Imagine there's no Ford or Chevy...

I would think that no one who knows me would accuse me of being a luddite, far from it. I love my computers; so that I have a pathetic dependency thereon…sleek laptops make me happy in a truly disturbing way. My iPod is a dear friend. So no, my friends, I do not fear technology nor am I unfamiliar with its manifold benefits. I embrace it.

You’re waiting for the “but”, aren’t you? Here it is:

BUT…it has occurred to me, as I’m sure it’s occurred to you at some time, whether when you found yourself looking out through the green glass of a beer bottle, or were under some other spell that temporarily suspended the trance of dullness which our stress-bound daily world addles us with. It is this: I experienced more difficulty than I would have guessed when I tried to imagine my daily life, and more to the point, the daily life of my city, even my state or my country, without some of these things which we accept or endure as part of our existence:

• Imagine an entire day without your cell phone. I don’t mean as though you were on a camping trip…I’m saying imagine they don’t exist. Envision everyone in your city or town without their cell phones. No wireless telephones whatsoever. None. Forget about the economic impact and all that crap, just think about the effect this would have on our lives, whether by our phones or those of others.
• Imagine the entire day without e-mail or the internet. Now, I don’t mean without checking your e-mail…we’ve all done that (I hope), whether on vacation or whatever. I mean imagine that for a day the internet and e-mail do not exist.
• Imagine watching two hours of television…especially a sporting event, without seeing a single car commercial. Not one. Seriously, this may seem frivolous but take a moment and really imagine it. What would fill the void? This applies to any car-related commercials too: insurance, tires, car cleaning products, motor oil commercials with gold-colored translucent horses galloping through fields of petroleum in an Exxon-fueled hallucination...etc.
  
• Imagine spending the entire day without thinking about or worrying about money ONCE.
  
• Imagine reading the news, or watching a full hour of news coverage without hearing about the war in Iraq or the ‘war on terror’ a single time. It wasn't that long ago that you could do this.
  
• Imagine spending the entire day, and I mean being out and about: on the road, in transit, in public places, etc., without seeing an advertisement. Not a single advertisement anywhere, including radio, internet or television. That’s one of my favorites.
• Imagine spending an entire day with your usual media influx, TV time, internet use, the news, magazines, radio, etc., without having to hear about god%!$@ American Idol. Wouldn’t that be…something?
• Same question as above, insert Paris Hilton.
  
• Imagine Jeremy running out of things to rant about!

…not bloody likely.

-J.