We were talking about Michael Vick, and that whole nasty dog fighting business his wealth sponsored. The we being a client and I, and the whole discussion was about how difficult it was for some to grasp the viciousness that resides in people in this day of advanced civilization. I ended up telling her that she wasn’t privy to half of the evil that went down on that property Vick owned, and that what he and his friends did to those dogs would turn the stomachs of folks far harder than her.
My client suggested that Vicks’ mea culpa and public service excursions made the man look almost human, but his motives, whether he truly felt remorse or simply wanted to again enjoy the millions he would reap if he talked his way back into professional sports, are known only to him.
You don’t have to walk very far to find people who will make all kinds of excuses for Vicks’ misdeeds. It’s cultural, you know. They will tell you it’s not his fault, for his entire background, and the background of his circle of friends encouraged such horrors for their amusement. They will tell you that many cultures enjoy violence and the infliction of pain on innocent animals. Those who promote and participate in cock fighting enjoy similar entertainment. Blood, gore, pain, terror, and all that amuse them. And sadly, those who excuse this as cultural are mostly right.
The reality of the world today is that it contains a multitude of cultures, and very few of these are as sensitive about violence as the version of culture enjoyed by my client. The behaviors that so upset my client are the norm for much of humanity. And even her own culture is not immune from this.
Heck, one of the most popular cultural pastimes these days pits two fierce humans against each other in a cage, and pays them to pommel, kick, and strangle each other senseless to sate the blood lust of millions. And that would be the premiere culture of this place.
Yeah, we are an advanced civilization, but our civilization represents a very thin veneer. What lies under is the ole savagery many thought we left behind when we moved indoors and turned on the TV.
The recent snowstorm in the Northeast pointed out again the vulnerability of modern civilization. A few inches of wet snow fell, and the trees came down and brought the power lines with, and thousands were without light, heat, and hot water for several days. Those in charge of repairing the damage were overwhelmed by the storm, and many people have been a bit miffed by all this.
Those responsible this time were public utility companies, that interesting consequence of trying to combine private enterprise with government control that results in such intense regulation to keep the private side in line that in the end these companies cannot do anything right.
I haven’t heard too many reports of mass fatalities from this storm, for it did not arrive in the dead of winter, and thus inconvenienced more folks than it froze, but it sure exposed how poorly prepared the infrastructure and its caretakers were to handle this mess. And the average Joe, in this day of just flick a switch, looked out his window at a cold world knowing he didn’t have handy what it takes to deal with it either.
We get to see the veneer of civilization peel off pretty fast when people get truly desperate. New Orleans after Katrina demonstrated this well. Thousands of people accustomed to not needing to cope for themselves discovered that great disappointment you feel when your government doesn’t step in to take care of you when things go so wrong. And when the chips were down in the days following that storm, the many acts of civilized people trying to help others get through that mess were far overshadowed by the sub-human savagery of so many others.
I suppose you could make the argument that such storms are only temporary situations that merely put a dent in civilization. Which is true. But I suggest that such dents are an indicator of the vulnerability of civilization. And as we put more and more of our civilization at the mercy of the inconsistency of government control, or the unreliability of technology, we may find these dents will have greater impact.
Used to be ya kept your important documents in a safe deposit box at the bank or in that fireproof safe in the closet. The family bible held the dates of generations of the family’s births and deaths, marriages and celebrations. You kept your old checks to prove you paid that bill. The Mason jar buried in the garden held enough cash to get you through a weekend. And periodically, somebody sat down with the photographs spread out on the dining room table and names and dates were put to the faces long dead, so a piece of history persevered.
I was reading just yesterday about what our future holds for us. Checks will soon be a thing of the past. They say that plastic in your wallet will do a better job. Money will be a few electrons moving about. Photographs already are rarely more than electric impulses. And even all those documents, financial and insurance records, and the thoughts of lifetimes will leave paper and settle into electrical memory. It’s all faster and cheaper this way.
They promise that even the mechanical stuff we own to keep track of this electrical memory will soon disappear, and everything we commit to electrical impulses will settle in some cloud somewhere. And all of society’s eggs will be in one perfect basket. I’m sure this will all be perfectly safe and reliable. Aren’t you? You will never have to worry about someone carelessly exposing the film before the photos are developed. The house fire won’t destroy the insurance documents. No one will steal the Mason jar, or forget where they buried it. Gosh, things will be so convenient and safe you won’t be able to stand it. And we will relax and enjoy the fruits of our advanced civilization.
Until…
One electromagnetic pulse. One clever criminal hacker or terrorist cell. One disgruntled guy with his finger on the right switch. Or a simple snow storm. And all that electrical memory goes vulnerable. And we will suspend our civilization for a bit as all that important stuff we need to run it simply evaporates.
And then that other side of humanity will emerge yet again. Who will be ready for this? Look around at how poorly we’ve done lately with only those hiccups. Think the government will fix it in an hour? Think maybe those who know how to cope will know how to settle for a slightly less comfortable lifestyle? What of the majority who have no idea how to cope?
No comments:
Post a Comment