Entertain Me

Immediately.

If there was one word to describe this new age of technology, it is this one. That is how everyone wants everything. Right now. And what we want more than anything is to be entertained.

"And why not," we think? Surely every wave of new, incredible technology brings us that much closer to this ideal - heaven on earth.

"Those poor heathens," we say, as we look back, "they were simply living in the wrong time. Back when they had to wait for things. They didn't even have some things, like Facebook and YouTube."

Many things pop into my head when I contemplate the world today and where we came from. For example, the world population in 2009 was 6.8 billion people. That's insane. (even more baffling is that our national deficit is over 13 trillion dollars. If I did the math right that's 1912 times more than the population of the world. It was hard to count all the 0's.)

Whenever I hear of new gadgets like the Kinect for XBox, I think of how much effort we put into research and development. Then I think of how many people around the world are starving or have never owned a pair of shoes or don't have clean, running water. It makes you wonder how our priorities are so skewed. I bet we could feed third world countries with the money it takes to produce movies in Hollywood.

My friend Eva has two fantastic quotes that I'm going to steal.

"The world of goals is about fast-tracking your life. It's about getting from point A to Z, ASAP. Do not linger over a cup of J. There is no time to smell the R. Just go! Go! Go! Multitask to early retirement." ~Matthew Wolfe

"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Another quote that springs to mind is from Ghandi:
"There is more to life than just increasing its speed."

This post isn't about technology or the entertainment industry. It's not about wastefulness in Washington either, but rather I would like to question our attitudes and character in our approach to life. I find that our answer to the biggest question: What is the purpose of life, and why are we here? is shallow and leaves much to be desired.

Our goal, at least in America, seems to be to have as much fun as possible. From what I understand of philosophy, we are mostly egoists at heart. If we see ourselves as generous people, we may step outside of ourselves with a kind of utilitarianism.

We want to be happy, all the time. The last thing we want is to be inconvenienced in our lifelong pursuit of happiness. This mainly constitutes finding new ways of being entertained. Our love of food is ruled by the search for entertainment. We go to sports bars to watch the game or heat up microwave dinners so we can watch television as soon as we get home. Gone is the time of true family dinners, complete with conversation and actual interaction.

Multitasking is the enemy of living a full life. It's ironic that the more we squeeze into every week, day, and hour, the less we enjoy ourselves. I'm not saying that working hard and getting normal, everyday things taken care of efficiently is wrong. It's great because it provides us the opportunity to sit back, relax, and really experience life without the threat of eviction and starvation hanging over our heads. But I'd like to make two observations about life.

It was pointed out to me by a very wise teacher that life is not full of moments on top of the mountain or in the valley. Rather, life is mainly a lot of stuff we consider boring, with occasional highlights and depressions scattered throughout. We should embrace all moments as full of life. They don't have to be glamorous. I guess this is along the lines of Nietzsche's philosophy of affirmation.

A quote from Nietzsche
“I want to learn more and more to see as beautiful what is necessary in things; then I shall be one of those who make things beautiful. Amor fati: let that be my love henceforth! . . . And all in all and on the whole: some day I wish to be only a Yes-sayer.”
More on Amor fati (the love of fate)

If we look back at Emerson's quote, living a successful life has nothing to do with getting what we want as soon as possible. Consumerism is a lie. Instead of demanding to be instantly entertained, today's ideal, life is a lot more fun when you go out and experience it firsthand. Television is not real life. Real life takes effort and time (and sometimes sweat, blood, and tears), is not microwavable and cannot be shipped to your door.

I'll leave you with a quote from St. Exupery's The Little Prince.

"One only understands the things that one tames," said the fox. "Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends any more. If you want a friend, tame me . . ."