A Cranky Critic of Modernism Lists His Favorite Things the Modern World Has Given Us
The older I get the more I find to detest in the modern world: the aggressively secular society, the moral emptiness, the crass materialism (though I like markets), and on and on and on. Yet three years ago, my family was blessed by the modern medical technology that allowed my little two pound premature grandson to live (and now to thrive). A few months ago I had surgery that a few years before would have been dangerous--now it's routine. Antibiotics have given all of us extra years.
The most obvious benefit of the modern world is modern medicine and drugs that prolong life. But there are a lot of other things.
Here's my question. Excluding modern medicine, what are your five favorite things that the modern world has given to those of us lucky enough to live today. Here's my list:
1. Eyeglasses (especially bifocals). Otherwise I would have spent most of my life looking at life as if in a thick fog. Generations of people, especially the elderly, were denied a full life.
2. Hot Water on Demand. Can you imagine going back to old days of the Saturday night bath in water heated on a stove?
3. The Internet. Yes, there are horrible things on the web (pornography being perhaps the worst). But it has opened a whole new world--no matter where you are, if you are connected you have a world of information available to you. It allowed us to create a community like Ricochet, where like-minded people can engage in civil, thoughtful conversation.
4. Air travel. It's often a pain while it's happening, but we have virtually conquered distance. Families can live far apart, yet see each other often.
5. Food. It wasn't all that long ago that people ate what they grew or could buy from local markets. Now we have fresh food from all over the world available in our markets: and if we don't want to cook it, we can go to a restaurant and have someone cook it for us.
What are your favorites?
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May '11
Re: A Cranky Critic of Modernism Lists His Favorite Things the Modern World Has Given Us
1. Paved roads
2. Recorded music and television
3. Internal combustion engine. Bite me Al Gore!
4. Modern sewage system
5. Marshall guitar amps that go to 11. Including all the pedals and different noise making devices that one can use with it.
Feb '12
Re: A Cranky Critic of Modernism Lists His Favorite Things the Modern World Has Given Us
I deal with this a lot at work -- "Why are your shoes so expensive? Why don't they have leather soles like they used to?" et cetera ad naseum.
A big part for the older generation is inflation, so that a $20 pair of 1950 shoes now cost $140. But there's also a refusal to note how say, an Ecco, is a more comfortable, better fitting shoe than what they had before.
I'm living in a 1920 house, and it's interesting how assumptions about how much space is needed have changed. It was a lower-middle class house when it was built -- with one bathroom (tub, no shower) and two bedrooms, totaling 1100 square feet. The advance of time has convinced my cousins they need at least one bedroom per kid, plus granite counter-tops in their 2000+ square foot home.
(Annoyingly, they're doing far better financially than myself, despite unexpected pregnancies, cohabitation, and divorces. No good deed goes unpunished, indeed.)
Jun '10
Re: A Cranky Critic of Modernism Lists His Favorite Things the Modern World Has Given Us
Doc: You're obviously serious on 1-4 (and who doesn't agree?), but you went ironical on no. 5, right?
Jul '11
Re: A Cranky Critic of Modernism Lists His Favorite Things the Modern World Has Given Us
Your keen clinical acumen saw through my ruse TR.
Jun '10
Re: A Cranky Critic of Modernism Lists His Favorite Things the Modern World Has Given Us
Lucy Pevensie:
5. Refrigeration. Without which we would be constantly eating spoiled food.
And, even worse, drinking warm Diet Mountain Dew.
May '11
Re: A Cranky Critic of Modernism Lists His Favorite Things the Modern World Has Given Us
tabula rasa
Doc: You're obviously serious on 1-4 (and who doesn't agree?), but you went ironical on no. 5, right? · 6 minutes ago
2 thru 4 are connected. You can pay a Colombian hooker with Marlboro lights. If you don't pay a Colombian hooker a pimp will come after you with an AK 47.
Apr '11
Re: A Cranky Critic of Modernism Lists His Favorite Things the Modern World Has Given Us
I agree re: air conditioning.
Jun '10
Re: A Cranky Critic of Modernism Lists His Favorite Things the Modern World Has Given Us
Big day for me: first time I've been accused of having "keen clinical acumen." Normally it's my children and grandchildren saying things like, "How can he be so dumb and still be alive?"
But even I, in my dotage, can see it when a Reno doctor tries to slip some irony about the Chevy Volt past the goalkeeper.
Edited on April 26, 2012 at 4:49pmDec '10
Re: A Cranky Critic of Modernism Lists His Favorite Things the Modern World Has Given Us
1) Modern gaming
2)Internet
3)Smart Phones
4)GPS
5) eReaders and eBooks
Modern gaming is among the best entertainment ever invented. Modern videogames, card games, and especially board games as leagues above what they were in the past. If you are an old fuddy duddy and you haven't played any of this generations board or card games with your friends and family you are missing out on a huge perk of the modern age. Settlers of Catan, Zombies, etc. You owe it to yourself to give them a try.
Jul '11
Re: A Cranky Critic of Modernism Lists His Favorite Things the Modern World Has Given Us
Thelonious, there's a scene in Repo Man ( no Miles Davis in that movie, just punk rock) where some soiled mechanic explains how alien space craft are actually time machines. He connects it in his drug addled mind. If the pimp mobile Volt is powered by a solar panel it all ties in baby. But just remember, to quote Idiocracy, "A pimp's love is very different from the love of a square".
Edited on April 26, 2012 at 5:08pmOct '10
Re: A Cranky Critic of Modernism Lists His Favorite Things the Modern World Has Given Us
Which brings up a good point. Modern medicine, electricity, and flush toilets, yes yes yes. All well and good, as far as they go. To all of you crass materialists, knock yourself out. Just leave we rarefied, spiritual few the little all we require to nourish our souls: Monty Python and Pink Panther movies; P.G.Wodehouse and Dave Barry books.
