I've watched a couple documentaries over the past couple days Gonzo, When we were Kings, and You can't be neutral on a moving train. All of these films expressed, in one way or another, the importance of history and the effect that politics and world events had on the subject of these films. Howard Zinn talked about riots being broken up by police, and uniting young dock workers; Hunter S. Thompson talked about how deeply the McGovern scandal and the Chicago riots affected him; and people today can still recall things from Ali's fights- like the phantom punch, and what it meant for them when he beat George Foreman; I know people who can remember the years of album releases and what each album did for music, and what year a movie was released and the exact theater they saw it in.
I feel like today news only exists long enough to be the punchline of a clever facebook status, or a bit for pundits like Stewart and Colbert or morning talk shows. Our generation seems to be almost totally clueless about the world that surrounds us. We don't know if we're at war, or how many wars we're fighting. We don't know who the potential candidates are for 2012 (except for Trump, because that was funny). History for us is events like the ban of Four Loko and the release of the iPhone 5.
Perhaps more troubling than our oblivion, is our complete lack of knowledge of the past. As Zinn stated; without history, we have nothing to compare things to- folks in charge can tell us whatever they like, and if we can't look for similar examples we'll just have to accept it blindly.
I can't tell you what the riots in Egypt were about, and I'm not entirely sure of the reason for the switch from Iraq to Afghanistan, I'm an avid follower of UFC fights (and I while I can tell you the result of MANY of the more prominent fights) I can rarely tell you the exact combination that ended it.
Whereas people from previous generations talk with excitement and detail about where they were, how they felt, and what was said by whom; people from my generation seem to talk in generalizations and with uncertainty.
Perhaps we've grown numb, and world events no longer seem like world events. Perhaps we're living in a slow time and important/life changing events aren't as commonplace as they were 50 years ago, perhaps things just don't seem that big and important when you're in the middle of them (I always think of Dazed and Confused and how one of the characters states that 'the 50s and 60s were cool, but the 70s are lame).
What I really think is that everything is just too accessible now. Why bother remembering dates and events and numbers and circumstances when we can just Google it? Many of us have smartPhones, and those of us that don't have a laptop at home. I don't need to know the combination that Silva threw to knock out Jackson, and I don't need to remember who ran against Bush in his first term, I don't need to remember when Metallica released their last album; because I can research all of it in a matter of moments and then forget it again just as quickly.
I'm not sure that technology is making us stupid, but I do think that we're living in epochs. We type in less than 140 characters, and we fast forward through commercials, we're only interested in a story or celebrity until the next exciting thing comes around. We have gadgets at our fingertips and can find a way to distract ourselves from even the simplest of things (I now use my time in the bathroom to catch up on words with friends).
The part that scares me is that one day I'll look back and say 'I missed ALL of that?'
Maybe I'll just enjoy every sandwich.
Zevon
Zevon2
Enjoy every sandwich
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