Social Transformations
I read a lot of biographies. How people think or behave is entertaining, educational, and helps me appreciate diversity. All these musings simply reflect my penchant for spending several hours thinking (writing) and several hours a day reading (so I have things to think about). My favorite time of the day are my walks---either in nature settings or wandering around Chicago. Each type of environment is relaxing in it's own way. I never feel less alone then when on these solitary treks, here and there, as the spirit moves me. I don't think anyone can really be contented and find any effective meaning in life without extended periods of self reflection on God's evolutionary process.
Humans are social creatures. Even I need social interaction. We all do. Whenever I read an autobiography about someone who lived in an isolated primitive community, and got displaced by disasters of this or that order, including genocide and environmental disasters, I am always impressed by the fondness of their memories of their former life in such simple communities. I mean, by our standards, they had very little---a few goats or other such creatures, maybe a small garden, little dietary variety, and material possessions which could be carried in a couple of large sacks. STILL, their fondest memories are of those 'good old days" even though they now live in a modern material-filled community. Clearly it must be the in-depth social interactions which they miss. Whatever else these communities were or were not, they were social cauldrons of intensely personal significance.
I have lived nearly 70 years now, long enough to have seen my own society go through many transformations, I suspect more transformations than in all the previous periods of human evolution. Social changes in my life time have moved rapidly, as evolutionary changes go. Abraham Lincoln would be absolutely astonished at all the changes. One of my favorite LIncoln quotes is the following: "If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it" This is pretty much a good blueprint for logical decisions about life. Each step in this process requires understanding. Understanding requires experience and observation free from inherited religious or cultural beliefs. Since America was first founded on the principles of freedom and justice for all, these principles have expanded to include more and more diverse groups. In the early days of our Republic it was pretty much the white male land owning citizens who had this freedom and justice. Democracy pushed the boundaries to include all white males, who then used endless political machinations to keep women and blks in 'their place'. Strangely, black males ended up getting to vote before white women. Once women got the vote, discrimination against them, in various ways, became difficult to maintain. Laws got passed which gradually began to level the playing field for women and blks. Today gays are beginning to get their share of freedom and justice. A lot of good social transformations have occurred despite a suspicion that being a plantation owner might well have been a personal ego trip which most of us probably would have enjoyed. But, as Terrell Owens would say: "Fair is fair".
I am not exactly Mr. Technology or Mr. Social or Mr. Materialism. The simple things in life bring me the most pleasure---a good walk, a good meal, a good conversation, a good book, a good laugh, a good amount of time to myself. As far as I am concerned enough is as good as a feast---to reach for more being counter productive in terms of contentment and effort. I watch people scurry around, all tensed up, behaving as if every minute of time must be filled with either work or entertainment. It is truly a rat race. All these efforts to acquire more 'THINGS' is supposed, I would guess, to make life more comfortable, more convenient, more efficient, and more private. Perhaps all these things do make life all of that BUT, somehow contentment, for most of the people I have observed, has not been forthcoming. To me, some of the 'busiest' people are, in reality, the loneliest. They are forever busy being 'busy as a bee' and if they get a moment left alone they reach immediately for some gadget which will provide them with someone with whom to chat. It is seldom any kind of meaningful conversation, more often than not meaningless babble. I hear these conversations when on a bus or train, or waiting most anyplace, and know exactly why I DO NOT have a cell phone (at least not one which anyone has the number to). No wonder the voting public is becoming increasingly ignorant about any matters of importance to life on our planet. Just when would these mindless 'busy as bee'ites' ever find the time to logically and methodically think about anything.
Laura Pappano has described our typical modern citizen as "overstimulated, hyperkinetic, overcommitted, striving, under-cared for, therapy dependent, plugged in, logged on, sleep deprived." People feel less and less like they are part of any community. Instead, they mostly have circled the wagons around their own family unit. To the extent this happens they suffer a collective loneliness from loss of meaningful interaction. In some sense we are drowning in our own rapid social advances. There was a time when a phone call was kind of special, especially long distance, when entertainment involved neighborhood activities, when travel meant an exciting trip probably not all that far, and if far, it would be a totally different kind of environment you would find yourself in. Phone conversations now are something you mostly do while you are doing something else, like driving, shopping, etc. I will always remember the time I was exiting a forest preserve from my walk, and across the street someone was having a party with people in lawn chairs on the front yard. All but one was on the cell phone to someone. Some party. It is becoming rare for people to discuss in detail anything---they simply get messages and keep on running.
