My wife’s paternal grandparents lived in deep, rural Early County, Georgia, just across the Chattahoochee River from Alabama. They never would have a telephone because they “might get a call in the night bringing bad news”. If you wanted to contact them, you’d have to telephone one of their ‘close-by’ children or grandchildren and get them to deliver the message in person.
Now, most everyone has a telephone. By everyone, I mean from entering school-age children and up. They may not have a land-line phone or even a house for a land-line phone, but they’ve got a telephone. Lots of the phones take pictures and play music and let you play games. You can be in your car on the Interstate in Atlanta traveling 75 mph and can be talking to someone on the Autobahn in Germany traveling 100 mph - clear as if they were in the room with you. It’s all quite remarkable.
When I was at the University of Georgia in the early 1960s, I had an acquaintance by the name of Talmage Dobbs. Talmage had a 1956 or 1957 Ford Thunderbird. I must confess: I coveted this car. But, let me tell you what was remarkable about the car, other than its classic beauty: Built into the dash (“dash,” that’s an old word, isn’t it?) was a machine that played 45 rpm records. Stick ‘em in a slot on top of the needle and presto, Ray Charles was singing “Georgia On My Mind”. I never had seen such a thing. Yeah, I coveted Talmage’s car.
Can you buy a car today that doesn’t have a CD player? What about one without air conditioning? Daddy wouldn’t let us run the air conditioning in the family’s first cars that had it, unless it was very hot - “used more gas when you ran the air conditioning”. How quaint. Now, lots of cars have television and satellite radio and voices and maps to tell you where to go and how to get there and where to eat and when you’ve missed a turn. As amazing as this is, the technology to all this is probably rather antiquated.
Blogging is, as Herman Talmadge used to say, “rampant” with the emphasis on the “pant”. Some of it is thoughtful and clever, and lots of it is mean - really mean. The blogs make you want to run for public office, don’t they? You can find out lots about yourself and your family (or lack thereof). People say what they want about anyone they want, and in many cases, without regard to what the truth is.
Apparently, nothing can or will be done about what would otherwise be libel or slander. If Obama has done some of the things of which he is accused, he is lucky that he’s not run out of the country rather than his hoping to run the country.
Historically, leadership was based, in part, on superior knowledge. Leaders knew more (or, at least most thought the leaders did) than their constituents. Not any more. Everyone with a computer has access to everything. Why listen to the President or the Governor? “I know more than they do.”
Yes, leadership is more difficult than it has ever been. Will we ever have another President that is generally liked and respected by most? Ronald Reagan might be the last, and even he was disliked by many. And what about God? People know so much, have so much information at their disposal, that they don’t need God - or at least, they don’t think they do. Man has taken on God-like qualities. All the information in all the world for all times can be summoned up to Goldman Sach’s office on Wall Street or to a thatched hut on a river in South America.
Lots of it is good - really good. Just think how technology has impacted health care. But, the scary part is this: We’ve just seen the beginning. There is more coming, much more. You think there’s been lots of changes in the last 20 years? You haven’t seen anything, yet. It will happen faster, and it will be more remarkable.
And here I am with all this technology, lost in the ‘60s, and still wishing I had Talmage Dobbs’ Ford Thunderbird with the record player in the dash. That was one cool car!
This was my article in the latest issue of James Magazine, and it is used herein with permission of the editor.
