Dreamer's World January 15 2015 - When I grew up

I have deliberately been taking time away from the news recently. Things just get to be overwhelming at times. As I near another birthday, I thought about this.

I was born in the 1960s. I won’t go on about how things used to be better or anything like that, but I was amazed when I sat back and thought about........

• I grew up without color tv. We didn’t get a color tv until I was about 8 years old.

• I grew up without cable tv. We had the networls and PBS broadcasting over the air. There was no 24-hour news cycle that constantly pumped out information, or more accurately, inforporn designed to reinforce and agenda.

• I grew up before computers were everywhere. Computers were something that I have had to learn and adapt to, rather than something that a child born today would take for granted. I am still amazed at times when I think back to ym childhood. We never would have predicted things being as they are today.

• I grew up before cell phones were invented. We had to use the rotary-dial landlines.

• I grew up when records (33 and 45) were still the way to listen to music. Then the technology shifted to cassette before CD and then digital music that we have today.

• I grew up before there were micorwave ovens in every kitchen. If we wanted to warm food, we left the oven on low and put the plates in there.

• I grew up before religion was used as something to beat people over the head with, We managed to respect each other and get along.

• I grew up without McDonald’s based on where I lived as a child, although they later moved into the area.

• I grew up without Starbucks.

• I grew up without a shopping mall.

• I grew up without a care in the world.

• I grew up when popcorn was made in a pot on the stove.

• I grew up when AM radio was not filled with RWNJ lunatics, there were stations that actually played music.

• I grew up when we actually had to read to learn things and not just access Google. Somehow that made learning more fun if we chose to make it that way for ourselves.

Having said all that, I am amazed at the advances we have made, and at the same time, disappointed with some of the choices that we have made as well. I believe that we have sacrificed too much of our freedom, not to the government, but to the corporations. We have gradually allowed ourselves to become nothing more than consumer units for the corporations to stuff full of over-priced and under-quality crap. We have invented pseudo-justifications to explain why we are overworked and underpaid. We have allowed scapegoats to be identified by the media to explain why things are not better than they are. The cycle of stress is killing us, but more importantly to the corporate masters, it keeps us too exhausted to see what they are really doing to us.

Blame someone else for whatever is wrong in your life, the media will provide any number of possible scapegoats. Religion gave up long ago on the whole souls thing and now chases the money just as ruthlessly as any other corporation. This is why religion has no place in my life, the lie they tell is one that strikes through the heart of what so many want to believe and that offends me.

All of our technological advances have actually taken control away from us under the guise of making our lives easier. The freedom of information really means that there is too much to process and so many people just turn off thinking altogether and wait for the media to tell them what the media wants them to hear.