I like Cobb's second paragraph you clip a great deal.

Thanks. The whole essay is worth it.

It is the privilege you have when you own your own land, your own house, and you have enough Dosh to handle your business and that of your offspring. So you can ignore the rest of the world.

I profoundly disagree.

When you have those things, you aim to keep 'em. Ignorance is not an option: "a fool and his money are soon parted."

Ignorance is an option if you are an "artist" living in some BoHo, SoHo, MoFo or "Bay Area" "loft" owning nothing, owing nothing and sponging off your wealthy parents....

So, no: I don't agree at all.

Ignorance is a tremendous luxury reserved for trustifarians, welfare-queens, angry grievance-mongering minorities, soccer-moms, husbands of ketchup magnates, cheerleaders, union-members and professional athletes.

If you own your own land, your home and enough dosh, you will be hyper-vigilant, or you will have nothing very soon.

And I disagree profoundly right back. Obsession with politics and other peoples' business is in fact an option only if you are an "artist" living in some BoHo, SoHo, MoFo or "Bay Area" "loft" owning nothing, owing nothing and sponging off your wealthy parents....

Cobb's point, if I may, is that caring for what is in front of you, instead of "caring about" things and people you may never see, is the essence of sanity - and is the bottomless luxury of a responsible man. "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof" was refined by later generations as "Don't borrow trouble," and may in fact be the essence of maturity.