Present Shock, Lulled to Sleep

I’m not sure if it is age, or seeing some of the lessons in classrooms past. It impresses me that some of my high school and college history classes went against modern perception, telling accounts factually without offering a slant or personal viewpoint in lecture.

In recent time, I’ve seen some of the lessons from classrooms past refute or corroborate current issues.

A few decades ago, a book was written that has been included in various sociology classes since. The book came out about the same time science fiction stories had characters using what now would be called a flip phone, and a pistol laser gun. There were also movie scripts of diseases threatening all of mankind.

Future Shock was written by a man known as a “futurist” and his wife. Alvin Toffler wrote the book after being an associate editor for Fortune Magazine. Simply said, his position was that too much information too soon, and the digital age, was not good for humanity. I still remember seeing the movie version of his book in college, and the follow-up “Third Wave.” Forgiving the late 70s and early 80s cinema quality, it had a very interesting story line. It was like watching fiction staged as prophecy.

Within that same period, there was a version where a man enters a grocery story, characterized as a borderline thug appearance, grabs a few things and walks out the door. The dutiful senior security officer calls him back, but instead of demanding payment, he reminded him he forgot something.

He was scanned on the way out the door and his account properly paid the bill.

Think about it. The movie version included a couple who got up in the morning and skipped the cup of coffee for a jolt of electricity, plugging into the wall socket like a fast charge of a cell phone. Throughout the movie, there is a scene of a couple nonchalantly walking a grassy hillside. As the movie concludes, the cameraman focuses on the couple from the front, and the audience discovers the couple are not as human as viewers were lead to believe.

They were, more than 40 years ago, a perfect example of what is being designed and built today, Artificial Intelligence that to a point can mimic humanity. In the movie, the viewers had no idea until a closeup of the face.

I recall in a college writing class a professor telling us that fiction can be the best teacher.

It was the kind of moment that had to simmer for a bit; not percolate, simmer. It took a few questions and a lot of observation. The assumption prior to that is education occurs through the sharing of ideas, of facts and provable data taught to the student(s).

The point was, and still is, the use of fiction allows a writer or presenter to include more descriptive color, scenery that the receiver can relate to. It can also be used to teach a person how to think.

 In 1968, a movie was released about people, monsters in the threat sense of the word, who couldn’t be stopped. They were already dead, another example of “the undead.” A virus has attached itself to these people, and, well, most of us know the general plot.

The idea of a virus being unleashed maliciously or accidentally has been part of more books and movie scripts than can be counted. Sometimes the heroes are whistle blowers in the military machine, and other times they are the underdog survivors of violent, barely human assailants.

It really wouldn’t be much more than dark entertainment if not for the last two years.

In 2019, there were nursing homes and public schools hit with “upper respiratory infections” and colds/flus that shut down the schools for a week or so and caused nursing staff to scramble at the nursing homes. Yet, there was no reported spike in deaths. 

It wasn’t until the first of press conferences was held announcing a deadly virus unleashed on society. Theories and speculation raged like a prairie fire, like imagination at its peak in a fiction writers conference. Yet, this time, the longer it stayed, the more people saw it as a true threat.

To be clear, the question shouldn’t be is there a virus. The question not being answered is  what do we do now that it is out?

The common answers are get vaccinated, wear a mask, keep a distance and so on. We all know the song. 

What has the impact been? Mask mandates vary from the retail outlet to the political boundary.

The reference of the movies and using fiction to teach leads to the question of have we been taught to expect a society-threatening outbreak, maybe as one of our worst fears, or were we lulled to gullibility because of the countless fiction movies?

I’ve heard the proposal that prophecies are not what will happen, but what will happen if humanity doesn’t get its act together. If that is the case, what will it take to accept the pursuit of freedom is costly, but a better investment than being hand-fed in a virtual zoo?