It seerms that Hactar was not happy with my previous three entries. As he made his points about The Paradox of Our Times, I think everyone would agree that I should be allowed to respond in kind.
I would also like to point out that I did not write Paradox, it just so happens that I agree with it.
Original text in normal format. Hactars response in itallics. My resopnse in bold.
The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints.
The tempers part I cannot address, but we have wider view points than we ever did before. We no longer burn people for heresy, we no longer exclude people from rights because of their religion, we no longer enslave our fellows, thinking them less than human because of their skin color. America does not preach the intolerance of the 50’s anymore.
We also have positive discrimination, where it is alright to be pro minority but not pro majority. We have a society where a white person says the same things as black people in the form of rap but attracts much more critisism becase of the colour of his skin not because what he is saying is wrong.
We spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy it less.
We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but less time;
I would contend that smaller families are a good thing. The earth, as it stands, will eventually suffer ecological colapse because of over population. As for the second item, I think I have more free time that I would had I been a farmer’s son in Europe during the middle ages, a child worker in the cotton mills of Lynn, Massachusettes, an “Oakie” in California during the 30’s.
Smaller families will also help contribute to people losing their roots. And the only reason that we have more time is because of time saving devices like computers. But what do people do with that time?
We have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgment; more experts, but more problems; more medicine, but less wellness.
Less sense. I would think we have more sense. We have sense enough to wash our hands, to clean ourselves to stay away from infection. We have sense enough to hide from huricanes and build earthquake resistant buildings.
More sense. Do we have the sense to teach kids that shooting their bullies is not the solution? Do we have the sense to monitor what they watch on TV and see on-line? Or do we expect others to do that so we don’t get the blame for incidents like Columbine?
Less judgement. We no longer kill people for arbitrary offenses against their lords. We no longer have inequality written into our laws, saying who has what rights depending on birth.
We bully those weaker then ourselves. We insult people who do not agree with us. We may no longer have inequality in our laws, but it still inherrent(sp?) in our society.
Less wellness. We no longer die from infected apendices, smallpox, cholera and diptheria. We have many methods of preventing heart failure, from blood pressure pills to pacemakers.
We suffer from asthma brought on by pollution from cars. We suffer from illness brought on from fighting in wars. We get cancer from man-made products.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry too quickly, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too seldom, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.
Laugh too little. Somehow I doubt this has changed. Life has never been a series of rediculous guffaws for our enjoyment.
But we now take life a bit too seriously. We have lost the ability to laugh at ourselves. We have to be told what is funny.
Pray too seldom. Somehow, I wonder what would happen if all the energy we put into prayer were instead used for other purposes, like comunity projects or self enrichment. I think the world would be a better place like that.
I must agree with this to a point. But prayer takes seconds. And with the more free time mentioned above both can be achieved.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
Now, more than ever, we hold human rights and civil rights as sacred. We no longer own persons and even have laws enacted to prevent cruelty to animals other than humans
As long as those values are what we are told they should be.
(continued)
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