"if we [in the nineteenth century] could have devised an arrangement for providing everybody with music in their homes, perfect in quality, unlimited in quantity, suited to every mood, and beginning and ceasing at will, we should have considered the limit of human felicity already attained" -Edward Bellamy
Looking Backward.... so (according to Bellamy) it would seem we have already achieved a source of true happiness.
so why aren't we happy?
you realize that only 100 years ago people could hear their favorite song 3 times in their life if they were filthy rich? to hear Mozart required a massive orchestra and the money to pay for them to play a specific time and place. there were no free shows at the public park. there were no CD's. there was no chance of downloading a song you felt like hearing in a matter of minutes and hearing it enough times to hate that song forever.
there was a time when people were born, lived, and died in the same 100 mile radius tops. seeing the other side of the country required wealth and power in the 18th century. just wealth in the early 20th century. less than 100 years ago seeing California, New York, and Florida within a lifetime would require massive wealth.
we are in a moment when more resources and opportunity are at our fingertips as non-wealthy first-world-country citizens than ever before. yet, we still have something missing. is it the primitive suppressed? is it the need to roll around in some dirt and feel a real connection? or are we just spoiled?
i find myself lost at times. i sometimes find myself so disappointed in my own endeavors i completely lose site in the opportunities others' endeavors have afforded me.
i try to realize I'm a spoiled fuck that hasn't appreciated one scrap of sacrifice made for my stupid comfort and privilege. but, i forget. i mean: think about the fact that i am sitting in Kansas City right now and anyone in the world.... the world... not country, not even continent.. but the WORLD... can read this; this stupid pathetic self-indulgent poorly written diatribe. to get mail from 3 states away used to take a week.
things are moving fast. so fast we can hardly keep up with the awe it inspires. so next time you feel annoyed at how slow your web page uploads, or when your cell phone drops out, or your car breaks down think back a mere 100 years and wonder where the fuck you'd be.
without judging, i ask that we all (me included) remember how much we have, how much we can give, and how much we can grow with all that we have.
this is mugwump signing out on one hell of a sentimental note.
love to you and your own.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxfODAGWjW4
Advertising is tax deductible, so we all pay for the privilege of being manipulated and controlled. -Noam Chomsky
Do you think that the amoeba ever dreamed that it would evolve into the frog? Of course it didn't. And when that first frog shimmied out of the water and employed its vocal cords in order to attract a mate or to retard a predator, do you think that that frog ever imagined that that incipient croak would evolve into all the languages of the world, into all the literature of the world? Of course it fucking didn't. And just as that froggy could never possibly have conceived of Shakespeare, so we can never possibly imagine our destiny.-Naked (1993)