Sunday, May 22, 2022

Air

 

Air


As a Northport child of the fifties, I mourn the loss of “human connection” as I observe the detached demeanor of today's society and continued collapse of the traditional family unit. For some time now, I've lived in the south, a place that has been long renowned for “southern comfort” and graciousness, an amenity that has all but disappeared. A large sector of the populace are in their own self-contained “cocoons”, as they traverse their daily routines. Ladies, barreling down the interstate at break-neck speeds, applying makeup. Men chatting aimlessly on their cell phones as their car wanders from lane to lane. Children texting senseless drivel to one another on their electronic devices as they ignore their immediate physical surroundings. A whole new language has emerged. The valedictory, “good-bye” has been replaced with “later”. Acronyms like ROTFLMAO now bewilder most elderly folks to the point of exclusion. A typical cell phone conversation consists of “Yo, dude what's happening? Yeah, not much; cool beans!”. To the detriment of society, much of this shallow drivel is the conspired product of the electronics industry and air-time providers. The credit card industry thrives right along with them; ching-ching. To compound the problem, nearly every text message and every cell phone conversation subsidizes a job in another country. Support teams for electronics devices, software and for internet service providers invariably furnish offshore technicians with a dialect that is unintelligible to most native Americans. Little children partake in this communication loop at the expense of their parents. Older underemployed offspring who are mature enough to be self-sufficient, are “in the basement” riding the same gravy train. Working adults are crumbling under the burden of this financial weight and their lives becoming unmanageable, victims of themselves.

At one time America rolled up it's sleeves and worked shoulder to shoulder without so much as a whimper. They stood in bread lines together, weathered the great depression and two world wars, built the largest city in the world, created a national defense without rival and reigned superior in the space race. Today, we are more concerned with political correctness, diversity, body tattoos and the mentality of “I want it all, I want it now”. We've lost touch with the reality of our roots.

My mother, God rest her soul had some very profound thoughts in her final years which prompted her to sigh, “thank God, I'm in the exit lane”. She took that exit in November of 1999, not long before Osama Bin Laden became a household word. She used to say that air conditioning was the undoing of America. At the time, I was enjoying the relative comfort of my climatized life and didn't understand the impact of that observation upon which she expounded .

Back then, only the very-well-to-do had air conditioning. On summer evenings, after dinner, most folks sat out on the patio or front stoop with iced tea (poor man's air conditioning). This scenario prompted social interaction with neighbors and promoted cohesiveness. Young boys and girls played together whether it was baseball, hide & seek or some invented childhood game. Everyone knew one another on a first name basis and were always ready with a friendly “hello”. If someone was in need of help, it was usually about 30 feet away. The concept of neighbors “borrowing” a cup of sugar was an anticipated practice and social groups spun off from this feeling of community. It was a time when sharing and belonging were an integral part of the fraternal unit.

Enter air conditioning. People turned inward and limited themselves to the comfort of their own homes and inadvertently, the age of isolationism was born. The social climate of society began to take on an impersonal face. These were observations that Mom made in 1999 and before. Since then, Messrs. Gates, Jobs, Wozniak and cohorts amassed obscene amounts of money by catering to the desires of the “now” folks who talk, text and sext, all electronically. In the wake of this technological wave is a society of people who have become incapable of communicating in a direct way. People who are virtually unaware of those around them. People who break out the hand-held at social gatherings and abstain from human connection.

In the movie, “2001, A Space Odyssey” there was a computer named “Hal” who spoke with an electronic, emotionless voice. Like Hal, with the exception of the very young and the very old, society has become self-focused and similarly emotionless. Perhaps science fiction was just taking a guess at the timeline for what we call progress, but it was amazingly accurate. The anthem rings “I want it all, I want it all, I want it all, I want it now”.

I want it just the way it was in the fifties. The way it was in Northport. As it was when creative entertainment involved two cans and a string. When a raspberry good humor could be had for seven cents and easily split in two for the sharing. Just as it was during the ice age when Pete's Icehouse was the coolest place on Main Street. Like most things, I believe technology is a good thing......in moderation. Callmeoldfashioned.com

A late “food for thought” note: Will Covid 19 change society back to the way it was when the threat has passed?


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