Numbly watching multiple episodes of “How It’s Made” on television, while superb, leaves me feeling overwhelmed by the sheer genius that has gone into creating a society that gets to enjoy the myriad of things we take for granted. I say “numbly” because after an hour, one image rolls into the next, not unlike news stories that roll one into the other with tales of the worst of humanity.
Like so many of you I read print and online versions of news and in their need to compete for our attention spans, the headlines pop out to offer the biggest grab. This one killed. that one raped. This one convicted. That one perjured. In fact about the only good story was that of Ted Williams, the homeless man with the broadcaster voice who not only was “discovered” and employed, but also reunited with his mother, and even that story contrasts the night and day aspect of our society and lives much as the “How It’s Made” series of inventions contrasts the news stories of depravity and disgust.
And that leaves you numb because where do you – an individual – start to tackle anything of substance? We are spoon fed fluff in everything we do. Bound by endless legislation there is nothing we do that does not come with volumes of disclaimers, warnings and conditions. Aside from the legal size sheet compressed with 6 point typeface that come with medical products, you cannot take your kid to a birthday party without having to sign away their life on a Release from Liability form, most of which no one reads because of that “numb” part of us that realizes we cannot stop it short of leaving with our child. Of course you can just sign “Mickey Mouse” which works since none of the minimum wage employees collecting these forms even reads them, but that is beside the point.
Getting stuff done in America, and especially in California is a numbing experience. Everything is suspect and everyone is potentially corrupt the moment they open their mouth and express an original idea. Politicians and actors go hand in hand because often delivery is the key to slipping crap past the unsuspecting audience. I would think that magicians would do well in politics also.
But try examining an issue and see just how far you get. School funding issues are a good example. Everyone is exhausted when it comes to fiscal discussions on what to cut and how to balance budgets at a school level and at the state level where the problem seemingly originates. How much time are you willing to spend to decipher legal-speak in documents, proposals, before you tune out? Have you watched the faces of board members and attendees at any civic meeting? Frustration and helplessness pervade.
Fundamentally people want to be activists. People want to effect a positive change, especially when they have children who are directly affected. And yet in our age of free speech gone wild, where everyone has a say and can do so regardless of informational content, we are subjected to hundreds of voices prattling on, some with sound insight while others a few bricks short of a load.
And you get numb as an end result.
When you consider the American Revolution and how taxation without representation served as the catalyst, then look at the taxation with representation that we have today, all in the name of balancing budgets to offset greed, corruption and waste, you really have to wonder what the whole point was before. Can you name all the taxes in existence? Have you tried doing your own tax forms, especially as a small business with employees? It is enough to turn you to drink! Read the tax code – numb. read the city code – numb. Read the newspaper –numb. That is why mindless movies seem to be popular – eat popcorn, drink sugar and stare.
The Roman Empire was at its peak when it conquered first and asked questions later. Action ruled. Later when the action was stilled and all attention was turned inwards, as the bickering and the backstabbing increased, and corruption and indifference created a lax attitude, the empire crumbled enough to be conquered itself.
What about the wars in which we are engaged? Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond. How much are you in tune with what is happening? Who was the last terrorist caught or killed? Hmmmm… numb? It occupies so little air or print time anymore.
It used to be clear that there was a right and a wrong side. And while it may not have been right or wrong, it was defined clearly and polarized people accordingly, enough to generate action and change.
But now there are no right or wrong sides because we have been told that we must take every position into account, that everybody is deserving of a right or two, and that to do otherwise is both racist and politically incorrect. It is drummed into our kids as they are clumped all together for a mixed bag of learning (which has failed miserably). It has been conditioned by lawsuits that remove the need of accountability in favor of the need of that mix. You can get sued by the thief breaking into your home that you injure?
We have gone from being a cultural mix to a mixed up culture so lost in the eternal numbness that we stop questioning whether it really is PC, anymore. We have become a herd of sheep led by the one in front along the stream because it is the easiest way to walk. We are homogenous and quite well pasteurized at the same time. We walk the same and no longer care that the fashion does not fit – we all wear it and turn the caps sideways and leave the tags on so that we are labeled as one of the in-sheep. And spend our day on social media sites announcing where we are and what we are doing, even if that doing is nothing more than the rote in our daily life. It is information without flavor. “In Paris,” one might read. Two words devoid of the richness that could have been conveyed had we not been so exhausted.
“How It’s Made” shows you creativity of the human mind that has taken something and designed, developed and problem-solved devices and products that are amazing to watch. Our cities, no matter the decay, are marvels of human ingenuity. To learn about the million pieces that go into each aspect without getting bogged down in the reasons why it should never have been made can leave you feeling energized and with a sense of wonder that injects that missing flavor. It is, in short, a “wow.”
If you want to get a feeling of that power, go walk a bridge – say the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge – and find the brass marker that identifies the builders and the date of construction and touch it. They started it in 1933 and opened in 1937. Men built it with their hands in the worst of conditions. They had no app for that! No cell phones. They used the ingenuity of a designer and the plans of a process that they followed. Brute strength and ingenuity. There is more life in that product than in the toys we play with daily.
That is human achievement. That is a feeling that we should have in our daily lives – a clear sense of what we are and what we are doing. It is one of the things we are lacking.
Confusion and doubt, complexity, bureaucracy have all twisted us into a shell of what we were.
And while we would like to think we are better than the people who actually made things in 1933, we are not. We could be. We should be.
But we are just too numb.
MLK said: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character” and that quote, so illustrative of an intelligent insight has been so abused over the years by those who linger on the part that discusses “The color of their skin” and omit the part about “The content of their character. For this is the issue by which not only African Americans are defined, by the amazing speech of Dr. King, so quoted out of context, but also the very fabric of the nation that lacks so much in character as it does in the ability to discriminate with any intelligence, not that discrimination is a matter of intelligent revelation. But listen; Dr. King spoke the words of accuracy for we are the sum of our character, both individually as well as collectively as a nation and we have failed in that regard.
