BRAVE NEW WORLD?

Just as I was beginning to sing Kumbaya followed with the hopeful refrain “The Sun’ll come out tomorrow” from the Broadway musical Annie, I read an article about a new phone app that’s about to be released that will allow you to urinate on your phone and instantly tell you, I kid you not, whether or not you have an STD!

Very few things out and out shock me these days. After all… I’m from the Peace & Love generation. We did it all without reservation, and we were darn proud of it. We protested; wanted racial equality, got high and enjoyed breaking the rules. We were unashamed and unbridled. We strove to break with tradition and disassociate ourselves with our stuffy ridged parental past. We were the generation that would change the world.

But as with all revolutionary ideas that come and go, along with those who dream them, my generation got older and we eventually started seeing the error of our thinking. Though some things still resonate, much of our impetuousness faded into the sunset of our no longer ‘drug induced’ minds. A funny thing happened on the way to the revolution: WE HAD BABIES!

Suddenly responsibility, that ugly word we all hated hearing from our parents, sprouted little arms and legs. With the advent of parenthood and the need to fill the mouths of the little chirping birdies in our nests, we were rudely awakened to the understanding that life wasn’t “all about us”.

As the years moved on and we hit our 50’s, we find ourselves living in what appears to be a world out of control. The days of Red Ryder BB guns and Flexible Flyer snow sleds have been replaced with Glocks and crotch rockets, as well as video games that are nothing more than war simulators used to sharpen the skills of their players for actual combat, thus making them into stealth warriors.

We had no idea how priceless it was that no one actually knew where we were… after all who cared? But now we live in the GPS world where our cell phones are capable of communicating with pinpoint accuracy our exact whereabouts at any given moment… even as we sit on the porcelain thrones in our homes! YIKES! What we thought was old fashioned, and pine for, and the simpler times from which we came, have all but vanished into extinction.

The world has changed. Here in America we were promised change, and change we got. But it wasn’t the change our emotionally charged hearts were looking for. This change is destructive and far-reaching. We were sold a bill of goods… and much like the statement several months back by the former speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, where she so poignantly quipped, “We just need to pass this bill and then we’ll find out what’s in it”, we received the beautifully wrapped package that on the outside tantalized our eyes, but on the inside was rife with destruction and poison.  We believed it was for our good, just as some will believe a cell phone app that allows you to urinate on your phone is a good thing. But the truth is, not so much.

Our thinking has gone awry! We have lost our way. We have traded reason for convenience and wisdom for equality and correctness. If we had only been willing to open the package first we would have seen the poison that lay waiting inside. But that’s the problem with pretty packages, now isn’t it? The eyes are bigger than the stomach. Unfortunately these days the consequences of such actions far outweigh the benefits… and sadly, many of the consequences are irreversible.

Funny isn’t is how sometimes after getting all the things you thought you really wanted, you find out you never really wanted them after all, like cell phone apps that go beyond the unthinkable.

© 2010 Steven Bliss
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