40 years: A Blink in Time
Forty years seems like a long time when you’re young. But in the vast expanse of time it is little more than a quick blink.
What is forty years? It is four decades, forty percent of a century, over 14,000 days, two generations. As they say, time marches on. Things change, but how much? Just look back to the mid 1960’s and see how much we have changed. In some ways, time has almost stood still.
In the early to mid 1960’s gas prices were .16 - .25 a gallon. Today all you have to do is add $2.00 and it’s about the same. You could say that inflation is the difference and little more. If you question that rational, look at the difference in the minimum hourly wages. In the early 1960’s it ranged from $1.00 – 1.25, now we are sitting in the $6.00 range. That’s a 600% increase. So inflation could account for the price increase to the $1.50 area. Subtle federal and state taxation could easily cover the rest. Other items such as tobacco products have increased as gas has, but the difference is they are almost in the realm of taxes.
We were in the middle of a war in a far off land where the enemy was not known. Any person could kill you when you thought things were “safe”, they were everywhere and wore no uniform. Is that so different from the war we are in today? They are both long term involvements and there were people pro and con, as today. The biggest difference is that this time we have been attacked on our own ground. Vietnam was called the 10,000 day war, how long will this one last?
The music of the day was loud and filled with rebellion; today RAP fills the same niche. The format has not changed, only evolved. The outcome is the same, the kids love it and the older generation hates it. This cycle has been around for as long as humans, so no change there.
The medical arena was filled with new wonders, like the artificial heart, now we have nanotechnology and stem cell research. In some ways it seems we have advanced in leaps and bounds, but we still have the common cold, the flu, cancer and have even added Aids into the mix. Have we really come that far?
On the “new technology” frontier we had color television, FM stereo radio and cassette/ 8 track tapes. Today we have HDTV, cell phones, MP3 player and DVDs. Some things have gotten smaller and others larger, but change? There was more change in this area during the industrial revolution. This has just been another cycle of the evolution, nothing more.
We had those who wanted to go back to nature and those who wanted to exploit it. Nothing has changed there. “Tree huggers” still fight for a clean world and developers still want to use what we have until it is used up. Maybe some day we will find a happy middle.
We had a racial difference between black / white and profiling. Things have gotten better in that area, but now we profile by another standard. Have we really come that far? We still judge a person by the color of their skin, religion or place of origin. To an extent we have gotten more subtle, but, is that really better or just a side step?
In the 1960’s the major differences in political philosophy was capitalism vs. communism, now it is western culture vs. eastern religious fundamentalism. For the most part, communism has fallen by the wayside, as personal greed and need overcame the political controllers. Now the oppressors are fundamentalist religious leaders trying to push a medieval culture on the modern world. Even though they want to roll back the clock, they use all the modern technology they can. That’s an oxymoron if I ever heard one.
From the look of things, the world really hasn’t changed that much. Yes, they have evolved, but very little real change. We even still have James Bond. The villains, as we see them, have changed, but their goals have not. Have we, as a people and culture changed in subtle ways as yet not openly seen? Only time will tell.
For some reason another time, long, long ago comes to mind. A time when a people wandered for forty years and little changed in that time. The world turned and time passed. The time and trek was not very important, the destination was. Maybe we too are on a trek to a future as yet unrevealed to us.
Ed Williams
©
What is forty years? It is four decades, forty percent of a century, over 14,000 days, two generations. As they say, time marches on. Things change, but how much? Just look back to the mid 1960’s and see how much we have changed. In some ways, time has almost stood still.
In the early to mid 1960’s gas prices were .16 - .25 a gallon. Today all you have to do is add $2.00 and it’s about the same. You could say that inflation is the difference and little more. If you question that rational, look at the difference in the minimum hourly wages. In the early 1960’s it ranged from $1.00 – 1.25, now we are sitting in the $6.00 range. That’s a 600% increase. So inflation could account for the price increase to the $1.50 area. Subtle federal and state taxation could easily cover the rest. Other items such as tobacco products have increased as gas has, but the difference is they are almost in the realm of taxes.
We were in the middle of a war in a far off land where the enemy was not known. Any person could kill you when you thought things were “safe”, they were everywhere and wore no uniform. Is that so different from the war we are in today? They are both long term involvements and there were people pro and con, as today. The biggest difference is that this time we have been attacked on our own ground. Vietnam was called the 10,000 day war, how long will this one last?
The music of the day was loud and filled with rebellion; today RAP fills the same niche. The format has not changed, only evolved. The outcome is the same, the kids love it and the older generation hates it. This cycle has been around for as long as humans, so no change there.
The medical arena was filled with new wonders, like the artificial heart, now we have nanotechnology and stem cell research. In some ways it seems we have advanced in leaps and bounds, but we still have the common cold, the flu, cancer and have even added Aids into the mix. Have we really come that far?
On the “new technology” frontier we had color television, FM stereo radio and cassette/ 8 track tapes. Today we have HDTV, cell phones, MP3 player and DVDs. Some things have gotten smaller and others larger, but change? There was more change in this area during the industrial revolution. This has just been another cycle of the evolution, nothing more.
We had those who wanted to go back to nature and those who wanted to exploit it. Nothing has changed there. “Tree huggers” still fight for a clean world and developers still want to use what we have until it is used up. Maybe some day we will find a happy middle.
We had a racial difference between black / white and profiling. Things have gotten better in that area, but now we profile by another standard. Have we really come that far? We still judge a person by the color of their skin, religion or place of origin. To an extent we have gotten more subtle, but, is that really better or just a side step?
In the 1960’s the major differences in political philosophy was capitalism vs. communism, now it is western culture vs. eastern religious fundamentalism. For the most part, communism has fallen by the wayside, as personal greed and need overcame the political controllers. Now the oppressors are fundamentalist religious leaders trying to push a medieval culture on the modern world. Even though they want to roll back the clock, they use all the modern technology they can. That’s an oxymoron if I ever heard one.
From the look of things, the world really hasn’t changed that much. Yes, they have evolved, but very little real change. We even still have James Bond. The villains, as we see them, have changed, but their goals have not. Have we, as a people and culture changed in subtle ways as yet not openly seen? Only time will tell.
For some reason another time, long, long ago comes to mind. A time when a people wandered for forty years and little changed in that time. The world turned and time passed. The time and trek was not very important, the destination was. Maybe we too are on a trek to a future as yet unrevealed to us.
Ed Williams
©
posted by Ed | 13:48
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