Looking at this photo of some kids at a party in 1947, I think that if I were to spend an hour considering the differences from then to now, it would be an hour well-spent.
I do not idealize that time as some might, mind you, for surely, humans were by nature imperfect then, too. But I do wonder if they were not more natural then than now, having had considerably fewer hours of their lives influenced and orchestrated by the agenda-driven media and technology that was then in its infancy.
Books and newspapers had long been around, but motion pictures, and news reels were prevalent by the 1910s, commercial radio by 1925, commercial TV by 1948, and the Internet by 1989. The 20th Century saw a boom in communications technology, and never before had so few people had so much power to influence the masses. These technologies became the standard tools of big-money and big-government interests (is there really much difference in these two?)
And now, with the Internet, practically anybody can be a publisher—just as I’m doing right now, typing this post.
The party in the picture was going on just before TV was widely available. These kids were raised on radio, movies, news reels, newspapers, and books. Other than that, they had human interaction. Lots of lots of it, probably. Discussion. Visiting. Letter writing. In-person group events. Live music. On and on, I could go.
But now, a great many of us can keep ourselves entertained and socialized behind a screen, and less in-person interaction is necessary than ever before. Indeed, I wonder if the kids in the picture could have ever fathomed the differences between our routine lives and theirs.
And this question comes to mind: Which generation—theirs or ours—had the better life?
Yes, surely I have some huge technological advantages over them, and any scholar in their day would have been blown away by the tools that I have right here in front of me. But I think their lives were better. Richer. Fuller. More organic. More authentic. Less distracted. Less invaded by marketers and tyrants and scoundrels.
It seems, though, that there is a great chasm between us, and no one can cross over it unless he knows how to travel through time. What, then, shall we do? To ignore and do without the going technology would be to separate oneself from the world to some substantial extent. I wish they would come sit and talk with me. (Do you know that many Americans used to drive around on Sunday afternoons, and stop and visit with friends and family. They would simply sit and talk. Sit. And. Talk. And they thought this a very good use of their time.
And those days are gone for a great many, it seems. Indeed, I would venture to estimate that there are many today who do not even know that there are worthy things to be sat and talked ABOUT! They seem to have forgotten that processing information for oneself is a worthy human pastime, and prefer to have their information preprocessed FOR them by whatever parties would care to be in the business of doing that (for whatever might be their motives).
I wish 100 of us could go back and visit with 100 Americans from, say, 1900, and then come back and report their impressions of the differences—as well as the impressions of the citizens of 1900. And we could sit and talk about it for a long, long time.
Many have ventured to joke about how 10,000 attorneys at the bottom of the ocean would be “a good start”, but I have lately begun to imagine what this world would be like if there were suddenly no marketing media, vying to influence us as to how to spend our money. As innocent as that trade may seem, I’m inclined at present to think that it is ruining our lives to a considerable extent.
If you blindfold a man and take him outside to where there is a new-fallen snow, he will immediately notice that things sound different. (The snow on the ground substantially effects the way that sounds bounce around. It’s a striking effect for many.) I cannot help but to wonder how striking would be the relief if the marketers were simply to shut down for a day. Zero ads of any kind.
Perhaps you could come over, and we could sit and talk about that.