The activities of most people today are heavily scheduled. There is no need to ask anyone if they have plans for the day, THEY DO---an endless series of repetitive tasks to stay in the rat race. If you ask someone what they did they will tell you what they crammed in, not what they thought about anything. Even marriage has hit it's lowest level ever in our country. I mean talk about circling the wagons---increasingly that means inwardly around yourself. Our best friends are the TV, the internet, our cell phones, chat rooms, video games, etc. People, it seems to me, are becoming less interesting with everyone seeking entertainment from their array of electronic gadgets. LIke what would more and more people really talk about? They have given so little original thought to matters of importance as to be essentially intellectually sterile. Maybe being amused is a higher good then generating your own meaning to life.
When I was younger there was a tendency to expect self-sacrifice, self restraint, and a distaste for waste. Today we are defined by consumerism, with piling our material wealth higher and higher. This mindless consumerism is destroying our society. This increasingly insane competition to get a bigger and bigger piece of the pie is creating a society in which a few have more and more of the wealth while the many have less and less of the wealth. In 1967 the richest fifth of families earned 7.5 times as much as the poorest fifth. By 1994 the richest fifth were earning more than 19 times the poorest fifth. Since 1994 this disparity has increased exponentially. Why? Those who are amassing all this wealth control Congress, and are in a position to create laws and regulations which enable them to grow their wealth even easier.
Our country has rapidly progressed from a society of producers to a society of consumers. If it weren't for the service and military industries what exactly does America really have anymore? We are 38th in health care, way down the pike when it comes to modern mass transportation, reduced to second rate educational systems in more and more locations, most all production jobs lost to other countries, the highest percentage of citizens jailed in the world, a senseless War on Drugs, and senseless wars across the globe which foster terrorism directed at us from all these fronts.
The kind of television shows we watch tells us a lot about ourselves. American Idol and an assortment of 'reality' shows typify the current American mindset. I try to imagine why anyone would spend time watching these shows. They have zero to do with reality. It's all fantasy and ridicule, preying on people's emotions is some sort of twisted way. Maybe it would be all harmless enough if this were just incidental aspects of their lives. But it is not. Outside of work, if one is lucky enough to have work, these mindless forms of amusement generate ignorant, irrational, indifferent attitudes and understanding about others and real life. When one's day is preoccupied with unchallenging monotonous work and mindless amusements from an array of electronic gadgets, the content of one's thought, if I can use the term loosely, is rather shallow and tunnel visioned. It is no wonder when masses of these people vote, we get the results we get. By any serious measure, Americans in great numbers have reduced themselves to human lemmings madly, and collectively, in a frenzied mindless fashion, rushing towards every cliff in sight. We are now totally incapable of seriously addressing the many serious problems affecting the entire globe. This obsession with being amused every minute of the day has made us passive illusionists, unable to perceive real problems in human existence. We seek to be amused by input which is 'better' than real life. Of course, in the end, it is real life which determines our fate.
Before we were so in touch with the rest of the world in such an instantaneous fashion, it was our own communities which rooted our thought processes, our conversations, and gave us our essence of life. Today our community is almost irrelevant. People move constantly, and perhaps---if you can be so easily anywhere, where are you really? Wherever you are you live the same reclusive life, involved with the same communication gadgets, and spend your days either working or being absorbed by the same electronic amusements. It used to be a big adventure to travel and take pictures of where you went. I don't even take a camera anymore. I get, on a weekly basis, an array of really quality pictures over the internet from various friends. There are no pictures I can take which compete with these internet pictures. Part of me hates the fact so many astounding pictures arrive via the internet that it is hardly possible to any longer be astounded. We are now (us affluent) bombarded with the best of everything in endless amount, including music, movies, books, sports, etc. It is really surreal. Even more surreal is the way some of us live in such a style while most others on our now globalized planet live like desperate savages with virtually nothing. THAT IS REALITY. THE CONSEQUENCES OF THIS REALITY ARE TOO UNNERVING TO SERIOUSLY FACE.
We live more and more in some kind of virtual world, an abstract existence apart from realities of global distress and human overpopulation. We have redefined the very basis of relating. We used to visit each other, now we send emails. Visits are essentially reduced to immediate family members----maybe. Family units are so dispersed these days in most cases as to make meaningful sustained relations rather difficult. When I was young all uncles, cousins, and other relatives all lived within driving distance of each other. This is no longer.
