Duck! It’s a Flying Car!

I was born in 1967, at the height of the hippie counter culture during the summer of love. The war in Vietnam was escalating, but was not quite an evening presence in our living rooms. As a nation we were focused on getting to the moon and beating back the Soviets. A computer filled a room, but had less computing power than today’s digital watches. A color TV was an expensive marvel and “Made in Japan” was synonymous with “cheap”.

As a child in the early 1970’s, Evil Knevil was idolized, I saw television shows such as Star Trek and repeats of “Lost in Space”. I remember seeing the Bell Telephone book with pictures of people talking in the future on videophones and could not wait to go to Disney World to fill my head with more images of “Tomorrow land”. The year 2000 was so far away, but yet full of promises that we would be driving flying cars, watching TV on walls, and living on the moon. Doors would open and close with sounds as we approached them, lights would activate automatically, and we would talk to computers; living like George Jetston.

Some parts of that vision have come true as I do have flat panel televisions that hang like pictures, carry a communicator (cell-phone) in my pocket, not unlike “James T. Kirk”, and motion detectors open store doors and turn lights on and off. But the other technologic visions have escaped us. I traded my SUV two years ago, a vehicle which weighed as much as my Dad’s 1969 Ford Galaxy, and averaged the same gas mileage. In 35years we have accomplished little more in our ability to achieve a presence on the moon than where we were in 1973; having had no man step foot on our orbiting satellite since the last, Gene Cernan, left his mark.

On one hand, we have done so many things well: advances in medicine such as artificial hearts, efficiencies in agricultural, computers for the masses, and less costly access to education and travel. At the same time, our near God-like abilities have blinded us to changes taking place around us and created a near mass delusional acceptance of our abilities. The average American is more concerned with Britney Spears than the presidential election, last nights sports scores more than yesterday’s stock market, and planning a summer vacation than events in hostile world regions.

Natural disasters have struck several times in this country in the last decade demonstrating the average citizen cannot care for himself. Hurricane Katrina and its images of personal lollygagging without the wherewithal to save one’s self is an excellent example. I would asset the average person believes food comes from a can and has no understanding of how to care for himself. Other disasters such as flood, mass power failures, and California earthquakes have further driven home this problem that we are no longer the conquerors of technology and environment but have been conquered by our own success.

I want my flying car. I want the promises that were made to me as a kid by the generation that I am now paying social security to out of my paycheck. I want those advances to move forward and allow us to live on the moon and leave this planet. Instead, checks are being written that will further indebt out nation to others and ultimately force is back to a pre-industrialized agrarian society. Via increased energy costs, government bailouts, and trade deficits we are transferring our wealth to other nations and ultimately onto the backs of our children. In my opinion, it is more likely that we will be riding horses than driving flying cars in the future.