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Aristus

(70,852 posts)

18. That's a misunderstanding of what Fitzgerald meant by second acts.

Reply to sop (Reply #2)

Thu Sep 11, 2025, 11:51 AM

Thursday

"There are no second acts in American lives" doesn't mean there are no second chances. It just means that American lives tend to go from the first act to the third act, with no intervening period of growth, development, and change.

It's akin to that quote (from whom, I have forgotten) that said that the United States was the first society in history to go from barbarism to decadence with no intervening period of civilization.

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