This word reality really bothers me....!
Frankly, it's lost all meaning. Not long ago it was defined simply as: "Quality or state of being real." Today would anyone be willing to say for sure what's real? Skeptics are still debating the reality of everything from the Warren Report on JFK's assassination to the NASA Moon Landing, from the batting averages of ballplayers to the market values of Wall Street, and from the computer-enhanced faces in movies to the cheating-tinged verifications in Missile Treaties.
Now this miasma has spread to television. Big time! Cable channels devote themselves to a screaming skewed reality of politics, while the networks to endless clones of interminably un-realistic game shows. Viewers are being asked to accept the chatter of self-appointed east-coast savants as the real America. And to embrace the childishness of willing-to-do-anything-on-camera buffoons as real Americans.
OK, fun is fun! But now will the real America and the real Americans please stand up? Quick, before it's all too terribly late. Here, let me take a desperate stab at what I remember.
To me, the real America has traditionally been this arguing but cocky pilgrimage of seekers. The next horizon has always been the goal. Sweat and swagger has always been the means. Sure, some of us got richer and trampled on the rights of the stragglers. But even the stragglers could see the same horizons, could believe there was still a way to reach them. Blue collar or white, brawn or brains, hi-tech cunning or maybe just old-time courage.
As for the real Americans, few I've ever known looked for fame in foolishness. Or believed that pretending in front of cameras was anywhere near as rewarding as producing something of value.
None of this is to say Norman Rockwell's America and Americans were ever really the majority on this scrappy, hard-living pilgrimage. And yet, there have been enough of them to make this pilgrimage one of a kind.
Really....!
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Ever since I've seen what a computer can do, I have this feeling that reality is becoming whatever you make it. Not a very good idea!
ReplyDeleteI've said it before. The human race has had two genders since the dawn of time. Now the computer has become the third. We're only now starting to suspect -- not saddle -- it's enormous unintended consequences in our life.
ReplyDeleteBut then I'm still being intimidated by my dishwasher and cell phone!!