IT'S COMPLICATED ....

 The world is a complicated place.
When I was growing up, there was Pepsi and Coke. Now, it’s hard to even keep track of the different kinds of Coke.  New Coke, Coke Classic, Decaf Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Vanilla Coke, Cherry Coke, Coke with Lemon, Coke with Lime, Black Cherry Vanilla Coke. Versions appear and disappear like sub-atomic particles in a bubble chamber. On its website, the Coca Cola Company boasts a “portfolio” of no less than 3500 beverage brands. And that’s just Coca Cola!






The Cereal Aisle

 When I was a kid, the choice for breakfast was Wheaties, Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies or Cheerios –  wheat, corn, rice or oats. Now, entire aisles are devoted to cereal.  (An article in Wikipedia lists no less than 452 different kinds of the stuff!)

There used to be three TV channels – NBC, ABC, and CBS.  Now there are hundreds. And you know what?  They all suck.

The hardware store has become the Home Depot; the grocery store has become the megamarket; and the department store has become the mall.

But what have the people become?

Savings accounts and checking accounts weren't enough. We needed credit cards, debit cards, online trading accounts, electronic statements and automatic billpay with overdraft protection. We can discover our exact financial status and credit score at any hour of the day or night.


But are we in any way enriched by this?

Technology was supposed to simplify our lives. That's what the futurists said. Technology would relieve mankind from the drudgery of tedious and repetitive tasks, freeing him to concentrate on the finer things in life. 

Do you think they were referring to the Fruit Ninja, or Angry Birds?

News Flash! The evidence is in, and technology has NOT improved the quality of our life. While the available media for delivering entertainment and information have multiplied exponentially, the quality of the content they deliver has remained the same, or maybe even moved down a notch. 

Far from fostering a sense of well being or connection, mobile devices have fueled an insatiable demand for ever-increasing sensory stimulation, turning us into a bunch of fidgeting, twittering, text messaging … jerks. The average American today has an attention span equal to the length of the average shot in an action film, and his thoughts are about as deep as the flat panel TV he bought to watch it on.

How could the futurists have been so far off – assuming technology would bring a utopia where the fruits of creativity were actually put to productive use?  They really must have been dreamers!  If they'd given it a little thought, they would have realized that technology is nothing but a tool.  People will use it for whatever their fears and desires drive them to use it for.  So the question, isn’t, “Why hasn't technology improved the quality of life," but “Why have people chosen it use it the way they have?”

I don't know why God made the world complicated (which he did), but I do know why mankind makes it more complicated. 

We do it because we aren't satisfied with life the way it is.  We think it's too hard, too hard, too dangerous, too boring.  We don't like the fact that we get tired, or that we get sick, or that we get old. We don't like that our hair turns gray, or that our breasts sag, or that we lose our virility.  We don't like the fact that sex causes babies; or that drugs cause hangovers; or that spicy food gives us stomach aches. We don't like work. We don't like the fact that life is repetitive; or that it requires patience, and endurance.  And beyond all that, we are incapable of admitting – even though it's as plain as the nose on our face –  that the only real faults in the world are the ones within ourselves.  We would change the whole world rather than change even the slightest flaw within own character. 

We are confused.  We think that because we have the ability to alter our environment, we can also alter the consequences of our own actions.  If we would look around us, we would realize that our power with respect to consequences is limited.  All we can do is deflect them, alter their trajectory, and maybe put them off for awhile.  We can never eliminate them.

But we don't want to confront these facts, so we distract ourselves.  That's exactly what we're doing –  our entire society.  We're distracting ourselves with complexity because there is something – call it the invisible 800 pound gorilla in the room – that all of us are desperately trying to ignore.  And what is that?

Sorry to say, it's our potential –  the sum total of all we can be if we have the courage to confront the boring, annoying and scary things life presents to us from moment to moment –  which are nothing but the consequences of our past actions, which we are trying assiduously to avoid. 

In other words, we're distracting ourselves from our responsibility to suck it up and act like adults.

So, I propose an experiment.  Let's take a day, one day, in which we watch ourselves, unremittingly, from moment to moment, without reaction, mental comment or judgment.   And for that 24 hours,  let's pay special attention when we reach for a cell phone, a gaming console, or TV remote.  And let's see if we can identify the thought or feeling we had right before we had the impulse to distract ourselves.  My suggestion is, that if we will do this, we'll begin to reconnect with our selves, our lives, and who we really are.