Change the World Mentality in the Social Imagination...

 

“Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.”  ~ George Orwell

    This quote from Orwell really does seem to sum up how we feel about the generations before and after us. Though differences between generations may seem like caverns, they really are not. Sure, we think we see different ‘Generations’ but that's only from a marketing perspective... labels such as: Generation X: 1961–1981, Gen Y (Millenials): 1982–1995, Gen Z: 1996–2002 and the all-new Generation Alpha from 2003. [https://medium.com/bwp-group/every-generation-imagines-itself-to-be-more-intelligent-than-the-one-that-went-before-it-and-wiser-7861d584e518]. 

    So, what's really happening? Aren't we evolving? Aren't we moving forward in time and space? After all, look at technological developments.  Well, there really isn't anything new under the sun ~ Ecclesiastes.... including technology. Sure, it looks different, sounds different, and works different. But, the idea of a new thing is not really true and it it were somehow really true it would only be temporary in our social imagination until the next new thing comes along. But, again... it never really was new. 

    You see, the social imagination (every generation of it) likes to imagine something is new. But, it is just reconstructed to look, sound, taste and feel different or at least enough to make us think it is different or new. What about going to the moon you say, "no one ever did that before Gen. X". Well, there have always been 'new' horizons in man's social imagination... in fact. through all time, the moon was just one of them.  

    And, what about making more people healthier, happier, democratic...  aren't those things new and hasn't technology made those things more possible for more people everywhere? I suppose relatively it seems like it. But, from a bird's eye view, men have been healthy, happy and democratic in the long past. 

    Sure, maybe more people appear to have those things because there are more people in terms of population; but realistically, as ratios, in terms of having those things, it only appears that those things have increased... but have they? What has really changed?

    Whenever someone says they are going to change the world they only intend to change it from their point of view, not their neighbors.  All sorts of people throughout time have had experiences with those things just mentioned and technology of different kinds...given that one should expect that the world would be changed by now. But, its not; and, if it has been changed... how exactly? 

     There do seem to be a few threshold events that appear to have radically changed the world. I would suppose CV one niner will be remembered as one as well as all world wars and civil wars, stock market crashes, assassinations, invasions and not excluding natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes etc. 

    The key is word here is 'appear'. Whether its perceived as radical or not. A lot of what happens to us is perception. To find out why, we will borrow from some Wikipedia writer... We can point to the special theory of relativity for instance to find out why. It is impossible to say in an absolute sense that two distinct events occur at the same time if those events are separated in space.

    For example, a car crash in London and another in New York appearing to happen at the same time to an observer on Earth, will appear to have occurred at slightly different times to an observer on an airplane flying between London and New York. 

    Furthermore, if the two events cannot be causally connected, depending on the state of motion, the crash in London may appear to occur first in a given frame, and the New York crash may appear to occur first in another. And, you see here... appear in an order of things. No one can say what happened or what changed first.

    Appearances are important and more important to the the social imagination because it is agreement reality. So, we do need things as events to 'appear' to us (be revealed or show up on the scene) and we need them to appear as different or new or even the same. 

    But, do we really need change? What we do need more than change is to agree as much we need to agree to disagree to make life appear real to us. With agreement and even with disagreement comes a residue of imagined changed. 

    Its not that anything really changed but we imagine it did because we either agreed on something or we disagreed. Every generation thinks that they are the first to breathe air, the first to talk, the first to think or imagine something. And every generation needs to agree on something and disagree.

    Just because we agree or agree to disagree doesn't make change or add new meaning and it certainly doesn't make a brand new world. Americans are probably the most guilty of this 'change the world' generational curse because they like to think and agree with each other and especially agree that they are a 'newly imagined' country with new ideas never before conceived or lived. 

    Most immigrants who come here think that too ... whether they come legally or not. As for being a new idea... well, I hate to tell you but the Greeks and Romans thought that too. 

    You can't change the world but you can change how you look at it and what you  agree/align with... but it still does create anything new nor even meaning nor does it create a brand new world and it never will... until the day of the Lord.