One Big Cohesive Society.

We no longer live in one big cohesive society. Now this is not to suggest that by growing up in Ridgewood in the 1960s and 70s we comprised one big cohesive group. More to the point it was many small cohesive groups. Though in sum they appeared as one because the differences were slight and based more on geography than opinions or culture.

We all had the same news sources, whether they were the TV or newspapers or radio. No barriers existed which excluded anyone from turning on their TV sets or radios and hearing the same news as everyone else. Newspapers were subscribed to and delivered, usually by young boys on bicycles who would also make the rounds and collect the subscription fees.

These communication methods same rather quaint now, especially since parents today would likely not allow their children to go out collecting cash from their paper route customers, nor would large corporations concerned about liability costs want them doing this work either. The radio is much less democratic too with the options of satellite radio and its monthly fees making free terrestrial radio, as its called today, something of a non-entity, except for Sports Talk and Business News. Top 40 songs? we get those off of YouTube or download them one at a time at the I-Store. Nobody drives around waiting for their favorite tune to be played by Cousin Brucie every hour on the hour. Cable Television and DVR recorders have made TV something that doesn't need to be watched in real time any longer. We might still talk about last night's game or popular show the next day around the water cooler but there is no guarantee that we watched it "live" or didn't fast forward through the commercials.

What has the plethora of choices given us? Leaving aside whether or not it is better, can say it is simply very different and much more individualistic. The ties the bind now have to be cultivated in different ways. Whereas we might have volunteered for a paper drive and gone around the neighborhood in station wagons picking up bundles from people's garages and basements, today in Ridgewood public service is a mandatory part of the school curriculum. So there are less spontaneous acts and more prescribed. This falls in line with the more structured lives children have these days and the fact they spend less time outside just playing around and figuring things out. There once was a time when asking the question, "What do you want to do?" might be met with a blank stare or an, "I don't know, what do you want to do?". Today's multitude of choices seemingly has eliminated boredom and the number of valid choices is much more appealing than our climbing trees, going down to a pond to try and catch some wildlife, or walking in the woods. These latter choices require both physical exertion, leaving the comfortable surroundings of home, as well as a curiosity which is more deeply ingrained than simply being curious about making it to the next level on a video game or endlessly texting one's friends about what happened at school today.

Can we or will we ever go back to anything which resembles the society where cohesion was the mainstay? Hard to say and harder still to want to repeat history's mistakes like the racism, prejudice, and intolerance inherent in the earlier era of which I speak. I will say I like the potential of our current age and remain optimistic about our future. Let's just say I wish kids would get outside a little more often and pause to wonder as what they ought to do. They don't realize that video games can be played forever but a crisp autumn Saturday afternoon comes much less often and they will rue not having seen more of them when they get to be my age.