[awhitby]

I come from a completely different background but am about the same age as the author. It sounds like many other commenters are in this same general bracket too. So are the sentiments expressed truly a period (or, maybe, cohort, given the post-communist contrast) effect, as suggested, or just an age effect?

I suspect that the middle aged in every society feel some closing of the frontier as possibilities seem to collapse and family commitments multiply.