Paradox of Our Time
Jul. 4th, 2002 12:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sinjunThe paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less. We buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time.
We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years.
We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space.
We've done larger things, but not better things. We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice.
We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.
It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete.
- by George Carlin
We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years.
We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space.
We've done larger things, but not better things. We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice.
We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.
It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete.
- by George Carlin
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2002-07-04 11:03 am (UTC)no subject
no subject
Date: 2002-07-05 05:42 am (UTC)I mean, I don't think the past was perfect by any means ... but I don't like the way we seem to be headed either.
Bleh
Date: 2002-07-04 04:57 pm (UTC)That's another one of those dumb quotes by people who think the modern era is so horrible and corrupted. Interestingly enough they usually uphold the 1950's as an era of greatness and "morality," obviously the result of nostalgia and selective amnesia. The 50's were fine, if you were a middle-class white male, and you were still just a sheep then. The conformity of that time was based on the dominance, suppression, and degredation of blacks, women, homosexuals, radicals, non-capitalists, anyone else who wasn't white, foreigners... Yeah, a time I'd really want to live in.
Before then was hardly beneficial, either. There was a big world wide war in the 40's. Did I mention in America they put those of Japanese descent into detention camps? That's not to mention concentartion camps in Europe. Or the release of the bomb over Japan--which, though may not have been unnecessary, still hardly points to a superior era--or the Japanese testing of the Plague Flea Bomb on China. Then there was the depression before then, and oh yes, another world war over something as stupid as the assasssination of a noble in his own country. And at the turn of the century, there was still child labor in the United States--not to mention even more massive problems of hate. Actually, I'd say hatred is far, far less prevalent now.
Let's look further back. Do you truly believe it was any better during the Roman Empire? The Assyrian Empire? The Mongol Empire? The European conquest of... /the planet?/ (Kill everything that isn't white!) The destruction of innumerable cultures. The genocides of the Arawaks by Columbus' tribute system.
Hrm? Have I said enough?
Re: Bleh
Date: 2002-07-05 05:41 am (UTC)Absolutely right.
But ... that doesn't mean we can't take a look at some of the things we consider wrong with our society.
Without reflection and thought eventually leading to ... something, nothing will change.
no subject
Date: 2002-07-05 01:11 am (UTC)Place it on a small scale and it's a nice social commentary. On a large scale anything and everything looks bad, but on a personal level it's quite nice.
Not to say reality will suddenly become utopian, but I for one like the conflict. Horrible person that I am, I guess.