I spoke to strangers about their predictions and hopes in the day before projected snow. To my surprise, each person with whom I spoke relayed their hopes for power outages, albeit temporary ones. There's something very wrong with our society.
Hello Sarah great observation I enjoyed hearing someone else feels the same. Nothing better than family time around a campfire with NO ELECTRONIC DEVICES I am so grateful to have an individual like you commenting on social issues without being angry you are a professional please keep up the good work I will share your posts and videos with my wife and 5 children.
Insightful. We are in the hills of Virginia and have found that there is much more a sense of community here. Even for those who may have differing points of view, on some political issues, we tend to come together when there is need. Calling folks nearby if there is a power outage to make sure everyone has heat and something to eat is a first step. If we step up during the weather events, we have opened opportunities to bond together as communities from that time forward. Thanks for stimulating the thought.
In a lot of families, although certainly the adults are often distracted by technology, the even bigger issue is the kids. Parents often feel powerless in this situation, unable to get the sustained attention of their kids who so often turn away to their phones. I'm not trying to blame it all on kids, but it is rather heartbreaking to see it.
Thank you, again, Sarah, for your insight. Science historian, James Burke, revealed in the first episode of his landmark, BBC science documentary, Connections, that the modern world had created technology traps. That is, the technology that most people do not understand and could not replicate dominate and even control our lives. If this technology were to fail, people would struggle even to survive, and most would not succeed. That was 1978, and his observations are even more true today. The explosion of knowledge and technology since the 19th century has placed far beyond the grasp of any one person the technical knowledge that characterizes our current age. The ideal of the Renaissance Man was not so impossible in the 18th century. A gifted scholar at that time could have a significant mastery of almost all that was known in the arts and sciences. The 15th century prodigious polymath, Leon Battista Alberti (humanist, artist, author, philosopher, architect, and cleric) described the ideal in this way: "a man who can do all things if he wills." That age is long past.
We are tempted to look at previous ages with rose-colored glasses. The tempestuous motion of our own times makes us long for a simpler, more sedate world. But the history we hold in our minds is mostly an illusion. Perhaps it was slower, but death was closer at hand. Family was more central, but family was an economic necessity required for managing subsistence survival. Infant morality was high, and giving birth put women in mortal danger. As the 19th century dawned, average life expectancy had risen to about 40 years, a number that would decrease somewhat during the Industrial Revolution. Moreover, medicine was helpless before many diseases; in fact, medical treatment, which lacked an understanding of the bacterial and viral causes of most disease, often made matters worse for the patient.
Of course, this does not dismiss the desire many have for a respite from the problems we see today. We have lost a sense of community. That is most regrettably true. And the social forces that drive our lives in this or that direction seem to defy individual or local control. I know that many Christians are tempted to despair in the face of what appears to be a social embrace of iniquity and the attempt to portray what is twisted as normal and healthy. But though our society in many respects is qualitatively different from other societies in history, we have actually seen analogous times.
For example, St. Augustine contemplated the fall of civilization as he wrote The City of God; for as he wrote, Vandal armies had laid siege to Hippo, and pagan intellectuals had accused the Christian faith of causing the Empire's reversals. I am sure he sought respite, too. Christ would soon call him Home, and Hippo would fall. Yet The City of God remains for us, the first philosophy of history in Western intellectual history. So, we are not alone in our feelings. Brothers and sisters in the Faith have shared them in times past. We should take strength from that--no matter what the future holds. And Christ has not forsaken us. He is with us as he was with St. Augustine. As Christ promised, "In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.”
We have lost something with the technology. Sometimes we do not stay in touch because it is too easy or too many distractions. We spend too much time trying to like or impress someone on Facebook we have never met but do not know our next door neighbor. Work was less frustrating years ago. I came in pulled out the giant ledger book and logged it in on a 20 column pad. Now I have to put my code in 3 or 4 times before the VPN will let me in, then I have to read 58 useless emails that my university sends me (we 85 useless administrators and each one feels obligated to let you know they are alive), while navigating through another 78 advertisements for things I will never buy and God help me the electric is interrupted and I have to restart. My day has just began and I am pissed off already. Welcome to our wonderful technological future.
