Virtual solutions
What
is the world coming to?
October 28, 2003
The Iranian
Standing on the platform so that the
big man in front of me would be my rain shield, I had another glance
at my watch... umm
so much for leaving work early. It is typical really; the day
you leave earlier you are bound to get home even later, thanks
to today's life of luxury... train, planes and water
buses. Nowadays everything seems to have come out of a
James Bond movie. Apart from the fact that in an actual Bond
movie you don't see people squatated (squashed and irritated!).
I can now completely sympathise with the poor sardines in that
little flat box.
Something is vibrating in my pocket and thank god it is not
the fat guy who smells of cheap bear and chips. I have 5
text messages,
3 of which require my immediate presence at my PC. Had another
look at my watch and completely gave up on ever getting home
tonight.
There is a pregnant woman standing next to me that
surprisingly
is still standing even after all that pondering the others
gave her while getting off. I thought to myself, what is the world
coming
to? I can see everyone is probably too busy noticing because
'us' -- Londoners with 'English etiquette' having
rubbed on us -- are too busy to look up from our paper
to notice that maybe some one else is in need of that seat. Oh
well
...
I can see the headline, with a picture of David
Blaine, looking not very happy. Who would be after
44
days of air and a number of serious assaults and all those
eggs all around Tower Bridge. It is clear that Blaine
went through
a very deep, intense experience in that Perspex box. He
took a
trip more powerful than any drug could ever induce. Would
any
of us properly understand what he went through? How can
we? We may
have been able to watch him but we could not feel what
he was feeling. How deeply any of us truly empathise with each
other
is a moot
point.
We live in a world where every so often we wonder who listens
when we talk? It is a strange thing really. This is a
world full of
people who never shut up, yet we are all constantly addressing
an inattentive audience. Folk pretend to be interested
in other folk. They make the right noises and go through
the
motions,
but they never really hear each other because they are
all too busy
thinking about what they are going to say next. How many
times have you tried to make a point to a person
and only heard a very calculated reply which doesn't address your
question at all? In this day and age things are so mechanical and
yet it
all
seems
too
normal.
Oh here comes another text message just as was beginning
to think totally disintegrated and lonely on this planet.
Having gone through the past few years of watching
most of my close friends getting married, starting
to have
babies, and second
kids,
and moving house, and moving to other countries,
I have now
become immune to any surprises.
What is the
world coming to? This is the world that SMS and MSN Messenger seem
to be leading the era of communication. We don't
see each
other
anymore
or we don't have time to sit down for coffee and
talk. Instead we chat online or reply to text
messages and
emails that are supposed to justify the fact
that we are in touch.
Perhaps we are all too busy with
life, our husbands
and kids. Perhaps it has something to do with
the fact that the virtual world is extended so
that we
don't actually
live
up the road from each other, but in another country
or even another continent, but it all feels so
close that
the only
thing that
brings you back to the reality of where you are
is when you want to reach
out and hold someone's hand... but there isn't
anything in reach.
What is the world coming to? We live in an instant, just-add-water,
push-a-button, microwaveable-in-under-three-minutes, zap-the-remote-control-and-see-the-war-before-your-very-eyes
kind of a world. Not everything about it
is good. Too often,
we lose
our appreciation for essential natural processes
that need to happen slowly. We look for ways
to hurry them
just as
we look
for ways
to depersonalise the injustices that we can
see yet cannot influence. We end up feeling
remote.
And we end
up looking desperately
for something to put us right back in touch
with the nicest part of reality.
A friend of mine is going to Sweden on a date! Why did that not
surprise me? Because everyone seems
to have
started to
build
these remote relationships, from Iran to
North America and Scandinavia, nothing comes as a
shock anymore.
Is it so hard
to find the guy/girl
next door these days as the love of your
life? Or just meet people you want to spend time
with, the
way
people used
to?
What is the world coming to? Some people keep
strange pets. Spiders, snakes and large ferocious beasts. The
rest of us
may wonder
what on earth
they see in
them, but then, hey... we could say the
same about a lot of husbands.
Psychologists
claim that all this just proves how subjective most
emotional experiences are. They
work, mainly,
because we
so badly want them to work. If we tried
hard
enough, we could probably
persuade ourselves that even a stone
loves us
back. Could this be the reason for
all this remoteness? Could this
be why I
see people around me try so hard
to find someone who fits, no
matter where in the world they may
be?
We
can fool ourselves with
the notion that in this day and age
distance is nothing, because you can have breakfast
in Paris
and dinner
in New York. Isn't distance
a problem anymore? If we can't
get a relationship work here at home
how is
a long-distance one
going to work? Or is this another
one of those risks we
seem so pleasantly
accept in life?
What happened to
the good old times when people walked to work or met
someone for breakfast?
When
grocery shopping was simple and
you could use it as an excuse to
go for a walk instead
of clicking a button and ordering
your milk and toast online? What
happened to friendships and the days we used to sit down for
coffee
in the afternoon
and giggle
away
without
realising
it is
getting dark?
I guess we all got sucked into
a system. Into a river that flows.
In
the story
of The Emperor's
New
Clothes,
a little
boy punctured
the illusion. He piped up in
an innocent voice, "Look, he isn't
wearing anything".
There were
gasps of horror
from
the crowd
as they realised that what
the kid said was true. But that was
a fairy-tale.
In reality, whenever anyone
makes a similar
observation, they are simply
accused of being unpatriotic.
Often too, they are
persecuted
for daring to swim against
the tide. Perhaps it is that fear
that got
us all in the
way we
are. Or perhaps, it is innovation,
or maybe it is neither and
I am just
getting
old and
life
is changing
around me and
I find
it
hard to
cope with the speed of things.
Perhaps I am looking for a
solution to get
out of the
corporate
world
that I have
been
sucked into
in the name of career and success
which keeps me away from all
the little things
I want
to do which
has nothing
to
do with cars
and microwaves and laptops
and broadband.
I bet you if I look
closely, or search
on google
I
would probably
find an
advert
that says:
"Welcome to Solutions
R Us. Other emporiums
are full from
floor
to ceiling with
commodities to
purchase.
If
you look around though
you will
notice that the building
is empty. Our solutions are not just invisible, they are
non-existent. That's because
we don't believe
in keeping
stock because we have
no off-the-shelf supplies. Nor are they tailor-made. The
idea
is
that you walk in and
hang around until inspiration
strikes you. Then,
you
go away with
a solution you have created
all by yourself. Our success rate is
100 percent. Give us a try today."
What
is the world coming to?
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