The expression, “May you live in interesting times,” has been considered an ancient Chinese curse since Robert Kennedy popularized the saying. What makes times interesting? In general, conflict and anxiety. Most of us are familiar with the Biblical warning about wars and rumors of wars, and very few of us have had the luxury of living comfortably in peace and prosperity without the simultaneous knowledge of all the conflict in the world. It has been a very long time since “news” could travel only as fast as a horse could run.
We are currently living in interesting times. For one thing, the world is “smaller” than it used to be, not because its size is actually smaller, but because our methods of travel have reduced the time it takes to get from place to place. Also, communication technologies have greatly reduced the time it takes for a message to get from “Point A” to “Point B.” A long time ago I attended a lecture by a computer executive in which he discussed the time it took to produce a letter and get it to its intended recipient. He considered the time it took to get a letter from Point A to Point B. How long ago was it?
He included the time it took for an executive to dictate the letter to a secretary, the time it took to create a draft for proofreading, the time it took for a corrected copy to be produced (then called a “mailable” letter), the time it took to type the address on an envelope, stamp the envelope, and put it in the company mail system. Then there was the time it took for the company mail to be picked up, sent to the post office, sorted for delivery, taken to the airport, delivered to the correct city, sorted, and then trucked to the correct location, where it needed to be selected for delivery to the right department and the right individual at its destination. Faster than the Pony Express of frontier days, but not much.
And now, of course, we have email, electronic blogs, and “smart phones.” We have gained a lot in some ways, but we have lost in others. In the “old days,” people tended to be more careful with their communication. Well-trained secretaries could correct an executive’s bad grammar, and, although people complained about the Post Office, fewer letters were delivered to the wrong addresses than seems the case with email. Also, it was relatively easy to sort mail to prevent “direct-mail” advertising from reaching intended audiences.
“Things” are changing more quickly now than they did at any previous time in history. That has both advantages and disadvantages, for the same reason that driving at increasingly faster speeds has both advantages and disadvantages. If you’ve ever ridden a roller coaster, you know that there’s nothing quite like the long climb to the highest point, followed by the rush down hill, and the fist neck-snapping curve at the end of the drop. The thrills diminish as the ride goes on, of course. The same is probably true for history.
Our ancient ancestors would be appalled by the speed at which we live today. My guess is that they thought life was rushing by at a pretty good clip and would not have wanted it to go any faster. I am old enough to remember the early days of television: small screens, black and white, three channels, and limited broadcast hours. For most information, we relied on print: newspapers and magazines. For telephones, most families had a single “land-line” phone, which was sometimes on a “party line,” which meant that the phone wasn’t always available. Although progress hasn’t been uniform—some countries are more “advanced” than others—times have definitely changed for most people in most places.
Change—and especially rapid change—makes times interesting. Whether it makes times “better” is another question. Speed is stimulating, but whether the stimulation of more speed is good for humanity is another question. Would we be bored if life moved at a slower pace? Do you think our ancestors were bored most of the time? Or did they enjoy spending more time contemplating the meaning of life?