Damn Bankers - Ruining it for everyone

[Alanw]

It would be interesting to see how many individuals on this forum would have preferred "growing up" in an era other than the one they did.

Too bad the "culture wars" of the period had to last so long.  Appreciating the fairly cyclical, but also unique, perspective each generation brings to a culture takes a long time -- more than a lifetime for many of us.  I find works (like the books written by Strauss and Howe) on this subject pretty interesting.               

As Jerry Garcia once said "What a long strange trip it's been.

[alvinroast]

RE life in the 1970s, doesn't this just look like a window into an existence that is less self-conscious and distracted than ours:



(You may recognize one or more of the people in this photo.)

I was thinking about what our lives are like and it hit me that we are like air traffic controllers.  We have our little screens that we monitor and there is radio traffic to keep up with, and at any given time our heads are packed with a large number of unfolding events, one or more of which could be catastrophic if not managed properly.

Think about what the average person is monitoring:

1. Email traffic
2. Text message traffic
3. Cell phone traffic
4. Home phone traffic
5. Office phone traffic
6. Facebook traffic
7. News feed (i.e., entertainment masquerading as news)
8. Market data feed (i.e., investments)
9. Financial data feed (i.e., debit card/checking account balance)
10. Entertainment feed (Snookie, American Idol, etc.)

Well at least I seem to be getting something right. My list is basically to monitor what the date is. Then every day or so I check my email and track down where I've left my phone  to check messages. Every week or two I double-check that all the bills are paid. No facebook, news or entertainment feed (outside of baseball season) and I'm weaning myself off of the investment feed. This is really out of necessity since I can't handle the information overload very well, but it's still interesting.

I'm sure I've missed out on something never having seen American Idol but I don't care. A few days ago I turned on the TV for the first time since the world series and couldn't remember what channel the local sports were on.

I must be like an air traffic controller in flyover country.

[escafandro]

And "The Buff" still lives in the same house he bought 40 years ago.

I don´t see the point of that.
I like change.

[Alanw]

And "The Buff" still lives in the same house he bought 40 years ago.

I don´t see the point of that.
I like change.

I believe change came harder back then than in todays mobile, connected society.  Also, change was not looked upon as favorably in the midwest as on the coasts.  Not saying it's right or wrong.