There are numerous ways to calibrate what is happening throughout Western society. For starter the measurement depends upon he who measures. The latest universal summary I overheard was reactionary. To assist the digestion of that vastly complex word, its antonym is progressive. From there the comparative description descends to variants of right and left, conservative and liberal, conventional and radical. You get the idea. Some people are traditional (or set in their ways); while others are reforming (or avant-garde). The trouble often is that the majority prefers not to be disturbed; or, to put it another way, they’re diehard or intransigent. And notably they do not like being pushed in another direction.
Now you can say what you will about the competing value of change; but the indisputable fact is there are only two categories of people who resist trying new food; namely, children and the uneducated. Notwithstanding the small compliment, we need our children. And we must live with the uneducated. In the result, the assessment of the global character is bound by these immutable truths. Nor does it help to call out life for what it is. Instead the option is rediscovering ways to proceed. Rather like introducing people to new music. It’s a learning process, understanding the significance of modality and harmonies. When it succeeds there is the satisfaction of success on both sides.
It was this psyche rumination that consumed me today as we drove along Interstate 81, wrestling with the huge numbers of trucks which have overtaken dominion of the highways. Judging by the proliferation of FedEx and Amazon trucks nobody shops in person anymore; everything appears to be ordered on-line and delivered. The internet has absorbed every imaginable element of society; not the least of which is Google’s inexpressible navigation software. Parenthetically we had an improving telephone conversation with Omar of Bell Canada today. Our roaming data entitlement has at last be clarified.
Though I had the delight of a late afternoon swim at the hotel today, and we afterwards enjoyed an agreeable meal in the rooftop café, we were very displeased to overhear children in the room next to ours. Eventually of course they quit their rambunctious behaviour and the disruption dissolved. But for a couple of hours beforehand they managed to submerge us in old fashioned blimpish resolve.
Now where was I…