Thursday, April 12, 2012

I had a conversation with my sister Easter weekend in front of a wood stove. We talked about plenty of different subjects, but one thing really stood out in my mind. We were critiquing society and talking about "where this is all going," like the true skeptics and intellects we like to think we are, when my sister said something that struck me.

"When it comes to things like how we use our cellphones and the feminist movement, when you think about the history of humans in its entirety, we are just at the beginning." By that (or however she happened to say it) she meant that all our complaining (and later on, my Grandpa's complaining) about people losing crucial skills, of things like face-to-face communication due to recent developments of cellphones, can't really be judged too harshly due to the fact that people didn't start texting (at least in my world) until six or seven years ago; the feminist movement was largely in the twentieth century.

What I'm saying is, it's likely that things will balance out. YES, people have caused accidents and died due to being simply "unable" to put down their cellphone for more than two minutes; YES, the feminist movement has not only caused freedom and respect but has also has caused confusion on how to deal with "household roles" since it is now unacceptable for a parent in the family to stay at home; YES, along with that, less meals are homemade, and mass-production has spread due to our inability to produce anything for ourselves -- causing companies to inject all sorts of chemicals and hormones into our bodies (through our food with such a long shelf-life) that may be causing things like cancer; YES, we have turned into an individualistic society that cares little for anyone else down the street let alone their own parents who need to rely on "professional assistance" when they grow old, because this would be a hardship on us; YES, we have been desensitized by violence and simply do not care about other human beings other than those that we hold in our arms . . . the list can go on. What I'm saying is, all this technological jumbo and choice and acceptance on sexual orientation or whether or not you want to stay married to the same person forever or not has put a wrench in the mix. The feminist perspective, the whole colonization of North America, is recent! For centuries it seemed that people, largely speaking, lived in similar ways. Less people held the wealth in the world, and the majority of us were poor, yet self-sustaining. We needed our communities because we had nothing else.

I wonder if in a few generations if anyone will know how to keep a garden or milk a cow. I wonder at the future of our daycare-run families. I wonder if we'll start using technology for the good it could be instead of for more means of entertainment and time-wasting. I wonder if thirteen-year-olds will stop sitting on a couch together, silent, texting, and be kicked outside. I wonder when hard work will be valued again -- a part of character-building and life, as opposed to being there for those who cannot afford otherwise. I wonder when old men will stop buying fast cars, or when young people will stop going into debt for the sake of fast cars, justifiable because it is a "part of who they are," an "image of themselves."

Good grief.

One can hope that things that are happening for the good will continue: awareness of environmentalism, people being against the effects of mass-production (whether that be the conditions of animals, workers, or the chemicals that keep our items on the shelves longer), social media being used to create awareness of global issues.

We all know about these things. I don't think it would be possible to create much more awareness.  We just haven't gotten around to doing anything about it yet.

I am not saying I want things to go back to the "way they were." No. I simply think somewhere along the lines of the mass-production rural to urban technological feminist shift we lost a few values and skills that might come in handy down the road -- things that are for the good, and could be even better since we have advanced. Think about it.

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