Time And Again

 

                                                                                           

Time was when things didn't change much. Perhaps that was the most that could be said for them.  Sure there were famines, plagues and wars, but who knew?  Prices were the same from year to year and people lived their entire lives within a small area. They died close to where they were born because there was nowhere to go within the range of the transportation available to them, and it would be too expensive to try. A boy would generally do whatever his father did before him, whether that meant working by his side on the farm or in the shop, or less commonly, he would become a craftsman or a tradesman, which often required an apprenticeship to another. His sister would almost certainly, like her mother, be married off at a young age and spend life as a homemaker – if she didn't die in childbirth first.

Between the year of their birth and that of their death, prices would not change much unless some natural phenomenon – like a crop failure – dictated a temporary price rise. That reality, however, wasn't especially important since most people didn't have much spending money, and they were usually self-sufficient anyway. The technology of their latter years wasn't very different from what they recalled in their childhood. That's not to say that nothing much happened – although that is true – but most of the population never heard about what did take place.

I remember that when I was young, television was new. The radio was the staple – the known factor. It hadn't been around that long, but as far as I was concerned it had always been there.ⁱ In fact, it was on the radio that I heard the announcement of the death of President (Franklinⁱⁱ) Roosevelt, and that Harry Truman had become President. That was wrong. I knew it. It just sounded wrong. The only President I had ever known was Roosevelt. He had been around for more than twelve years by that time,ⁱⁱⁱ so his death marked a significant change in America's perception of their country and their world.

But, as the saying goes, that was then. In the past seventy years or so there has been a scientific explosion^iv with major technological and medical advances, as well as cultural changes that governed the paradigm^v of life in the new version of America. What was once an agricultural economy became industrial, and then service. Our rural population diminished as our cities enlarged. And baseball teams moved around and increased in numbers.^vi

Although the changes may have seemed rapid at the time – in comparison to the past – by current standards they were slow.^vii In my childhood, for example, there was no way we could have envisioned recent changes in communications. Television had just become available to the consumer, but beyond that all we could imagine was the Dick Tracy wrist radio in the comics. It was almost unthinkable that it should come to pass, and, even moreso, that it should become obsolete so quickly. Computers, the internet, tablets, notebooks, and a range of other hand-held devices, combined with calculators, telephones, cameras, and GPS devices, have replaced party lines, scheduled long-distance calls, home movies, maps, and other such primitive contrivances.

I should point out that some of these advances are useful to society,^viii but they're happening too quickly. Before the ethicists have time to deal with the medical advancements, the lawyers with implications of perceived new risks,^ix and the politicians and bureaucrats with new regulations, we have moved far beyond the issues with which they are dealing. Before we can digest and incorporate one change, we're faced with a new one that makes the previous seem childish. There seems to be the default position that change is always good – change for the sake of change. A change that doesn't work is a change that needs to be changed. If something fails it is wrong to criticize it unless you're prepared to offer an alternative. That's always the rejoinder when some new initiative is found wanting. There is a presumption that the change is necessary. The problem is always in the means, not the end. “Unintended consequences” will be dealt with when they occur and they are justified by the change.

But perhaps it would be more prudent to follow the old dictate: “Don't just do something. Stand there.” 1966 was a while ago, but Simon and Garfunkel got it right: “Slow down. You go too fast.”^x

Next episode: “Cogito Ergo Sum” – Think about it.

 

 

 

 

i        Very little changed when I was young. At least it seemed that way. Since I wasn't especially interested in current events, I didn't keep track of very much. I knew car models, baseball standings, and the Hit Parade, but little else.

ii       How old do you think I am?

iii      For me, of course, that was forever. For the rest of the world it was longer than everyone else, but not interminable. Not much changed during that period except a major war and the social and economic improvement that it fostered.

iv      No. I'm not referring to the atomic and hydrogen bombs, though they, too, have changed the world.

v       There has been, among other things, an almost incomprehensible increase in jargon. “Character” would have been a better word, but it's not in vogue. (Nor is the concept of character.)

vi       The world changed for the worse when the Dodgers and the Giants moved to the west coast. It was all downhill after that. Some time later the players started demanding high salaries and switching teams, and all the loyalties in the sport, and the faith in the players, disappeared forever.

vii      Of course in the future what seems to us as swift improvement in all aspects of our lives will be considered slow. As our ancestors could not have conceived of the world in our times, so we cannot imagine what life will be like in times to come – if there are any.

viii    I'm not so sure about “social media,” which seem to me to be a medium devised for the narcissistic who seem to believe that others are actually interested in them and their juvenile exploits.

ix      And real ones like texting while driving.

x       I'll explore the question again in a few months. There's much more to say about it but I'm tired. I need to slow down.