Interesting Times
"May you live in interesting times" attributed to an Ancient Chinese curse (see here for more on that).
Well, for the most part the entire last century has been "interesting". As modern society becomes more enmeshed, distances shrink, and via technology individuals get more voice and influence, un-interesting times will (as it were) be a thing of the past.
It almost makes one pull out the old Future Shock (by Mr Toffler) out of the wayback machine (err, library?) and see if any of his predictions of accelerating change are coming home to roost some 35 years later. Don't push me for any details from this book, I think I was 12 or 13 when I read it.
However it would be nice, if the 24 hour news machines/cycle could stop their herd effect. As soon as one of them gloms onto a story, it becomes a (boring) stampede of pundits, reporters, and analysts descending on the story until the avalanche spends itself in the valley of ennui. What would be nice, would be if the news desks of the world, would start shying away from a story if anyone else was covering it. And no, I don't mean the really big stories like the war in Iraq. Just the little piddly ones like Mr Peterson or Mr Bryant.
Well, for the most part the entire last century has been "interesting". As modern society becomes more enmeshed, distances shrink, and via technology individuals get more voice and influence, un-interesting times will (as it were) be a thing of the past.
It almost makes one pull out the old Future Shock (by Mr Toffler) out of the wayback machine (err, library?) and see if any of his predictions of accelerating change are coming home to roost some 35 years later. Don't push me for any details from this book, I think I was 12 or 13 when I read it.
However it would be nice, if the 24 hour news machines/cycle could stop their herd effect. As soon as one of them gloms onto a story, it becomes a (boring) stampede of pundits, reporters, and analysts descending on the story until the avalanche spends itself in the valley of ennui. What would be nice, would be if the news desks of the world, would start shying away from a story if anyone else was covering it. And no, I don't mean the really big stories like the war in Iraq. Just the little piddly ones like Mr Peterson or Mr Bryant.
posted by Mark at 11/15/2004 04:25:00 PM
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