The information super-highway

The internet, cable television, satellite radio, satellite TV, cell phones; all are part of the information superhighway. They feed information to you at a moment's notice. They can reach you in the privacy of your automobile, your workplace, or they can interrupt the sanctity of the daily bowel movement.

I find it strange that we need to have information in such a rapid manner. I don't really remember how slowly information traveled in the 70's, or the 80's. I am not sure that it had much of an affect upon my life. Stores weren't open 24 hours. Most television stations weren't on air for 24 hours.

Now we get spoonfed information, and we get, for the most part, all similar information from similar sources. The biases are the same, the conclusions and the verbiage. Everything is dumbed down so much that we are not allowed the liberty of thinking. Reason has left humankind. Again we are told which clothing is best to wear, which vitamins we should take, which drugs will help us live full, meaningful lives and which products will make us smell better, look better and be more appealing to whichever sex we are trying to attract. We have become a society of somnambulists.

Creativity and originality are leaving, wave goodbye as we watch them sail away. Our voyage is no longer into the unknown, our voyage is into the known. We are being told what to think, how to think it, how to express it and how to feel fulfillment from it. We are medicated, placated, relaxated, and artificially stimulated. Our food is modified, sterilized, preserved codified, homogenized, pasteurized and freeze-dried. The films we watch (US made only) explain every detail to us and always end with certain resolution. The good guy always wins. But the good guys often times do bad things to accomplish the greater good. We revere the Rambos out there. Not because they do the right thing, but because they take on greater odds. We are taught that greatness means doing great things for great recognition. Not that greatness sparks from doing the right thing no matter who is nearby or peering over our shoulders. Greatness starts with doing the right thing, regardless. We are taught that people will like us because of what we wear, or what we smell like. Not so.

I'm sorry that the world has turned this way. I'm sorry that we feel that modernization and information is a prerequisite for happiness. I'm sorry because I can see that the future of our world will be dictated by those few who will be the self-appointed leaders of the "free-world" and the rest of the populus will be mindless drones that do their bidding. I'm sorry that the world is being hypnotized by a pop culture that even Warhol could not imagine. I'm sorry that the blackness spreading over our lives is dimming even the very hope which we cling to in our hours of need.