Thursday, July 29, 2004

So why is it that my generation and my time seems such a let down? Am I just romanticizing achievements of the past too much or is something really wrong with us? Why have the Nineties and Two Thousand And Somethings brought with them such short attention spans that we never follow up on what outraged or excited us a few hours ago? Some say that the reason that this is happening is that our brains simply have too much information to process and not enough time. Is that the reason or are we as a generation getting dumber? Yes, we do process more information than our fathers and mothers used too, but they too processed much more that their parents used too. After all, it was in the Sixties that television and FM radio really took off. Of course we have the Internet and cable TV, and maybe that's what is rotting our brains, or rather flooding them with too much crap. Saturation is the word in charge.

The scary thought that follows from all this how easy it is for us to be manipulated by the owners of the media infrastructure. Our minds face DDOS attacks every time we turn on the television, radio or computer (DDOS attack: (n), Distributed Denial Of Service attack, a way of disrupting the normal operation of a computer system connected to a network by making multiple requests for processed information from multiple locations.) Democracy was always a good deal for the rabble-rousers and now the rabble waits on a sofa with cola and chips.

Everybody agrees that democracy is a better system than fascist dictatorships (Everybody other than fascist dictators of course!), but is it really the best system? It was invented by the Greeks a really long time ago. Why hasn't anyone invented something better than that? Something that will protect the intellectual and the common man from themselves and each other. Something that will perhaps tackle the root of the problems with all systems of politics - man's tendency to not think? Perhaps it's because our rulers need their subjects who tend not to think. After all if they started to think, the rulers could very quickly lose their jobs.

All the news that I have read seems to point to the fact that the IQ of the human race has risen over the years. But perhaps we also need to factor in the fact that the set of problems and potential killer booboos we have to face, has also risen (killer booboo: (n), event which could lead to the mass extinction of the human race, or at least kill an awful bloody lot of us.) So, is there any hope for my generation at all, or are we simply going to be content with rants on blogs with 5 page hits a day and the next channel on the TV? We are a generation of cowardly cynics and are being ruled by a generation of idiotic control freaks. Pointy haired bosses are funny in Dilbert's cubicle but fairly chilling if they are going to run your life the way they seem fit. Forever. What we really need is a way to prevent our rulers from handing over our reins to the next generation of morons (And believe me the next generation is dumber and more controlling), and a way to get hold of them ourselves. I think we're going to be too busy to bother.

No comments: