I apparently struck a chord with last night’s post, as it resulted in a record number of comments including one that is more intelligent and cogent than anything that I have posted in the past month. And it was written at a time of day when I’m typically stumbling around my office desperately trying to find coffee. So, whoever posted it, thanks for the interesting insight. But, I will at least attempt to clarify my idea from last night.
I certainly will never point to the 80’s as some enlightened time. It definitely wasn’t Camelot. I mean, Atari was cool and I still think that the Commodore 64 was the best designed machine of the 20th century but those pretty much are the highlights. Was it easier or tougher than what any other generation had to face? That’s all based on your perspective. There’s no abject reality on questions like this, it’s all based on your experiences.
What has been bugging me the past few months (and again, this could just be my perspective) is that I really feel that there has been a closing of the American Mind. And maybe it was always closed and it’s just now that these people have their own television shows and I’m bombarded with the viewpoint day after day. I’m a believer in the idea of progress and just can’t believe that this would be considered progress. I’ve talked about the effort in Johnson County to get some books banned from the high school reading list before. What really strikes me about it is that this is one of the richest counties in the country, which should imply a well educated group dedicated to learning and advancement and I just don’t see it. And this really frightens me. It’s the exact opposite of my view of the world and let’s face it, I’m not someone who readily believes that he can be wrong about anything.
I don’t consider the Internet and free information to be a problem because it should end up as the solution. The problem is no one understands how to organize and filter all this information. You’ll always have a signal to noise ratio to worry about and the more data you have, the more static that will appear. And add to this the fact that information and entertainment have become intertwined and suddenly I’m yearning for the days before 24 hour news networks. But it doesn’t have to be this way. I don’t have a solution, Jon Stewart (who had this same argument on Crossfire in December) doesn’t have an answer, but it is one that needs to be found.
We are a trivial and materialistic society that tends to ignore its problems. I once had a conversation with a guy from the Netherlands on the way Americans view the world. He gave me one of the best lines ever, “Whenever Americans see someone in another country doing something that appears foreign to them they immediately go, ‘That’s wrong.’ It’s not wrong, it’s different.” To me, that’s always been the heart of the problem, we’re too bull headed to admit that we might be wrong. And you can’t fix problems that you won’t open your eyes to see.
At the end of the day, sometimes all you can do is try to clean up your little corner of the world, raise your voice and see if you can get anyone’s attention. We all know in our hearts that the problems are out there, there are solutions (though some might mean we, you know, might want to stop driving SUVs for a while), and it comes down to a matter of resolve. To quote Woody Allen “More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.”
(Ok, I wrote the previous part about three hours ago. Since then I’ve seen Jack Ingram in concert and I’ve regained some of my faith in humanity. If you ever wonder what keeps me going, it’s knowing that I can go and see a guy who only has a couple of stories, a few songs and a guitar and come back believing that there is art and meaning out there in this world. As long as a guy like Jack can make a living doing something that he would gladly do for free I feel like there just might be hope for our species after all.
Thanks again for all the comments everyone. It makes my day knowing that people are actually reading this and thinking about it.)
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