What the Hell?

Ok so I’m all for technology and moving forward and advancing the cause of man and all that shit. However, does anyone else ever wonder if we’re actually better off today as opposed to say the way we were in the 1950s? Sure, we on average live longer and more people enjoy more expansive rights (African Americans and women immediately pop into mind here) but has the advancement and enlightenment of man been all for the good?

I tend to hold a mixed opinion on this. I love the simplicity of some things modern technology has provided. I mean who doesn’t love the fact that you can have a piping bowl of popcorn in a couple of minutes instead of shaking your arm numb over a hot stove and a Jiffy Pop? However, with this advancement has come disturbing information and an increase in, or at least the perception of and increase in, serious violence. Now, I’m not some censorship guy who thinks violent movies and video games are the root of all evil. But, the simple fact remains that in modern American life, the idea of deadly violence is accepted and not given a second thought.

When I was a kid growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, we never metal detectors at school. Now they have them in private parochial school. Back in the 1950s you didn’t have street gangs of kids running around with automatic weapons. You had gangs sure, but they weren’t basically organized crime families.

The advent of modern technology and communication has made the idea of terrorism and terror in general much easier. 24 hour cable news outlets need constant “news.” The internet (or as our esteemed President calls it, the Internets) provides for instant recognition and discovery of information. Cell phones, email, and the like provide for easy and instant coordination. As life becomes easier for the mass population, so does spreading terror and death for those that would keep us in fear.

I mention all this because of a website I literally accidentally stumbled across. It informs but, at the same time, feeds into the constant state of fear that many people feel. The site is www.globalincidentmap.com and it bills itself as “A Global Display of Terrorism and Other Suspicious Activity”

Everyone is so concerned about terrorism and what other people are doing that you see a breakdown of the things that have held American families and towns together since 1787. Personal communication is gone. It is possible to go days without ever speaking with or interacting with another person. You can order everything online (including dinner and your groceries) and have it all delivered. People work at home offices sending emails. News is gathered from websites and the TV. How many people can honestly say that they know all their neighbors in their neighborhood? How many people can honestly say that they have even *seen* all their neighbors? I know I can’t. I’ve lived in the same neighborhood since 2003 and I’ve actually met maybe four of my neighbors. We’re all too busy rushing around.

All this does is help to transform the greater society into one that is suspicious of each other and encourages people to see “other suspicious activity” in every day events. It encourages us to snitch and tattle and to basically not “Love Thy Neighbor.” It is one thing to be vigilant and aware of what is going on around you. It is quite another to be paranoid and constantly looking for suspicious activity. It’s a self fulfilling prophecy. If you spend all your time worried that people are out to get you; eventually you’ll just end up alone locked in a room. I think people need to take a step back; learn to trust again and learn to watch each other’s backs instead of finding ways to stab each other in the back.

On the other hand, is it paranoia if someone is really out to get you?