2:58 p.m. - 04.16.2003
\"I believe the children are our future...\" W. Houston/ Sexual Chocolate

People amaze me. You know that whole picture of evolution? Where a monkey slowly stands up and becomes an erect homo?

And you know how evolution is on-going? Physically people are still changing. You look back at Civil War pictures and everyone is tiny and awkward looking. And they say we are losing hair as a race as we become more civilized. (except this guy.)

And they say that physically we may be done evolving, but since evolution is on-going - the next stage of evolution is of the mind. We only use some 10% of the brain's power (a guess - could be less.) and evolution will be our increase in using that brain power to its full potential. The case being demonstrated in the classic the �Secret of NIMH�. Lab rats were exposed to evolution enhancing drugs which made them conscious. And in one case, Nicodemus, had evolved to the next plateau of the mind - psychic and telepathic powers. Just what are we capable of at the next level?

But Science Fiction aside, I do believe there is already a noticeable change between the generations.

Generational division lines used to be by decades. People were grouped by their youth being of the '20s or '30s or even '60s and '70's. But I think it all changed in the '90s. Generational change happens so fast now you can't associate people together anymore by decades.

The youth of the first half of the '90s are night and day from that of the late '90s. Let alone kids of the 21st Century. Early �90s kids still wrote letters to friends their freshman year of college. By �95 snail-mail was dead. By �98? A glittery world of Brittany Spears and TRL that had no recollection what life pre-internet was a mere four years prior.

And I believe the sharp generational contrast is all the internet. Sure the dot.com bubble broke, because it was stupid old people throwing money at something that they didn't even know what it was. But the internet and computers are STILL undeniably the future.

The growth of human beings is measured by the speed at which they are able to communicate. The taming of horses, the wheel, the boat, the train, the car - although transportation devices, they also contributed to our ability to communicate with each other over distances. This facilitates the spreading of culture, trends, and ideas.*(see footnote, later.)

Telephones are too restricted to one-on-one contact and elicit no real change. With the internet came the exponential trading of ideas and culture - from the comfort of our own homes.

I realize all of this is common knowledge - but I'm building to my point.

The point is that the internet has increased the speed at which generations are divided by increasing the amount of information we are able to consume. Subsequently increasing brain power/use?

Kids in the generation before mine were a little quicker than their parents because many claim the short-segmented and editing style invented by Sesame Street challenged children to process information faster. Visually and verbally we are able to consume more than our parents. And WAY more than our grandparents. And then MTV came along and upped the stakes. And then video games.

High School kids in my time could play video games and listen to music at the same time. But H.S. kids now? Some say kids are becoming dumber, but I say that they aren�t being challenged because already they are so much more advanced. They IM five people while talking on the phone, while the radio is on in the background and they are watching live footage from IRAQ with the volume off, and writing HTML code for their personal websites. And they comprehend everything going on at once perfectly while still managing to block out their mother screaming at them for the doorway.

And video games? Don�t even get me started about the eye-hand coordination needed to play games these days. They have ump-teen buttons on the controller and kids pick up a new game and master it instantly. I�m in awe of it � and I�m only in my (late) twenties! I�m by no means old. I can play video games with the best of them � but the games are advancing � and my skills stay the same. There comes a point in everyone�s life where they achieve peak generational performance. Do you think Bob Dole could master �Pong� let alone �Madden Football 2003�? (His gimp-hand not in consideration.)

For kids of my generation I was that type that �knew everything� about trivial stuff. Music, movies, cartoons, you name it. Our minds start to fill with all the usual stuff our parents learned in school � history, math, civics, science, literature � but then start to fill with extraneous information. Pop culture they call it. And slowly, pop culture has begun to infiltrate our society�s cannon. The �classics� are going the way of the buffalo. As TNT puts it, we now have the �new classics�. Heck, that�s why they even invented Trivial Pursuit. Our minds are filled with crap now that we need to release somehow.

But there comes a time where (for each individual) that knowledge stops. And you don�t grow anymore. And it�s not by choice. But the new kids? They now know ALL I/we know, plus twenty. And the kids born today will be better than them.

