Existential Failure - Forcing the Present into the Mould of the Past

Modern people are afflicted by the 'existential' failure to engage with the present moment and the new and to respond to them with versatility. Some people might describe the ability to do this as 'living.' Because of the widespread failure in this respect there is a constant attempt to frame and understand the present solely in terms of notable events in living memory such as Fascism. This goes hand in hand with the unimaginative belief that history can only replicate itself. The past is used as a receptacle into which the everything that happens in the present is forced. Those who do this testify to their neurotic inability to cope with the unpredictable.