It’s 2014, obviously. In the twenty-four years of life that I have experienced I have witnessed many changes across the landscape that I, sadly, think a lot of my peers have not picked up on. It bothers me to see a steady decline in awareness; not just amongst my peers but also around me in general. Maybe it’s an American thing, I’m not sure since I’ve never traveled out of the country (much to my chagrin). Anyone care to share? No? Yes? Speak up!
I hear talk about the dumbing down of American students because of our reliance of raising children on the television and video games over being outside exploring and getting their hands dirty. Also, there’s this over-reliance on standardized tests to gauge where students are. What a load of horseshit! Listen, I was home schooled from junior high through high school. I took the tests in elementary school and then took no standardized tests until I took the SAT to get into college. And look, I turned out fine!
Here’s my theory and I’m probably utterly wrong but when we’re teaching people to learn strictly for a test they have blinders on that focus their attention solely to learning and understanding the world on those terms. Unless you have a natural curiosity for the world, you’re being programmed to focus on such a miniscule part of learning that you become unaware of the world changing around you. Add our increasing reliance on technology and voila, we have a recipe for disaster! I’m aware that I’m using technology to craft this but it’s so you’ll actually read it so pull that iPhone or Galaxy out of your pocket and read, like and share this entry, dammit!
To add to our reliance on technology, I have been reading a book about the mythology behind the Lord of the Rings called, J.R.R Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle Earth by Bradley J. Birzer. It’s a fantastic book and I’m in no way religious but I can appreciate and identify with how Tolkien used myth and faerie to tell the story of the Christian religion. Tolkien, as you can have figured out, was very much in love with nature as shown with the Ents, Hobbits and other natural scenes. After the Ents destroy Saruman’s machinery at Isengard, Merry says, “I think he has not much grit, not much plain courage alone in a tight place without a lot of slaves and machines and things.” Birzer then adds, “Although believing himself a master of the machine, Saruman has become a slave to it, and was nearly impotent without it.” That passage struck me like a punch to the gut. We have become like Saruman. We have become slaves to our devices that we at times have become helpless by loss of awareness and other things.
Now as I said, that theory could be completely wrong but I think we all can admit that there is a scary lack of awareness being practiced by today’s generation. Go ask any kid about the goings-on in Israel right now and I bet you they’ll remember that Israel is a place in the Middle East. Speaking of Israel, I was watching Parts Unknown with Anthony Bourdain and in one episode he went to Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank and discussed the wall that Israel has been building the West Bank Barrier to block off the West Bank from the Palestinians in the name of protection from terrorism (I’m not going into the whole conflict because that’s a post in and of itself), but I couldn’t help but think, “My god, this is the Iron Curtain of our generation.” I bet you barely anyone younger than me can even tell you about that wall and that’s sad. Our global awareness is dropping while Kanye rants about what a little bitch he is because we’d rather tune into a sociopath because, fuck the rest of world, ‘Murica!
I don’t mean to harsh out so much on America, I’m just disappointed in my generation and the generations coming up behind mine. When did we stop teaching the beauty of awareness and self-reliance? Teach your kids! I cannot tell you how many people with kids have said, “I can’t let my kid go out because there are snakes, etc, etc. Really? Because when I was a kid I was disobeying my parents to go play in the bayou by my house and at seven I knew not to mess with the snakes. I also knew the difference between a Common Garter Snake and a Water Moccasin. Why? Because as a child I was naturally curious about the world around me and wasn’t glued to my phone or gaming system. We also must be aware not just of your immediate surroundings but our global surroundings as well.
Teach your children to be curious, to pay attention. Take that phone away from them and unplug their game system because we’re teaching our kids to be impotent without technology and that’s a dangerous path to go down. There’s nothing wrong with reading a book either! I’m not downing technology, only our reliance on it. So go outside, play in the sun, read a book, go grab a goddamn beer, light up a cigarette (or don’t) and talk to people at the bar or shit go explore nature. And for god’s sakes, take off those stupid blinders standardized tests are putting on you and explore. I’m more and more convinced that intelligence is shit without the wherewithal and awareness to put it to use.
Then again, what do I know? I’m just a twenty-four year old college graduate in massive debt looking for a job.
For the Rest of Us... 