We are, after all, still living through the aftermath of a once-in-three-generations financial crisis.
Comte lived through the aftermath of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods, at a time when a new, stable social order without despotism was sought.
A decade and a half into the 21st century, we're still living through the aftermath of two epoch-making shocks.
But having lived through the aftermath of the Lehman collapse, I am glad I did not get to see how the markets and the economy would have responded to a New Year's eve crisis at Merrill.
You grow up with grandparents who survived the Chinese famine, uncles who survived the Cultural Revolution, a father who survived the Killing Fields of Cambodia and a mother who lived through the aftermath of the fall of Saigon, and you learn that to survive means to blend in, to try to render yourself invisible to any targets.
As a nation, we're still living through the aftermath, still sorting through the rubble and trying to re-assemble the pieces of what's left.
Anyone who lived through the aftermath of the killing of Oscar Grant in Oakland, or whose memory stretches back to the time of the Rodney King beating in Los Angeles, knows that when police actions violate the public's trust, there is a pretty good chance that young people will act out in the few ways that they see available to them.
If you're living through the Sandy aftermath, hoping next week's storm dissipates well before hitting shore, Halloween costumes from Grease were not funny.
He did live through the night.
Just live through the experience.
You will live through the night.
