the cable networks trying to focus on covering the Train Wreck on the Lake seems to be imploding. Ailes out as CEO. a roster of prime-time stars ready to walk out in solidarity with him. Megyn Kelly joining the ranks of the sexual-harassment accusers. Murdoch family trying to stay above the fray.

And, of course, a backdrop of jihad, war on cops, health-care chaos and world-stage provocations by adversaries and enemies.

I have become tired of the type of punditry piece one sees a fair amount these days, the column or essay that deals with the question of whether our time is as dark as the 1860s or the 1960s. The range of conclusions about that, of course, ranges from we-so-take-for-granted-the-convenince-and-relative-safety-of-our-modern-life-that-we-can-afford-to-amplify-our-little-problems to apocalypse-is-nigh.

Those at the end of the spectrum I mentioned first tend to make a great deal of technological advances. The surgical procedures, means of conveying information, and efficiency of transportation we have available would be the stuff of dreams to someone from a mere 60 years ago.

That has two sides.

I think technology tends to reflect the two basic sides to human nature. The same human prowess that can deliver the complete works of Shakespeare - and all the critical analysis ever written about them - to the five-inch screens in our hands can also deliver video depictions of the most nauseating kinds of debauchery.

Which is why an earnest search for eternal truths and a reliance on He who revealed them to us is more critical than ever.

Mere human beings with no guide beyond their own egos and intellects are sure to crumble political parties and news networks and eventually entire nations.

This is so different in so many ways from earlier periods of darkness in our history that comparisons can't hope to be adequate.

Still, in important ways, this time is very much the same.