Hello, e-land, and Merry Christmas! That's right, I said it. No mere "Happy Holidays" from me, I said the dreaded words, "Merry Chrsitmas." You what? I like them. I'll say them again. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Life can be interesting and surprising to me, at times. Recently, I was in a conference for work, where the keynote speaker was talking about the next generation of library infrasrtucture. Naturally, in a topic so dry (unless you're a computer programmer) there was plenty of time to let your thoughts wander. As I looked around and watched the eyes of my compatriots glaze over, I was struck by what the speaker was talking about: cooperative efforts to get us all on the proverbial "same page."
I began to wonder where we are headed. I don't just mean if we're going to heaven or hell or anything like that - no, where is humanity going, as a species? We learn so much differently than we used to. In some ways, we are far more advanced than we used to be, and in others, I wonder if we've come very far at all - or if we have, at what cost has it come?
This is not a new argument. We've been asking it in one form or another since time began. The early scientists - or alchemists, if you prefer - were criticized for witchcraft, or later, devil-worship, and men who saw something different in the world, like Galileo and Copernicus, DaVinci and others, were commonly mocked, maltreated, and otherwise shunned and punished for simply not believing what everyone else believed. They were different. Only years - centuries - later, were they recognized for the gifts of thought they gave the world.
It's this attitude of discovery that has spurred us onward. It was responsible for colonialism (well, ok, the lust for gold MAY have had something to do with that as well) and it's still responsible today for the ever-growing desire to push forward into new and uncharted territory. So, the "what's next?" for man has been the driving desire for a long time. We're used to it. it's comfy. It ought to be - we've had long enough to get used to it.
But what has this done for Man as a whole? We still murder, cheat, lie, steal, gossip, and a myriad of other nasty things. In fact, we've only gotten better at those things with the passage of time. We learn faster, we communicate faster, we encounter our world as never before, and always, there's a push for more, more, more, more. Even in libraries, the latest push is to join in the "cloud" universe - an oganic, open-concept philosophy that revolves around making everything open to everyone all the time...no limits.
It's that "no limits" thing that got me thinking. Have we surpassed our best age, and become something less than what we once were? Our ingenuity and our uniqueness once stemmed from our inability to communicate ideas and reactions instantaneously. Well, that's gone. I can write this in one part of the world, and as long as I upload it to the internet, anyone worldwide can read it within moments. When I want to find a recipe, I "google it" and find the information I want, and then I can create the same recipe that someone else already created. Oh sure, it's delicious....but what have I invented? More importantly, what have I invested? Only as much time as it takes to find a recipe. Nothing more. Where is my contribution? Is it really to my advantage?
We are caught, once again, in that place, asking the question that has bothered us for so long, illustrated so well by Michael Chrichton so well in "Jurassic Park," You scientists are always so busy trying to figure out what you can do, you never bother to ask whether or not you should.' So I wonder - Should we try and achieve this unique "cloud" formation, which is, by it's definition, unable to be specifically governed, measured, assessed, and practiced with the efficiency we have come to expect form our world? I don't know. It's scary.
BUT, we're seeing this in other places of our world, particularly in the United States. I recently came across a letter written by Mr Ben Stein. Well, it turns out this is rather a hoax - Mr. Stein never really wrote such a letter, though it does appear that he said many of the things the letter contained. Someone did a good job of taking Mr. Stein's thoughts and stringing them together to make a point. The point? That by including more people in our decision-making and policy-making, what we've managed to do is to take a hold of the "least common denominator" and begin to adopt a society that is, in some way, less than what it used to be. This particular "article" voiced specifically the abandoning of the concept of the Christian God in lieu of simply making sure that people are not offended., and looking at other practical examples of where the abandonment of old and accepted ways of function have yeilded less than perfect results. One that was mentioned was Dr. Spock's (the real one, not the Star Trek Character) insistence that spanking is bad for children...then pointing out (factuality questionable) that Spock's son then killed himself. (UPDATE: No, Spock's son is still alive...in fact, both the man's children are, living long and prospering. Yeah, I went there.)
But the article may not be wrong in its goal of raising the question, 'have we gone too far astray from humanity, to the point where we are now limiting us more than we are helping us?'" Our learning rates and test scores are lower then ever in our educational facilities. We are willing to accept less quality from students just so that we can pass more of them. Some people get offended when we say Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays. We cannot teach the bible in public school, even though it plays a significant part in European and American History. Someone is offended. A friend of mine, whose opinions I cherish, but happens to believe differently than I, is upset that his tax dollars might go to support a National Christmas Tree - because he is atheist and doesn't believe in Christmas. Now, I would not suggest that my friend doesn't have a small point - he does. But this comes back to the "lowest common denominator" principle I spoke about earlier. If we continue this path in the name of progress, will we end up doing no more than the barest minimum, and therefore create nothing that is worth celebrating anymore? Have we seen the best that Man can do, and are now just living out a substandard decline into non-pertinent existence?
Have we grown to the point where we are so much "on the same page" that there is no one left who can read the writing and be that dissenting voice? More importantly, if we do find that voice....will we listen to it?
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