for the modern world
stakes raised to infinity
win or lose it all
For the modern world is one in which all stakes are raised to infinity; win it all or lose it all, in this or the next generation.
Man’s problem is that he has at last become master of his own fate, and he may not have had the proper training; which is to say that he has arranged things so that he has no one but himself to rely upon.
Instead of looking beyond the skies, he is obliged to look into his own heart.
If he looks earnestly enough, he may find there the thing he needs most of all — the secret of the art of associating together.
From Michigan : a History by Bruce Catton, (1899-1978) New York : Norton, 1984
No Haiku For You 