FREE KINDLE FOR PC

FREE KINDLE FOR PC
So you can read my books

Monday, May 5, 2014

BORN IN ANOTHER TIME


"Do not confine your children to your own learning for they were born in another time."
 - Hebrew Proverb



 Have you noticed how the world is changing so fast and things are not the same anymore

in terms of technology, lifestyle, education and, especially, our social and spiritual lives?

The Californios in the beginning of a small town named Los Angeles thought things would always stay the same for them.

Then, the Anglo bankers arrived and years later, they found they no longer owned their ranches.

For 5000 years, life went on much as it always had for the common man in Egypt. 

Then, in the 1700's, the Europeans "discovered" the land and decades of blood and fury followed.

Native Americans learned the same lesson.  The industrial revolution ravaged the countryside and rural lifestyle of Western civilization.

The internet has eliminated music stores, book stores,

coming close to doing it to cable TV

and opened the information highway in astonishing ways.

Now, politicians are laying the groundwork for the destruction of the internet as we know it.

In teaching students how to read books, we have them analyze the authors' arguments.

But we fail to connect the process and learning to the students' personal lives. It is an exercise limited only to the classroom.

Huxley’s vision in BRAVE NEW WORLD did not include a Big Brother to eliminate our ability to think,

it was technology that would undo our desire to think.

He felt we would have so much information, that we would become passive in our quest for it. That was in 1931.

Technology is changing faster than our ability to think the consequences through.

Our politicians are playing the same old game, worrying the world's monetary leaders. 

Should the dollar be replaced as the world's standard,

we could find ourselves paying prices 4 times higher for gasoline.

That would destroy the trucking industry.  Cities could find themselves having to be self-sufficient.  Our nation could very well fragment into city states.

Are we preparing our young to face surprising, unexpected economical, sociological changes?

Increasingly it appears that the NSA knows everything —

that it has access to all phone calls, all emails, all texts, all tweets, all address books, all visited websites, all downloaded photos, all purchases made, all comments posted.

There are no secrets anymore.

One of the potential places that the NSA can steal data is at the transfer station where the undersea cable meets land.

 Apparently Google has its own undersea cables.

How many of you use Google?  The NSA is watching.  With me, they are getting bored!


Was Huxley correct?
 

I don’t know about you, but the subject exhausts me.

I think I will go watch the Cartoon Network for awhile.


11 comments:

  1. Wasn't that time of exploration called the golden ages of 'colonization'?

    ReplyDelete
  2. D.G.:
    It was only golden for the invaders! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sadly, the golden times continue for the invaders/destroyers.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Roland .. we've learnt so much, come so far .. and we could destroy it all ..

    I did like the cartoon - it was surprisingly pertinent ..

    Will Russia ban the internet .. and North Korea, and China ... will citizenship actually be able to overcome and remain validated - I sincerely hope so .. but we need to become less concerned about self and think of others ..

    What a great post - Cheers Hilary

    ReplyDelete
  5. That's why I say yay to libraries, education, libraries, and education! LOL! And more libraries!! Hah! And science. And research. And studies. And libraries!

    I have to admit I found Huxley's brave new world very cold - very very cold. I don't know why, but all the characters and the premise were very cold. Sex and desire robbed of any soul and love. Yikes. LOL! 1984 had passion, love, humanity, soul. Just my opinion btw - I'm a sop for romance! Take care
    x

    ReplyDelete
  6. Some scary thoughts here, my friend....

    The world is moving faster than the speed of light for sure... but people are PEOPLE and hopefully the passion for a kind, respectful and beautiful life, caring for nature an appreciating it, will alway rule out the technological advances....

    ReplyDelete
  7. I don't think technology can get the upper hand unless we allow it. Unfortunately, with "I" and "me" on the rise, and "we" on "us" passé, there is no way to fight. The rule has always been divide and conquer and the TPTB have played it well. As individuals, we will always have our humanity, but with the disintegration of community we are not fit battle. Of course, I'm a sociologist, so my perspective may be skewed, but yes to everything in the video. Thanks for sharing it, Roland. Great post.

    VR Barkowski

    ReplyDelete
  8. We do not want to pay the same price for gas as the Europeans. It's insane what gas costs there. Scary stuff indeed, Roland.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Elephant's Child:
    Sadly, we ourselves might one day be the invaded. Not a happy thought.

    I am praying the surgery goes well.

    Hilary:
    I'm glad you liked the video. :-)

    Yes, we need to think of others but sadly the trend is going the other way around. :-(

    Kitty:
    Sadly, libraries all across our country are closing.

    Huxley was a "cold" writer, intent on his message rather than the depth of his characters.

    I hope that soon your house purchase and sale will go through with Charlie and Gumtree happy!

    Michael:
    I would like to think the best of us would come to the surface in dark times.

    I was on the streets of New Orleans when the lights went out, when most of the police had fled and those that remained had little communication and less ammunition with the armory flooded. The addicts could not get their drugs and the gangs knew the law was not there to stop them. It was not pretty.

    VR:
    Look around you when you walk on the streets or in the malls: everyone has their eyes glued to the phone in their hand, oblivious of those around them.

    We are walled out from the consciousness of those among whom we walk.

    Victor Frankl wrote that our last freedom was our freedom to choose how we respond to life.

    Like you, I do not see much hope if we do not start to see past ourselves. I'm glad you liked my video and post. :-)

    Alex:
    If the dollar is removed as the world's standard, the price of gas will be only the beginning of the economic nightmare for our country. Scary times indeed!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I'm with you, Google and the NSA are being bored to tears watching me.

    ReplyDelete
  11. David:
    LOL. I loved the Godzilla clips.

    ReplyDelete