In the sixties I was treated to such wondrous visions of the future. Plastic tubes running thru the skies shuttled people between super skyscrapers. Cars were freed from the bonds of gravity and zipped hither and fro, more personal skycraft than what traps us now in traffic jams. Every household had it's own personal robotic maid, butler, housekeeper, family friend. Cancer and other diseases were long forgotten. Vacations spots were off-world. And by now the headlines should have been detailing the terra-forming of Mars.
What in the hell happened? The only difference I see between the sixties and now is a damn sight more people suffering from the same old tragedies. Wars rage on. Starvation actually happens. We can't even build a decent space station, forget getting to Mars. And presidents keep trying to be kings.
I sit here at this amazing instrument we call the personal computer and it is the only thing I can say that the future delivered, albeit that we still type our will via the keyboard and get somewhat modest results, considering the potential of this machine. This Imac should be running my whole household, from answering the phone to calling the kids to maintaining a secure perimeter. It COULD do all those things, but only if I was a brilliant computer nerd with unlimited financial resources. I should be TALKING to this thing, and it should be talking back, telling me what's going on with the homestead when I come home from work, which incidentally should have been a truly rewarding, uplifting career that insured my material comfort while providing me with a sense of true accomplishment. My healthcare needs by now should have been a given, instead of this shaky employer assisted safety net I now rely on, which I could lose at any moment. This is all the future, and frankly, it sucks.
My generation was the one that stood up and said, "This ain't right, man, and we're gonna change it!" Yea, right. Peace and love. Flower power. What a crock. Most of us grew up and became the problem. We all discovered what a lovely color green was. For every one of us who literally paid in blood for advances in social justice, there were three others who sucked up to the man and got theirs. We created Walmart, McDonalds, Microsoft, Enron, and other examples of institutional sin, and the new hippies are dispirited, angry skinheads who write songs of angst, utterly empty sex, and silliness.
The uptight, Ozzy and Hariett generation, now properly thought of as the greatest generation, went to war against the greatest evil the world had ever known, then came home and put the pedal to the metal, making this the most powerful nation on the face of the Earth. Their children, compared to any generation before it, had it made, and actually had the time and resources to notice that not all was well with this new world and had the gall to speak up about it. Thanks to them, we got music you could actually feel, the courage to declare that ALL men were created equal, that women were more than baby factories, and that the earth was not really one big toxic dumping ground. I was there. I understood the whole dynamic because I was immersed in it. Then I grew up, got a few grey hairs of my own, and suddenly I'm in the bazaro world.
One, and I do say one, of the greatest presidents of my generation was impeached for getting caught getting blow-jobs in the oval office. Republicans actually took over my government. A new word was invented: homeless. The planet is heating up and even arctic permafrost is melting. There is Dupont Teflon in my bloodstream. The average automobile gets maybe 18 miles per gallon, and sure as hell doesn't fly, even tho they can exceed the speed limit by a factor of at least two. My president wasn't actually elected by popular vote, he lied (just like Clinton) to get us into a war, and now acts more like an emperor than a president. Red China, and yes, folks, China is still Red, owns a large chuck of the United States. And I have basically one choice of store to shop at; Walmart.
So, it's a fairly simple question, my friends......what in the hell happened?
You tell me.
2 comments:
Well, I wasn't alive in the 60's so I can't say what life was like back then and I don't know what changes may or may not have occurred. Wow, what a help I am, eh? But I do know that being a true child of the 80's--(Hey I lived out 3 months out of the 70's!) that as I would watch the Jetsons on Saturday mornings that I was just sure that by the year 2000 I would be flying my car instead of driving and my meals would come in the form of a pill. What a disappointment. Sigh. Damn George Jetson for giving me high hopes.
You got old.
Post a Comment