Claim your rightful position!

When coming across postings about “under-earners”, about the decline of the West (especially in Los Angeles, according to a latest independent commission study) and the rise of the rest etc…I can’t help mulling over how tragic the force of self-sabotage has done to us collectively and individually. We are a nation of “run-away brides” who just couldn’t take those last few steps to the altar (for fear of failure or unknown, or a host of other unsubstantiated phobia).
Then comes the age of big data, of automation and frankly, of accelerated elimination (Blackberry? Kodak?). A lot of us were like those 35-mm cameras with long zoom lens which used to cost an arm and a leg. But, despite their worth at one time, are now completely obsolete. Of no value, and no appreciation whatsoever. Even marketers who once thrived on instincts (knowledge of consumer behavior) will soon be engulfed in a data deluge (watch out what information those Sony armbands can gather and who they can send to).
Orwellian 1984 has arrived 3 decades late, but arriving none the less.
And we are more than willing to take part in and even volunteer to give up our privacy without protest.
After all, we are in uncharted waters. In “Who Owns The Future”, Lanier observes that despite network efficiency, society that it purported to serve comes out short. In other words, a gain here but a loss there.
Technology has always had its own momentum and associated costs, some hidden others more visible (lends new meaning to the phrase “living on the wrong side of the track”). Yes, our lives are better served since the advent of email, internet, world-wide web, social network and mobile apps.
But then, our necks are sore, our eyes need glasses, our spouses grumble, and more people search online porn.
Kids in my old neighborhood hardly play those childhood games I used to play. They are glued to the screen, playing online games and cursing a lot more at the machine (and each other).
Only me, the old analog camera, the walking man, walks on by.
Our function and feature still remain. But they are not as appreciated as once were since form has trumped function. But centuries of classic learning and living should still retain some values. Nouveaux riches can only shop for digital goods, but class they cannot buy. In fact, they have sent their children our way to “buy” what they themselves cannot, at least in their life time. Years of refined taste should come in handy and as a defense against self-sabotage. Walk up that red-carpet, and be not the run-away bride we are not meant to be. America can once again be great (even though the Great Society has been declared now 50 years on), a beacon up on the hill, and a lighthouse at the edge of dark waters. Let the rest rise, but as we all know, economics is only half of the story; for man shall not live by bread alone. What do the wolves of Wall Street buy in a good year?
Arts, that’s right. What’s the last thing they auction up in a bad year? Arts, that’s right.