In this massive information age we have trained ourselves not to see anything we are not looking for. Wonderment is becoming a lost experience. I sense that moments which inspire wonder and deep thought which leave us feeling utterly alive with meaning to our lives are fading. Whatever occupies our minds these days must be instant gratification. Today speed is king. Obama may have broken through our malaise and sparked a "Yes We Can" spirit. But in the end, if his goals cannot be accomplished overnight, the public will turn. Long range goals are irrelevant in today's climate of speed and instant gratification. I sit and wonder how fast is too fast for meaningful human existence? Humans are now like locusts swarming over the planet devouring everything in sight, including other species, natural resources, etc. How can anything good come from this mindset, this lifestyle?
With all the technological advances, are we any happier? I don't really know the answer to this, and any answer is hardly objective. I do know, that for me to be happy and especially contented, I have to distance myself from most of it. I need space and time to 'smell the flowers', to understand the meaning of all that swirls around, close at hand or with global issues. Twenty percent of our population picks up and moves every year. Is this good for their psyche? I don't know. With this gypsy like movement how well do people ever really know others in their community? Maybe it is not important to know others.
The average size of new American homes increased 41% between 1971 and 1997. Whatever else good or bad this might be, this certainly provides individual family members with more space (distance) from each other. And, increasingly each member has his/her own bathroom. Now that so many are 'busy bodies', lurching from robotized task to task, there is no time to be waiting for the bathroom. This is not to imply that I, less than anyone else, wants to wait to use a bathroom. But times just have changed. In the past people were more likely to just drop by to visit. Today that would be rude. There was a time, if someone dropped by on me, I would answer the door with my hat and coat on explaining I was just leaving and I wish they had called so we could schedule a visit. That worked like a charm and taught them a lesson. Also today we consider ourselves on good terms with our neighbors if there are no active conflicts, not because there is any meaningful interaction.
One question I have is whether a nation can fulfill it's social contract with the less fortunate amongst us in the virtual absence of social contact with them. It is ironic that the more overpopulated the planet becomes the less connected we are becoming with others in meaningful ways. All of the increasing misery being imposed on others across the globe is, for all practical purposes, an abstraction. We know this misery is out there, but it doesn't relate to us in any emotional way. 'Family values', as the term is used today, assures us that it is ok to put ourselves first. As long as we personally, and our immediate family, have good health insurance, good schools, good job opportunities, gadgets galore, a huge and well stocked house, etc. then all is well. We kind of sense that for others to have more, we might have to do with less, and that settles it in our minds: "don't fix what ain't broke, at least for us personally". It seems our hunger for wealth, power, and material goods is far beyond any real personal need. Most all of us are guilty except you and I, and sometimes I wonder about you.
For the modern 'family values' cabals the aim of family is not so much to prepare family members for the public world as it is to avoid it as much as possible. This may be a partial reason why so many young people choose to live alone. When I was young there was a lot of pressure to get married. Today that pressure is much less. Today there are as many single-person households as there are households of married couples with children. This is rather an odd way to solve human overpopulation. This new social isolation, 'family values', whatever else you might call it, leads to a lack of need for each other. Gadgets have replaced humans for life partners in many cases. I see all this even though I am single myself. But in my case it was never by choice.
Looking out for others is now pretty much relegated to Government and even here, conservatives deplore Government support for the unfortunate. In an interesting twist of logic these less fortunate are not victims but the cause of our problems. According to their conservative twisted state of mind everyone chooses their own road and it is not the obligation of others to rescue the less fortunate who just have made the wrong choices in life---like their choice of parents, or the country in which they were born, or the school district they live in, or their physical or mental abilities, or their looks, etc. These less fortunate exist but we choose mostly not to think about them at all and our attitude is more one of disinterested attachment. Religions have changed too, and for most people, if they belong to a church, they in reality pay more attention to their own views and the views of others then they do to church dogmas or biblical verses. Church services are full of rituals but because people in the congregation interact with each other hardly at all, the service is just a show, and a show which competes poorly with TV shows.
Communities today are kind of online communities. It is hard to define the nature of these online communities but they are more like avenues for those of like opinions to gather with others to voice the same opinions. It is the blind leading the blind. So much of today's manner of living ensures people stay apart. It starts with large houses so individual family members can have more space, then comes the high fence around the yards so we can isolate ourselves from neighbors, we teach our kids not to speak with or be friendly to strangers, visiting others is reduced to a trickle, and eventually we end up with a nation of strangers. We exchange information but we have little conversation. A two hour conversation about any topic is a rarity. Talking is no longer considered entertainment in some sense, it is just exchange of information. Most cell phone calls are purely informative, brainless, unimaginative dribble of no real consequence to anyone's life.
It is, I suppose, to be expected for someone my age to view all these social transformations with skepticism. There may be a lot more to all of this than meets an aged eye. I hope so.
