Monday, August 10, 2009

Thoughts

Perhaps the following would best reside in my own head, but after seeing Julie & Julia yesterday, I feel compelled to put it out for everyone to see. Currently, I am reading 'Why We're Not Emergent (From 2 Guys Who Should Be)" and it has provoked some thoughts that I have about my generation (and the one coming along) and my society as a whole.
Throughout history, the knowledge base of the preceding generation has been multiplied by the following generation...We're getting smarter. Ok, maybe not individually, but our advances have been substantial. Can you imagine what Newton or da Vinci could do with a computer??? Anyway, it seems as though my generation has been "reading our own press clippings" (if you will let me use my old basketball coach's terms) and we think we are really smarter than we are.
We (and when I say we, I don't really mean me and you...well, it could be you, but maybe not):
- have taken the easy road. You see, it's much easier to question everything than to actually stand for something.
- go with the flow and cry about popular ideas like global warming. When science points out that the Earth goes through cycles (and guess what, We're actually COOLING), we change our terminology to Climate Change. This one we've got right. See sentence two. Now I'm not saying that we shouldn't take care of earth, but selling carbon credits?
- villify a country's leader who stands on moral values and call him a warmonger. We promote a leader who has no definitive stance on anything. Someone who promoted peace and an end the war in the Middle East. Guess what, now that he knows what his predecessor did, what has he done? Last time I checked, we were sending more troops and continuing airstrikes (that someone said were unneccessary). Where are the critics now???
- villify big companies for making money, yet complain when those companies have to lay people off to comply with Governmental polcies.
- ridicule people who have worked dilligently to succeed in the world, yet idolize those in Hollywood who have found wealth with less personal investment.
There are more. It pains me to think that in the future, when history buffs look back on my generation they might actually find the first one that has taken a step backwards.

3 comments:

Amanda said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Amanda said...

Sorry. Didn't mean to delete the first one. What I said was - a-hem:

Amen to all of that! I don't think you can read that book and not have a strong reaction - it's thought provoking in the best way.

Jason said...

Hey man, where did you go? Got any blog-worthy thoughts rollin' around that head of yours?