Some 30 years ago, Wright Morris pinpointed the dilemma of technology: ''We're in the world of communications more and more, though we're in communication less and less." Among some of the grievances: the promiscuous use of the machine; the loss of the personal touch; the vanishing skills of the hand; the competitive edge rather than the cooperative center; the corporate credo as all-encompassing truth; the sound bite as instant wisdom; trivia as substance; and the denigration of language.
Ah ... George Orwell was way ahead of his time. I feel sorry for today's youth. What's happened to history, language and - most important (for me at least) - imagination? Most kids today are ignorant - they have no sense of history. Their attention is not on anything except their personal lives. Their attitude & outlook is shaped by the media. They don't realize that as a result of technology, one day they may become obsolete. Progress cannot be stopped, but at what price? It was the skills & intellect of average workers that kept the economy going for so many years. Now these same skills have been turned into binary numbers. It is such a joke! Maggie Kuhn was told she was redundant at sixty-five. She took to heart the lyrics of Kris Kristofferson: ''Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose'' ... but she is still at it. The service industry - walk into any fast-food joint, department store, chain pharmacy (there are very few mom & pop drugstores left) - chances are the majority of the workers are over the age of sixty-five. I mourn those who follow - the younger generation. I myself gave so much to the companies I worked for, too much. I have 18 years of experience yet my knowledge & skills are wasting away in the service industry. I am reminded of an old Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man." The title is a play on the verb serve, which has a dual meaning of "to assist" and "to provide as a meal." Michael Chambers is seen lying uncomfortably on a cot. A voice implores him to eat. He refuses. He asks what time it is on Earth, and begins to tell the story of how he came to be here (aboard a spaceship) in flashback:
The Kanamits, a race of nine-foot-tall aliens, land on Earth. One of them addresses the United Nations, vowing that his race's motive in coming to Earth is solely to help us humanoids. The day arrives for Mr. Chambers's excursion to the Kanamits' planet. As he mounts the spaceship's boarding stairs, his staffer Patty appears. He waves, smiling, but she runs toward him in great agitation. "Mr. Chambers," Patty cries, "don't get on that ship! The rest of the book To Serve Man, it's ... it's a cookbook!" Chambers tries to run back down the spaceship's stairs, but a Kanamit wrestles him into the ship, and it immediately takes off for the aliens' home planet.
Mr. Chambers is once again seen aboard the Kanamit spaceship, now saying to the audience, "How about you? You still on Earth, or on the ship with me? Really doesn't make very much difference, because sooner or later, we'll all be on the menu ... all of us." The episode closes as he gives in and breaks his hunger strike; as Chambers tears at his food, Rod Serling provides a darkly humorous coda in voice-over, noting man's devolution from "dust to dessert" and from ruler of a planet to "an ingredient in someone's soup."
That episode made me bust a gut!
I'm a big fan of the Twilight Zone (yes, I have to admit, I look forward to the Twilight Zone Marathon every year on New Year's Day).
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