I think I had an episode of near insanity today at work. I think it was due to what I was doing at the time. Because it’s all so absurd! I was standing there this afternoon in this clerk’s office talking about doing DCR’s on CAR’s, and all that kind of stuff (and if you know what I am talking about….poor you!) and then I thought, this is crazy!
What has humanity come to when we place such importance on doing documents on how to produce rugs at the optimum quality to go into people’s bathrooms? Not only documents, but entire Manuals, thick manuals at that! Heck, the first time somebody puts them down, they just gonna get pee’d on by their six-year-old. It was so stupid, and hit me with such a weird feeling that I had to physically grab hold of the desk where I was sitting to keep from jumping up and running down the hallway howling and whooping at the top of my lungs. (I restrained myself, however) It was a surreal experience. I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone almost and that I was not really real, but just living in a kind of strange and hideous netherworld. I hope I never feel that way again, honestly! It was disconcerting.
Back in my Grandparents time, people worked the land for their food. They had cows and chickens and other animals to help provide what their family needed. Grandma made most of the clothes, and a lot of other things that were used by the kids. There may have been three or four other books in the house besides their old worn Bible. Everyone was kind of left to their own imagination for entertainment. Guess it was really kind of boring, honestly. It was simple anyway. Maybe simple is good! Maybe simple is the setting for which a lot of us are pre-set.
I don’t know exactly when the change happened. I t
hink maybe right after World War II. Things have surely changed though. Technology keeps making giant strides forward like some kind of possessed behemoth running amok here on the Earth like something out of H.G. Wells, trying to take us over. It’s like the Invasion of the Body Snatchers, only WE created the alien technology, it didn’t come in a pod from outer space!
We have gone from the agrarian age, that age of simplicity and “boredom” (which equals out to time to do things we can’t find time to do today) to the age of information ( which equals out to NEVER having time to do everything we think we NEED to do) in a space of 60 years or so. From my weird experience in the office I am almost positive that our brains (at least some of our brains, mine included) are unable to absorb the pace of technology that has run over us like a steamroller on hot tar. It’s flattened a lot of us! I use a computer; as a matter of fact I am using one to write this. But if you put a gun to my head and said tell me how it works or I will shoot your brains out, I would have to say “Is pushing the Start button a good enough answer?” I can’t tell you how MOST things work, I only just learn to use them out of the necessity of not being left behind in the dust by the scads of younger folks who want to climb over me on their way up the corporate ladder!
I am afraid I have bought into this unreality though. I use DVD players and Nintendo’s, and Computers to play games, and to work and sell things on EBAY, which is a place for selling things in which the customer never gets to touch or feel the merchandise until AFTER they buy it! I use Satellite Radio, my car diagnosis itself for problems and tells me when it needs to be fixed; my Mom has a pacemaker that the Dr. can adjust by holding the phone up to it. And on and on and on we go!! Woo-hoo what a crazy ride!
I wonder now, if we could go back 100 years, after having a taste of this “Brave New World” would we? Before Jet planes and electric guitars, would we? Before electric shavers and microwaves? Before Atomic bombs?
I don’t know about you, but if the Big Red Button was sitting in front of me that said “Go Back” I don’t think I would even hesitate a second before I pushed it. Would you? At least I think it would keep me from running down the hall someday at work, in a fit of insanity hooting and yelping like a hound dog!!
Writing for Sanity's Sake 