Looking back at previous years, you compare things.... and contemplate whether things were better or worse than the present time. Comparing 2019 with 1990, on one hand you have 1990 which was a time you went about your life thinking about work, friends, the weekend, etc., and other than land line telephone calls and paper-based mail (the hand-delivery kind), you communicated with the people you were actually with and didn't contemplate the end of civilization or whether you could go out without filtering the air you breathed.
In 2019, the world seemed to be coming apart in many ways - global heating, wars, a whole host of non-sustainable human activities/behavior leading to an existential threat to life in the future. And now in 2020, the very air is to be feared. Nearly everyone covers their face when going out. ............. Thought I was going to write up a storm about this, but that's basically it. I'm feeling very nostalgic about 1990 as a time when people went about their lives without wearing face masks and when you were with someone, they didn't have primary focus on their micro-computer(s) and were actually with you.
On the other hand - I certainly do like having computers and electronic communication. What would be nice? Getting past this virus threat/upheaval, and while still having the convenience of modern technology, a world where people turned off their electronic devices while with others and left primary focus on the people they were actually with.
Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
youtube.com/lylehsaxon
lylehsaxon.blogspot.jp/
lookback1997.blogspot.jp/
tokyoht.blogspot.jp/
Thursday, March 26, 2020
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I feel the same way about going back to the 90s, Lyle--that's one of the reasons I follow your blog. For a while I thought I was just feeling nostalgic, but I don't think my feelings are superficial "good old days" longing, nor do I have a rose-colored glasses perspective. Rather, to quote Stephen King's Dark Tower, I think "the world has moved on," in that the moral and social fiber today is weakened compared to the way it was 25 years ago. Substantial connection (and I do mean substantial--having physical substance) is so rare these days, as I know others would find certain things inappropriate today that would have been normal once upon a time (like putting a hand on someone's shoulder or patting them on the back). What are we supposed to do, aside from watch the world spin away from us?
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