With the speed at which things advance today, models become obsolete as soon as they leave the showroom. My parent�s generation took a hit in the working world when it was deemed that they didn�t have the tech-savvy needed in the modern world. My generation is just entering the workforce � but we�re already obsolete. The kids coming up now, just on our tails � they�ve already got all the essential upgrades built in. For me to have them would require company time and money for training.

Pop Culture IS the knowledge of multiple layers and genres and sub-sub-sub- cultures. Everything has become an onion. We peel a layer to find a new layer. And in doing so, nothing excites us anymore. We�re prepared for anything. Now we relish Jerry Springer and Jackass to excite us � but really we are desensitized at a faster and faster rate so that even these shows bore us now. So of course today�s kids could give a hoot about school. I mean, kids will ALWAYS careless about school, but it�s even more pronounced now because kids today really CAN do two or three things at once � but our ancient and decrepit education system is still teaching them in a mode that worked for our grandparents! They have low scores because it is a system that is below them. They need fast, multi-media educations. Speed cannot be emphasized enough here.

I can�t even focus long enough to keep this tirade on subject! (Focus amishboy. Focus.)

So, my points? Evolution of the mind is speeding up. Because of the internet. And kid�s motor skills now surpass those of kids just 5-10 years ago. And wide-spread educational reform is needed, pronto.

Did you get all that?!

As a counter-point: As we progress as a visually stimulated and oriented world, we are regressing in terms of the speed of our comprehension of the printed and vocal word.

The beginning of Shakespeare�s Romeo and Juliet states �the two hour�s traffic of our stage� or some nonsense. So we know, on average, Shakespeare�s plays clocked in at roughly two hours in delivery at the Globe. Today � the best Shakespearian actors in the world find it extremely difficult to perform Romeo and Juliet in under three hours. Why? They believe that in Shakespearian times, even the uneducated peasants in the pit could process and comprehend speech at a much faster rate than we are able to now.

Side tangent: People used to LOVE a great speech. They would travel for miles to hear 3-4 hour diatribes by the great orators of yore like William Jennings Bryant and other three named individuals I�m not recalling. I don�t think orators even exist anymore do they? The art has dwindled (or evolved?) into the world of motivational speakers a la Tom Cruise in �Magnolia�, or maybe TV evangelists. Times were people couldn�t resist a good fiery speech. Have you ever seen video of a full speech by Hitler? Besides the horridness of his aims, most of his public speaking engagements centered mainly on patriotism. Much like our State of the Union addresses. And all the identical pomp and circumstance associated with such a speech (we have many scary similarities to fascism � boy scouts/Hitler youth, anyone?). But anyways, Hitler could work a room. A truly fantastic public speaker. Real fire and brimstone stuff. People were captivated by his mannerisms behind the pulpit. People don�t really get swept away emotionally like that anymore. And what ever happened to soliloquies? They use to rule �classic� movies � like Tom Joad�s (Henry Fonda) speech at the end of �the Grapes of Wrath�. The closest thing these days is Tom Cruise�s �You complete me� speech at the end of the �new classic� Jerry Maguire.

* Footnote tirade: (there's this whole side tangent about how this (communication speed) is also the birth and spreading of counter-culture - and about how the established right always fiercely fights the ideals of the underground left. But how over time, the left's ideas are always slowly integrated into the establishment as being naturally "good" and "logical", yet they fight the left on their current ways of thinking - not realizing that it's futile to resist the left, because it's just going to be adopted as common and widespread over time. And yet - it could be argued that the establishment�s resistance of the left is simply a matter of checks and balances. If you simply open the floodgates to liberal thinking in society - the infrastructure is unable to support it. Change must be gradual and measured. The case in point being Russia. They adopted Yeltsin who tried to adopt democracy overnight, and the system collapsed. They were better off under the gradual and measured change of Gorbachev. It should take just as long to wean a system off of a failed political ideology as it took to institute it.)

�

�

next