Social Question
How much have we given up in becoming so digitally connected?
I was walking in Boston’s North End today. Nearly everyone I passed had a cell phone to their ear or was texting away as they walked. It was a beautiful fall day. I was cutting through the lovely rounds of the historic Old North Church where, acting on Paul Revere’s instructions, the church Sexton Robert Newman sent the famed message with the lantern at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. I was heading into Paul Revere Mall. The trees were showing peak fall colors and the mall walk was carpeted with a golden patchwork of leaves, with a ruby red leaf scattered here and there along the ancient colonial bricks. Yet as I walked down the stairs of the back yard of the Old North Church where the famous “one if by land, two if by sea” lantern warning was sent to Revere, I came abreast of a man and caught a snippet of what he was saying to someone on the other end of his cell phone. “Yeah, I am walking now. I’m on a sidewalk. Now I am going down some stairs…”
Now I don’t know whether this man really was telling someone something that inane, or he was just having a pretend conversation with an imaginary friend. So many people were on phones that I frankly was beginning to feel odd about the fact I was walking along taking in the natural beauty and the history around me and the last thing I wanted was a cell phone needlessly glued to my ear. But it begs other questions. The Founding Fathers of the American Revolution were men of the age of enlightenment. They were the leading liberals of their age, and whether university graduates or self educated, their writing and musings show that they were all men of great intellectual achievement. Old North Church Sexton Robert Newman was heading his own conscience when he complied with Paul Revere’s request and sent his warning of the British troops approach. Most to the congregation of the Old North Church were the conservatives of that day. Many held official positions in the royal government, including the Royal Governor of Massachusetts, British General Thomas Gage.
Clearly the Founders were men who kept their own counsel and were open to fresh ideas. Many of those today who claim to worship the early American Patriots would, if our Liberal, intellectually curious Founders were here among us, label them as ‘elitist’ intellectuals to be shunned and demonized. Less than 50% of today’s Americans have read a novel or fictional work in the last year. Around 15% read a nonfiction book in that same time. Even many today who are not illiterate are increasingly a-literal.
In the late 19th century, Americans would flock to lectures by speakers they profoundly disagreed with. Agree or not, they were willing to challenge their existing beliefs and hear a different viewpoint. Our divisive politics today shows this is sadly fading from modern American behavior and possibly world behavior. We seem increasingly to be connected to blogs, email blasts, text messages and news sources that will only tell us what we have already decided we want to hear. We seem to be content at substitution connectivity for real connection to anything beyond ourselves and out current world view. We are developing an endemic incuriosity, and a deep suspicion of the intellectually curious.
Our political and entertainment leaders are more than happy to feed this appetite for infotainment. It keeps them in a position of great power and profit. Is there any hope for American and World conservatism, getting back to the good elements we left behind as we moved out of the Age of Reason and into the Information Age? What do you see on the horizon for humanity. Are we going to leverage the information available to inspire a new burst of reason and enlightenment, or sink into ever deeper fear of any idea not already welcomed in our programmed heads?
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