Mar '11
Re: A Cranky Critic of Modernism Lists His Favorite Things the Modern World Has Given Us
tabula rasa
I grew up in a small town in the fifties. Most people had indoor plumbing but not everyone. I've used an outhouse--not a pleasant experience, even though the weather was nice. Think about using when when it's ten below.
By the time I got to high school, I think everyone had converted to indoor plumbing. I remember one Halloween evening some friends and I stole an old unused wood outhouse and set it afire on Main Street. We didn't get caught but it was a close run thing. · 15 hours ago
Edited 15 hours ago
Mormons got Rumspringa?
Apr '11
Re: A Cranky Critic of Modernism Lists His Favorite Things the Modern World Has Given Us
Nyadnar17: Amen brother! Modern games are fantastic, I recomend Pandemic, Race for the Galaxy, and Bang! as some of my favorite games...
Moder video games have also developed into one of the most original forms of entertainment I can think of.
Here is my list.
1: Recorder Music- music for the masses when we want it
2: Movies- Lets be honest what is better than a movie? (Ok a book I'll admit it) but really movies are brilliant and with modern technology they are becoming even more brilliant. Every year better able to represent the fantastical and futuristic in a credible way.
3: Air Conditioning: There was no civilization before this was invented and there is no civilization any where where it is not implemented.
4: Bit-torrent: because really if your under 30 you have used it and you've loved it. Is it wrong? Maybe. Does it make our lives better? Yes.
5: Internet Shopping: Because who wants to go into a store to buy over priced goods? 50$ for an HDMI cable! Seriously!?
Jun '10
Re: A Cranky Critic of Modernism Lists His Favorite Things the Modern World Has Given Us
1. The US Constitution and all the liberties guaranteed therein.
2. Books
3. The Scientific Method
4. Capitalism
5. The rule of law
Notice how many in my list are under assault from the left. What's at risk is modernity itself.
Nov '11
Re: A Cranky Critic of Modernism Lists His Favorite Things the Modern World Has Given Us
1: Indoor plumbing. If push came to shove I could live without it, but why would you want to?
2: The cartridge. Having to reload with a powder horn, wadding and a ramrod would make shooting much less enjoyable.
3: Air conditioning. I've lived in Texas for 80% of my life, which would make summers unbearable.
4: Personal sound systems, starting with the Walkman all the way to the MP3 player.
5: The atomic bomb. The most controversial of my picks, but I think the only reason we haven't had a hot war between major polities in almost 70 years is because the atomic bomb prevents the ultimate deterrent from the use of force.
Mar '11
Re: A Cranky Critic of Modernism Lists His Favorite Things the Modern World Has Given Us
1.Moder transportation/Logistics - The rate of R&D and reduction of product cost is so dependent on this we would be decades behind if not close to stagnate if we still had the same transportation before combustion engines. During the Revolutionary war it was cheaper in many parts of the country to ship products to Europe from the U.S. than 30 miles inland over land.
2. Computers - My life basically revolves around them and I can't do any work with-out one and I would have to change how I consume half my hobbies and the other half would go away.
3.Air Conditioning/ Mosquito Control- With-out these almost no one would want to live in Florida therefore would not.
4.Refridtration
5. Internet- Pretty much all my entertainment products and hobbies are either directly related to it or I get them thru it. However, I do exclude personal interest related to being around people. That is I don’t use the internet in any aspect in regards to relationships.
Dec '10
Re: A Cranky Critic of Modernism Lists His Favorite Things the Modern World Has Given Us
PracticalMary
No ironing. Add washing machines and dryers. I have the big cast iron pot of my grandmother's (and my mom growing up) used to wash clothes- also with homemade soap. (Arkansas) · 13 hours ago
Not long ago I heard somebody say what really separates the haves from the have nots in the automatic clothes washer. If you don't believe this talk to somebody old enough to have done without one.
Dec '10
Re: A Cranky Critic of Modernism Lists His Favorite Things the Modern World Has Given Us
Condiment bottles that store with the dispensing side down are a major advancement. ;-)
Apr '12
Re: A Cranky Critic of Modernism Lists His Favorite Things the Modern World Has Given Us
Air Conditioning/Modern Heating.
People who hate cold weather can live in the South without melting. People like me who hate hot weather can live in the Upper Midwest without freezing or melting (believe me, southern Michigan can be just as hot and humid as southern Georgia--for maybe three weeks of the year, as opposed to eight months).
Indoor Plumbing.
I spent my undergrad study-abroad semester in the Middle East. Lack of trees and the occasional wandering goat herd made "rest stops" on long bus trips interesting. Nothing makes you appreciate indoor plumbing like being stared at by one or more goats at close range when you're trying to (ahem) get things done.
USB Drives/Portable Hard Drives.
I'm old enough to remember the horrors of floppy disks--both the original 6" floppy disks that were actually floppy, and the smaller hard floppy disks that were used in the 90s. I tend to take the Internet as a whole for granted, but I'm eternally grateful for USB drives.
Nov '11
Re: A Cranky Critic of Modernism Lists His Favorite Things the Modern World Has Given Us
1. Modern Sanitation, I'd include sewage, clean water, etc., etc.
2. Electricity, it enables so much
3. Electric Lights, it allows productivity at night
4. The Internet, the greatest tool of freedom, communication, information, commerce ever conceived by humans
5. Modern industrial production methods
5a. Modern logistics
If I could add a sixth, I'd say pull tabs on cat food cans.
Oh, and modern dentistry should be in there too. Never understood how people died from tooth infections until I needed my first root canal.
Edited on April 26, 2012 at 6:29pm