I can’t sleep, so I figure I should write.
How is it that we found ourselves in this situation? This new world that has changed so much in just a few generations. I don’t think many people truly acknowledge how radical this day in time is. A few hundred years ago, electricity would have been voodoo. Now we have intergalactic exploration. If you can even grasp how drastic the change in our society is just locally from today to 100 years ago, I believe, we would all be a lot less critical of everything. We truly are flying blind. We have no idea what is going to happen 2 seconds from now, let alone 20 years from now. That is, in fact, the exact same situation our ancestors found ourselves in. Except now we are expected to handle it otherwise. 100 years ago, I never would have been given money for college. 100 years ago, I never would have moved 2 states away because my fathers job was transferred. 100 years ago, I *probably* wouldn’t have Crohns disease. 100 years ago, I definitely wouldn’t be unmarried. 100 years ago? I wouldn’t be anywhere near as discontent as I am capable of being today.
Do you ever think about all the ways in which we sabotage our own happiness every day?
Think about that. I am posting this very piece of writing that 100 years ago would have never found its way out of a journal, never mind viewed by 1000 people internationally. You scroll through your dashboard and read the comments people put under photos, links, quotes, and videos and I think we should notice right off the bat that a lot of people wish they were totally different humans in totally different lives with totally different genetic structures. That is such a joke. Its a joke that didn’t really even exist for a large portion of society 100 years ago. No Hollywood, no advertising, no Apple products, no bikinis, no fast food, no Chanel, no jawnz, no swag, no fake boobs, no music industry. From a male perspective, I would have worked very hard and if I was lucky, being the first born and all, I would have been able to pick a female from within my area 100 years ago. MAYBE. I would have worn the clothing I was made to wear and I would work the same job my father had. I would eat the same food as my mother made and I would read the same books my family had. I would have no comparison, I would have no contrast. I would be less distracted by peripheral things.
So much shit we produce on a daily basis does not matter at all. How aware are we of that? Apple updates its product lines over the course of a long 2 year cycle. Some updates occur even bi-annually. How altered are our lives by those objects? Quite. How foundation ally are our lives changed by those devices? Very much so. Yet, why is it that they mean almost nothing to the progress of our beings as a whole? 100 years ago, no, 1000 years ago shit was poppin’ off too! Paper had become mainstream. Gun powder was created in China. Arab scientists are producing influential written works in medical, mathematical and astronomical realms. The brightest supernova ever recorded was observed. Also a whole lot of kingdoms and kings were pissing each other off. Process that. PAPER! MATH! A FUCKING STAR EXPLODED AND EVERYONE IN THE WORLD SAW IT.
Dude did you hear about the new Macbook with the Retina display?
Seriously. Don’t misunderstand me. I love the time in which I live but I feel like sometimes there is way too much to be unhappy about in this awesome age. We have too much shit that we don’t need and not even awareness of what we need to know. I have a news ticker on my computer screen 24/6 (yes, 6.). Nothing fucking happens worth mentioning almost every day. Yeah people are doing this over there, and people are doing that over here but nothing has really changed. Peoples ability to be entirely self absorbed by the wealth of stimuli in their area is still overpowering and globalization is nothing but a worldview. If you want to turn off and check out, trust me, you can. And you could be better off.
We laugh at people who don’t have an awareness of this or that. I was made fun of for pronouncing “Wiki” wrong once. Do you know how insignificant that is? Also for not knowing various facts of pop culture and or youtube videos I had not seen. I know deep down inside it does not matter at all. I know a lot of people who laugh at the people who sit around and think about the things that are truly baffling. Like the universe. We do not know anything. And yeah, it is easier to relax, grab and iPad and read the newest issue of Vogue. But isn’t that just diversion? Or has our generation as a whole simply ignored the great questions of the last 1000 million years and said… “eh… fuck it.”? Isn’t this where mass revivals and renewal of the mind of men starts happening? Like, we have slowed as a human race in so many ways, we have gotten dumber, we don’t know how to live without civilization and shit always changes. Who is preparing or thinking about this? I want to know, if you know, send me a link.
For one, I’m not saying I am any different or somehow not of the same cloth that everyone else is. I really do believe we are all very similar humans, and all from a very unique experience. But I’m simply saying, has anyone else felt this way? Has anyone else looked back on history and been like “How did we get here and how is no one asking this question in any real sense?” And even more so… Where the hell do we go next?