No, it's not electric. It represents a time when life was good, when people cared about great things happening around them. It shows a time when families huddled together and talked about how wonderful the future would be, how so many obstacles would be torn down. It was a time when both political parties worked together on environmental issues together, despite differences.
My dear friends, where did all the magic go?
Artic Fox:
That was excellent footage, a true pleasure to watch. Imagine being the astronauts strapped into that thing when it lit off! YEEEHAAA!
You are right, that era was filled with wonder and hope. Today a shuttle launch is 5th page news at best, and barely makes mention on the evening news.
Just ponder for a minute: That mission was engineered by many people using a slide rule and very primitive computers! Brilliant people with great imagination and knowledge, and tremendous trust in each other.
As far as “where did all the magic go?”:
We as a general population have really been fed a lie. We were led to believe that the future would be filled with great things that would make our lives easier and less complicated. More time to spend with family, more disposable income. Our culture took the bait hook line and sinker (Myself included).
Starting with television, VHS, DVD, radios, I-pods, video games, cell phones, cable, satellite, computers, internet, bigger faster cars, bigger fancier homes we can now not afford. It has escalated to the need for larger, bigger, better, faster everything.
We are now in a culture that needs therapists for everything. Every problem we have is some sort of “syndrome”. We are offered a “magic pill” for just about everything that ails us.
We are taught to be a true consumer, with most everything being disposable, and we have endless supplies, so just keep on consuming!
We don’t measure how much anything costs anymore, just how much it is a month.
Success is measured by power, income, and the accumulation of excess, no matter what kind of wake we leave behind.
Every media outlet we are exposed to feeds us with tainted information.
We were taught that we do not have to be self dependant, or even accept responsibility for our actions. There is always some magic phone number you can call, and all our problems will be solved.
So what do we have? A society that is more depressed, more corrupt, completely over extended financially, more broken homes, homeless people, higher unemployment, highest divorce rate in history, highest teen suicide rate in history and we could go on and on.
So are we really better off than we were in 1967? I guess it depends how honest we are and how you measure success.
In my opinion, we as a society have been taught to depend 100% on a system that was created over time that is designed to empty our pockets. Just keep working ourselves to the bone, focusing on that next “must have” we need to run to Walmart and get. Never mind our neighbor, family or friends, they will be ok, and if they don’t end up ok, it must have been their own fault right? Besides, I am too busy taking care of my self. We have been put in a position that when the slightest thing does not go according to plan, we loose everything, the house, car, family etc. The mortgage crisis and energy costs are just two more things that are crippling the general population right now. We are waiting patiently for “the system” to bail us out. Guess what, it ain’t gonna happen.
For instance, we as a society depend so much on computers and the internet, that even when the server goes down in our company, we complain because we can’t send an e-mail to the cubical next to us. Schools no longer teach the basics, the computer corrects our spelling, does our math for us etc. Just imagine, if for some reason, the national power and communication grid was taken out for longer than a week? Planes wouldn’t fly, things wouldn’t ship, cash registers wouldn’t work, no cell phones, e-mail or internet. Wanna talk about wide-spread panic?
Our 100% dependency on the system I referred to above has completely removed a few key components. Our ability to be resourceful was probably hardest hit. We were taught that we no longer need to make things last a little longer, or repair stuff that breaks. Most importantly, when we are faced with tough times, can we rig something up to get us by?
Faith has been completely removed from the equation, and when you remove faith, you remove hope. Without faith and hope, compassion quickly disappears.
(I will state for the record that I acknowledge most religions do a great job of destroying faith and hope on their own. My own religion included. But that is another topic for another forum.)
So the heart becomes hardened, and our society and culture runs frantically in survival mode, living a life that has become a battlefield.
In my opinion, that is where the magic has gone.
The magic is all around us, we have just become numb and blind. We can’t see it because our vision has been obstructed. We can’t hear it because we have become deaf to it. Take a look at the sky on a clear night, watch a child grow, listen to the wind. Practice that for a while, the magic will re-appear. There is much more to life than what we have all bought into. I think it really boils down to getting back to the basics.
Racermike
5 years ago I met Jesus and he total ruined my life. I have never been happier.