When I was a kid, it was the 60s,
the age of free love and drugs, and the worst things that were apt to happen
were pregnancy or a bad trip. We had
maybe a third of the technology we have today, and a tenth of the
luxuries. People are fond of memories of
having to actually get up to change the television channel, and having a phone
with a cord on it that you couldn’t take with you, but what they’re really fond
of, I think, is the sense of safety we had because we also had about a tenth of
the dangers kids face today.
Sure, bad things
happened, even then. I was nine when
John Kennedy was killed, and it stunned the nation, but it wasn’t a personal
danger. It was danger on a national
level. We’d dealt with that before, and
we’d won. I guess when you think about
how far technology has come, it’s no wonder really that the dangers involved
have become greater as the world has gotten smaller.
When I was a kid,
there were no internet stalkers because there was no internet; LSD was the only
“designer drug,” and unprotected sex didn’t kill you. Kids didn’t take guns and
bombs to school to kill each other, and no one had flown planes into the side
of the World Trade Center. I know, I
know, it’s cliché to say it was a simpler time, but in many ways it’s the truth. However, I can’t help but believe the separation
caused by the lack of technology kept us innocent of many of the evils in the
world.
Evil had to work
harder to get to us. It could still get
to us. John Kennedy’s death, followed by
the Manson murders and the assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther
King were proof of that, but it was a little more distant than it seems to be
now. Technology has brought wonderful
advances and horrible knowledge. All of
those murders and the Vietnam War came into our homes through the miracle that
was TV.
How much more
information is available today? The
information we have access to now has multiplied exponentially which makes us
infinitely more knowledgeable, and infinitely more paranoid, and for good
reason. With that knowledge has come a
terrifying awareness of how much evil there is in the world. I’m not going to get into a discussion of
nature versus nurture. However it came
to be, it presents itself as evil, so we’ll just leave it at that.
I have a grandson
soon to be born, and knowing how much progress we’ve made in my lifetime, I
cannot help but wonder how much more will happen during his life, and how we
will survive further development of intellect without further development of
spirituality/morality/decency. I’m not
Christian, so I’m not preaching go to church, live the way I say, blah, blah,
blah, but somewhere in there, before technology becomes so prevalent that we no
longer have any contact with each other, we have to develop the sense of right
and wrong that is missing in so much of our world today. Without it, there is no sense of connection
to the world or to other people, and we will become truly dangerous to
ourselves and our world. We’re already
headed that way.
We are the only
ones who can make this difference, and unless we start now, for those who haven’t
already, to reach out to those who need, and those who suffer, and those who
hurt, it’s going to be a bleak future. Think
back to the future you envisioned as a child, and let’s all take one small step
on the path to love of our fellow humans and rebuilding the world that reflects
the dreams we had when we were young.
Sandi
Sandi
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