A couple of days ago, I had a medical appointment, I was getting my next salvo of my immunotherapy injections. I have been taking these for a couple of years, mainly due to allergies giving me difficulties breathing. In the waiting room, I noticed something interesting was happening, or rather what wasn’t happening. Because everyone was glued to their phones. Nothing new sadly, but alarming if you really understand the implications.
One of the biggest reoccurring praises of the industrialized world1 is that we are the best version of humanity. We live longer, have more fulfilling lives, and have so much innovation and progress made in the last century that outdoes anything from times prior. Yet, we still hit the same stumbling stones as those of the past and we still struggle with basic ideas that have been known for all of time. I have a growing annoyance of the people who are completely unwilling to address the reality of this “progress”. They blindly ignore the obvious in order to pursue their own habitual ritual of consuming the latest and greatest thing until the day they die. Its sensationalism at its finest and I couldn’t be more terrified about its implications. But instead of me telling you, I’d rather you figure it out.
I recently read an article by Dave Lane, Are we worthy which sparked a lot of thought around the issues it presented. To quote the primary topic:
>I saw a lot of people surreptitiously looking down at their phones as they drove past, dicing with the cycle commuters and school kids riding on the painted bike path
Being one of the few who had an upbringing under much more wise and discerning parents, I never had the misfortune of being yoked by the appeal of whatever my generation2 does in current year. I see four things as major stumbling stones for modern man.
For my first point, self-focused culture. This hits multiple points, but mainly in the fact that one’s biggest goal is to do things inherently for only their own benefit. If we look back in history, those who are remembered aren’t those who sought life out for their own goals, rather, those who made goals outside their own desires3. Whether activists who spearheaded movements or people who sacrificed their lives for others, worth almost always comes from outside one’s own bubble. A self-focused mindset also leads to a whole host of other issues that in the long run ruin things for everyone. Nothing good has ever come from being fully self-focused and self-oriented.
Logic and Critical Thinking have been on the decline for a few years now. Most major public schools lack teaching in these disciplines, often suppressing its usage in the classroom. Most kids probably don’t even know how to properly construct and argument, let alone make one. To add insult to injury, it has been replaced with blind acceptance of statements based on nothing but falsehood. Its effect is quite noticeable and obvious to the discerning observer, one doesn’t have to go far from the confines of home to find such. Without proper thought led by logic, the ability to discern diminishes considerably.
Identity is driven by having differences and similarities to others. It shapes and forms us as humans. When you take that away, everyone can be reduced into an imperceptible and unimportant “thing” that is no different than others around it. Somehow, this development in stripping unique identity from the individual is masquerading4 as promoting individual uniqueness in identity. Thus it begs the question “Are you really unique when you are a copy of so many others?”. When you are no different than the others around you, what is the purpose and reason of existence? Why does anything matter at all if you can’t matter to begin with?
The culmination of all of these ideas is the glorification of ignorance and uplifting it on a pedestal of virtue. Almost nobody wants to deal with these issues, let alone attempt to fix them in any meaningful way. Instead, many would be rather content ignoring issues and focusing on something else, this often being their own short-lived desires. Those who want to make change, who aren’t ignorant, are labeled “crazy”, “extremist”, and “conspirators” simply because they aim to pull people out of the hole they got themselves into.
We cannot ever be considered worthy of being the best version of humanity if we cannot fix the mistakes we hold onto so dearly. If we want to change things for the better and redeem ourselves, we need to address these issues. I cannot say that I alone have all the answers, but if we as a collective species look for solutions, we shall surely find them.
>Those who refuse to improve cannot change
Yes, this is all coming from a generation that has been behind their phones for most of their lives. Yes, this is an analyses of the implications of such, however, do realize that I am not shouting for the purpose of shouting. I see something that is alarming, you should too.
