All Fast Everything by Solace Chukwu
The world is in the jet age. It has become a global village wherein, by use of sophisticated gadgetry, we create time and space warps. With the invention of the microwave oven, one of the most arduous of household chores was made easy. Grunting husband insisting on a warm meal just pulled into the driveway? No problem. Just pop it in the microwave. Of course, if that level of convenience could be achieved in cooking, surely there had to be ways to limit the time allotted to other things. So people got creative. You only need to look at the manner of human relations in today’s world for an example of the ‘microwave’ culture.
There are all kinds of social networking platforms and applications. Why take the time to explore the world one person at a time, when you can bound over land and sea to North America? Think about it. Or don’t. As like as not, the vast majority of people do not enjoy thinking. That’s all right. Cyberspace is more than willing to regurgitate an opinion for you on any matter that is ‘trending’. So it seems that our devices and machines have gotten smarter and people have gotten dumber. Pause to think: maybe all those cyborg and sci-fi apocalypse movies were true. Maybe the day is coming when your phone will leap off your palm and require your fealty. Are we on the verge of an Animal Farm-style hostile takeover? Unlike George Orwell’s porcocracy, however, there is little to suggest the computers will descend into misrule and petty nepotism. The minds of the people, with no gristle to gnaw on, have grown dull and obese. This is manifested in the most inane sort of mental generalizations, few more reprehensible than the phrase “people are all the same…” Er, no. They are not all the same. It is the genius of the Creator that no two people on His Earth are alike. Sadly though, in our microwave proclivities, we find it convenient to lump people into broad character categories. Actually taking the time to know someone would be too much of a strain, so why not give them a once-over and spit out an assessment like a Polaroid? On to the next. Not only is this mentally lazy, it is emotionally stingy. The time taken to know someone is an investment, just as capital is to a business. So not only are the computers taking away our thought process, they are stripping us of our emotion as well. With no emotional attachments, we are becoming robots…We are becoming…them! Oh no, they are possessing us from the inside!!!
** paranoia-induced break**
Sorry about that. I’m all right now. However, you get my point, right? Right? Fast cars, fast food, high-speed internet. Faster is better, sexier, hippier. Faster is also less thoughtful, more impulsive and ultimately less satisfying in a tactile sense… Off on a tangent again. Sorry. You take my point though.
