A Changing World

So how has the world changed from my grandparent’s generation to that of my grandchildren’s?

In the first place those who settled the central North American continent faced an impenetrable virgin forest which was so oppressive to them that beating back the wilderness and clearing land seemed a necessity. Today, except in Ontario’s far north, that forest is represented only by a thin line of trees along our major highways—everything else has been cut. By contrast we now seek out patches of the last remaining wilderness for their restorative qualities often ignoring in our ignorance that even in the much-vaunted Algonquin Park, most of it has been logged over several times—those straight rows of mono-culture trees should be a give-away.

My grandparents grew up in a world with lamp light, horses and buggies. Twenty-something’s have never used a typewriter, a slide rule, a rotary dial phone, made a wood fire to boil water, or been snowed in for a month. A letter to Europe used to take a month by boat, now with instant messenger replies are immediate. In my grandparent’s day 80% of Canadians lived on farms; today that figure is reversed and of those left on farms most cannot make a living solely from farming. My own grade four science text declared reaching the moon was impossible; today rocket launches are barely newsworthy.

My grandfather stood ram-rod straight for 3 to 5 minutes to have his image recorded on a tin plate; today images can be beamed instantaneously worldwide. News from Europe used to take weeks to reach Canada; now I can log onto a web cam in Moscow and watch Putin cross Red Square. My grandparents bought a week’s groceries with $1.00; today that barely buys a small bag of chips. If my grandparents wanted music someone played the parlour organ and the family sang, in some families someone might play the fiddle, a jaw harp, mouth organ, or a tin whistle. My Mother and her sister bought a Victrola for $50 with their first independent earnings and 78’s for 50¢ each and they played for 2 minutes. Now a CD holds 80 minutes worth and a decent hard drive MP3 Player can hold 100’s of hours of music.

When my grandmother went swimming wool bathing suits covered her entire body; today a bikini, if one be worn at all, barely covers anything. In my grandmother’s day it was illegal for woman to wear pants in most US States and woman were not considered persons and therefore unable to vote, own property, or borrow money. Today woman’s suffrage is taken for granted and girls can even become boy scouts, attend most boys’ schools, and fight alongside men in most armed services. What I can’t declare with any certainty is whether a woman’s lot has been improved by all these new-found rights.

I suppose the basic principle in all this is the pace at which things happen. Decisions get made before cooler minds have an opportunity to consider the wisdom of those conclusions. There are now more people alive than have lived in the whole of history and the world population continues to grow. Experts know more and more about less and less, the sum total of knowledge grows but whether or not wisdom follows is in question. Science can now split atoms and create life or prolong it indefinitely. What philosophers and theologians have yet to determine is whether or not they actually should? I’ve embarked on a topic for which there are no easy conclusions. This is a subject where absolutes of right and wrong do not apply. I’m sure I’ll be returning to this discussion for further reflection but in the meantime I’d welcome comment.