optimism

Does it all really suck?

A few days ago, a good friend and I were bitching and moaning about why people always seem to be bitching and moaning about about how everything sucks. Did you get that?

My friend stated that, ‘today the average Joe has life better than the King of England did one hundred years ago. We have access to antibiotics and elastic in our socks. I don’t know what everyone is complaining about.’

Now I haven’t the slightest idea if the King of England had access to elastic in his socks but I get the point. Today we have innumerable inventions, products, services, conveniences, and modes of travel unparalleled in human history. Historically everything rocks! - las Vegas, iPhones, antibiotics, and Jet Skis. Just for kicks toss in washing machines, automobiles, air conditioning and the Snuggie. Not even the King of England had a Snuggie.

Think about modern travel. Today, I can board a plane in Los Angeles and arrive in New York in about five hours. Add two hours for the tedious lines to show i.d. and remove my shoes for inspection and my total travel time comes to seven hours.  While, I am performing the required tedious acts, everyone around me is bellyaching about how travel is worse than it ever has been. Worse than it’s ever been?

Take the Stagecoach

When I am in a pissy mood, I feel like screaming at them for God’s sake if an extra twenty minutes in the security line offends you so profoundly why don’t you take the next stagecoach out of town? You should arrive in New York promptly in three months. Of course I don’t say that. I grumble along with them that travel used to be so much better.

If everything really sucks more than it’s ever sucked before, I propose that we do things the way they were done before all this suckiness started. Our butter should come from a churn not the Safeway. Travel should be done quickly and safely on horseback. Communication should be done by smoke signals not by iphones. And when you need surgery, anesthesia will come in the form of a bottle of rum. How does that sound?

You might be thinking what does this have to do with curiosity? Isn’t the blog about curiosity? I am fascinated as to how we all decided that life sucks more than it has ever sucked before. Don’t people ever stop to think how things really were in the past? I agree that some things do suck a bit more compared than they used to in the very recent past. But do things truly suck historically? Being curious as to how things in life truly compare might just give you a new perspective.

Just remember, you have elastic in your socks. Is everything really all that bad?

Photo Credit: StickBus

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