Turn the clock back 100 years and no matter where you find yourself in the world, the general presentation of man is one of seriousness. Doesn't matter which country, which civilization, which climate. In almost every case, the everyman appeared more serious than he does today. And this continual joking, deflecting seriousness because it reveals heart and vulnerability - this is something characteristic of our time. It is all sort of a snicker, all sort of a shrug, all sort of a "doesn't matter, who cares". It lowers us and grates on us.
No man, deep down, really wants to giggle his whole life away. No one wants everything to be made a little joke, made less important. No one truly in their heart wants to turn the big story of their time here into a gag, a prank. And that is the thing about the general man of today. He appears often like a fool, a joke, nothing serious, nothing of heart. And it makes him sad inside, it makes him feel less than he ought to feel. And he takes it out on the world, he seeks to make the world just like that.
We can have a greater world, we can have a greater future but we have to have a greater man, a greater everyman, first he must become the aesthetic, then the world will follow. When we dress ourselves every morning we can remember this and make a choice about what to represent. Do we want a world of perpetual giggling? Or a greater world? A dumber future? Or a greater, stronger future?
The choice is ours.