Few of us look forward to dental visits. Nevertheless, dental work today is less dreaded because of modern analgesics which numb the gum and allow repairs to be done in relative painlessness, compared to a generation or so ago. Indeed we become so used to the miracles of modern medical science that we tend to think all our physical ills should be resolved with a shot or a pill.

Perhaps scientific breakthroughs carry over into our expectations for all our human ills. We will elect the right political party, the right president, the right governor, and viola, our problems vanish in the space of an election. Supporters of a winning candidate cheer, happy days are here again, throw the rascals out.

Unfortunately, reality overtakes the happy visions. No political fix will solve our problems; no magician will wave a wand and destroy the demons. The black swans appear. The Great Recession or 9/ll or natural calamities destroy our assumptions that life is one big party.

In truth, no political winner can undo what we, the people, have done to ourselves over decades. We were the binge consumers, the pleasure seekers who did not count the cost, who lived only for today.

Relief will come only slowly, gradually, as we wake from the party, sobered by our hangover, hopefully to exercise responsibility for the lives we live as individuals. We can make the hard moral choices, we can build up our families and neighborhoods and faith communities, or we can continue waiting for the perfect political fix which will never come.