Hello Sarah great observation I enjoyed hearing someone else feels the same. Nothing better than family time around a campfire with NO ELECTRONIC DEVICES I am so grateful to have an individual like you commenting on social issues without being angry you are a professional please keep up the good work I will share your posts and videos with my wife and 5 children.
Insightful. We are in the hills of Virginia and have found that there is much more a sense of community here. Even for those who may have differing points of view, on some political issues, we tend to come together when there is need. Calling folks nearby if there is a power outage to make sure everyone has heat and something to eat is a first step. If we step up during the weather events, we have opened opportunities to bond together as communities from that time forward. Thanks for stimulating the thought.
Smiles, the true victim of masks...
In a lot of families, although certainly the adults are often distracted by technology, the even bigger issue is the kids. Parents often feel powerless in this situation, unable to get the sustained attention of their kids who so often turn away to their phones. I'm not trying to blame it all on kids, but it is rather heartbreaking to see it.
Thank you, again, Sarah, for your insight. Science historian, James Burke, revealed in the first episode of his landmark, BBC science documentary, Connections, that the modern world had created technology traps. That is, the technology that most people do not understand and could not replicate dominate and even control our lives. If this technology were to fail, people would struggle even to survive, and most would not succeed. That was 1978, and his observations are even more true today. The explosion of knowledge and technology since the 19th century has placed far beyond the grasp of any one person the technical knowledge that characterizes our current age. The ideal of the Renaissance Man was not so impossible in the 18th century. A gifted scholar at that time could have a significant mastery of almost all that was known in the arts and sciences. The 15th century prodigious polymath, Leon Battista Alberti (humanist, artist, author, philosopher, architect, and cleric) described the ideal in this way: "a man who can do all things if he wills." That age is long past.
We are tempted to look at previous ages with rose-colored glasses. The tempestuous motion of our own times makes us long for a simpler, more sedate world. But the history we hold in our minds is mostly an illusion. Perhaps it was slower, but death was closer at hand. Family was more central, but family was an economic necessity required for managing subsistence survival. Infant morality was high, and giving birth put women in mortal danger. As the 19th century dawned, average life expectancy had risen to about 40 years, a number that would decrease somewhat during the Industrial Revolution. Moreover, medicine was helpless before many diseases; in fact, medical treatment, which lacked an understanding of the bacterial and viral causes of most disease, often made matters worse for the patient.
Of course, this does not dismiss the desire many have for a respite from the problems we see today. We have lost a sense of community. That is most regrettably true. And the social forces that drive our lives in this or that direction seem to defy individual or local control. I know that many Christians are tempted to despair in the face of what appears to be a social embrace of iniquity and the attempt to portray what is twisted as normal and healthy. But though our society in many respects is qualitatively different from other societies in history, we have actually seen analogous times.
For example, St. Augustine contemplated the fall of civilization as he wrote The City of God; for as he wrote, Vandal armies had laid siege to Hippo, and pagan intellectuals had accused the Christian faith of causing the Empire's reversals. I am sure he sought respite, too. Christ would soon call him Home, and Hippo would fall. Yet The City of God remains for us, the first philosophy of history in Western intellectual history. So, we are not alone in our feelings. Brothers and sisters in the Faith have shared them in times past. We should take strength from that--no matter what the future holds. And Christ has not forsaken us. He is with us as he was with St. Augustine. As Christ promised, "In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.”
We have lost something with the technology. Sometimes we do not stay in touch because it is too easy or too many distractions. We spend too much time trying to like or impress someone on Facebook we have never met but do not know our next door neighbor. Work was less frustrating years ago. I came in pulled out the giant ledger book and logged it in on a 20 column pad. Now I have to put my code in 3 or 4 times before the VPN will let me in, then I have to read 58 useless emails that my university sends me (we 85 useless administrators and each one feels obligated to let you know they are alive), while navigating through another 78 advertisements for things I will never buy and God help me the electric is interrupted and I have to restart. My day has just began and I am pissed off already. Welcome to our wonderful technological future.
We seem to be thinking along the same lines. I'm enjoying your work here, and may as well link to mine. :)
https://lorendean.substack.com/p/the-future-is-local-communication?r=bbsic&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Truely....be the health you seek for all concerned... Be Love ❤ ✌