Original Post
In my early twenties, it came as a surprise to me that people acted contrarily to their interests. I hadn't read Gramsci and learned about the concept of hegemony. I hadn't considered that my upbringing had taken place in a time of great wealth for America and that what had happened beginning in the early 2000s was the rule and not the exception.
It has been difficult for some of us born in middle-class families in the 70s and 80s. There was an unquestioned notion that hard work amounted to something. That prosperity was available for all. These notions are almost impossible for us to let go of, and this perhaps explains why the modernist nostalgia for the center persists in my writing even today.
But upon reflection, I find that the center continually renews its disappearance into the distant past. In the present perfect: the center hasn't held.
