Jane Austen possessed an incredible talent for observing people around her. The way she satirised their respective behaviours in such a deeply amusing way is a large part of why, I think, her novels have endured.
I started re-reading Persuasion and I absolutely love how the Musgrove sisters are introduced:
Henrietta and Louisa, young ladies of nineteen and twenty, who had brought from a school at Exeter all the usual stock of accomplishments, and were now, like thousands of other young ladies, living to be fashionable, happy, and merry. Their dress had every advantage, their faces were rather pretty, their spirits extremely good, their manners unembarrassed and pleasant; they were of consequence at home, and favourites abroad. Anne always contemplated them as some of the happiest creatures of her acquaintance; but still, saved as we all are by some comfortable feeling of superiority from wishing for the possibility of exchange, she would not have given up her own more elegant and cultivated mind for all their enjoyments.
It captures so well that envy one can sometimes feel (especially if you are engaged and as aware as you can be, even without living certain experiences for yourself, of all the injustice and suffering which occurs in the world at every single moment) when observing those who have minds which... to put it politely, are happily occupied with far more trivial matters and, to be a little bit meaner... have a seemingly empty skulls and seem oblivious to those issues which can keep others up at night.
Persuasion was written in the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars and the story was itself set during the temporary peace of 1814, following Napoleon's exile to Elba. It takes place against the backdrop of all the suffering that so many years at war had brought, which is especially evident in this novel given the number of naval officers who feature heavily within the narrative. But Henrietta and Louisa are fashionable, happy and merry, seemingly without any concern for such serious matters... while Anne is obviously more aware and far wiser (I mean, she's an Austen heroine!) which brings with it a whole lot of pain for her... but eventually a great deal of happiness.
So yes, while life is difficult at the moment (or indeed at any moment) if you are a compassionate, intelligent and aware individual watching it all unfold. There is so much death and destruction, while amoral politicians lead populations who are sleepwalking into willingly ruining their intelligence and losing their critical thinking skills with a near-addictive dependance on AI.
It's difficult and often depressing to watch... but I would much rather keep my own 'more elegant and cultivated mind' than be content with the way things are. Not sure I'll have the same good fortune of meeting my own Captain Wentworth, however...
