How Things have Changed
Or, Progress ???
I wonder if I’m “Getting Old”. Maybe even becoming an old Curmudgeon. I can remember the Old Days now …
Back in the Old Days, I remember having a REALLY bad cold, and having to go to work with at least 2 or 3 bandannas in my back pocket to blow my nose and at the end of the day they were all sopping wet. Can you imagine someone doing that today ? Today people feeling perfectly healthy go get tested with a PCR test that yields 97% false positives to see if they are sick, and wear face-diapers, and socially-distance because of what they hear in the “news” (CoVid-1984).
I can even remember Woodstock in 1968 (a friend recently played me some music recorded at that Event). Back then there was also a Flu Pandemic. And no one at Woodstock was wearing any masks (I heard lots of people weren’t even wearing any clothes and engaging in acts of extreme ANTI-social-distancing). And people sure weren’t afraid to go to large events — for example, back then, in the Old Days, people would protest against War (back then it was the Vietnam War [or American War as it’s called in Vietnam]) which certainly killed far more people than the Flu.
Back in the Old Days, many popular songs on the radio protested the War, e.g.,
More recently when we’ve done our bullshit wars [e.g. Iraq, Libya, etc.] I turned on the radio in my car and heard, “I’m Proud to be an American” or “God Bless the USA” and every plasters magnetic ribbons on their cars. Certainly Progress over Bumper Stickers.
I guess there still are protests today, we just don’t hear about them in the MSM or participate in them in this country [in large quantities, anyway, I mean there’s always the Quakers, whom I love as I do the Amish] i.e.:
A month before we began bombing Iraq, the largest worldwide protests ever occurred[1] (just didn’t hear about it on the MSM). Maybe people figured out that Protests just don’t work, e.g.:
In Tripoli, 1 million[2], or was it 1.7 million[3] Libyans protested against the NATO bombing and destroying their country. At that time the entire population of Tripoli was about 1 million, and the entire population of Libya was about 6 million. We just didn’t see this on the MSM (even NPR was imbedded with the U.S.-backed “rebels”).
Oh, and on the lighter side … I remember back in 1985 flying 747’s on an around-the-world trip giving physics seminars. The planes were mostly empty, you could always get a window seat if you wanted one, you could even flip up all the armrests in a middle row and make yourself a bed. You got really good food served on china with real silverware and cloth napkins, good wine from bottles, and of course, good coffee and cognac with your smoke after your meal, and of course you had your Swiss Army Knife in your pocket. And this was all free, I for sure wasn’t in first class. Today I go through cattle-chutes, am packed like a sardine, many planes no longer even have reclining seats, and sometimes even have to pay for water. Progress.
And I remember in the 70’s, you’d go to a Service Station and someone would pump your gas, check your oil, check/fill your tires, and do your windshield and back window, and, if you were a young cute female, you’d also get your side windows, side-view mirror, and headlights cleaned as well. I know this because I got paid to do that. Today you can pump your own gas and pay for air for your tires. More Progress.
And I remember back then, cleaning windshields on cars, that the glass was always plastered with dead bugs and that you’d really have to scrub with some effort to clean them off. And today I’ve gone about 4 years, since I bought my last car, and never wash it and never worried about scrubbing insects off the windshield once. And I remember back in the mid-80’s if I left the doors open to my house at night it would literally be filled with insects. Today I almost always leave the door open at night for my wolf, and maybe get the occasional bird, snake or squirrel (and of course mice) but not enough bugs to hardly even notice. And I live in the middle of the National Forest and don’t use any insecticides on my land[4]. Progress ?
And I remember, back then when I pumped it, gas was 0.389 $/gallon. And I remember later, in the early 80’s when working outside Chicago, going into a McDonalds and trying to buy some food, but I only had a 20$ bill, and that was too big for them to take and make change. Today they’ll take a 100$ bill, no big deal. Progress?
And I remember back in the old days always taking my dog with me to class at college, and later, always to work with me. And, I remember back then in the early 80’s, we didn’t have mobile phones. But we had pagers, and they worked just fine.
And I remember back in the 70’s hitchhiking to high school on the near westside of Cleveland from the Eastern Suburbs; and hitchhiking from South Bend Indiana back to Cleveland for the holidays. Today you don’t see a hitchhiker. And a few years ago after I dropped off a rental car in Bloomington Indiana I tried hitchhiking back home; after more than an hour, never got a ride. Maybe I’ve lost my skill. I did have a cell phone and the people who were supposed to pick me a (small mix-up) got ahold of me and picked me up. Progress ?
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[1] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-happened-to-the-antiwar-movement_n_5a860940e4b00bc49f424ecb
[2] https://redoctobergoth.wordpress.com/2021/01/17/u-s-nato-humanitarian-rape-of-libya/
[3] https://www.voltairenet.org/article170830.html
[4] On the Other-Other Hand, just to play the devil’s advocate, the cars have a much lower drag coefficient today, and I leave about 8 LED spotlights on OUTSIDE.