have you ever noticed television — a welcome addition to our toolbox — seems to have created a sort of fascination with culture since about the 1950s — meaning video-recorded culture?

everything before video-recordings didn’t really happen – we sort of think — or things that did are just ‘old:’ obsolete; irrelevant.

all that matters is what was captured in motion picture.

well, i am here today to say that 6000 years worth of traditions has the tried & true, time-tested ‘way’ for our lives to be lived, much more than the “new & improved”, “latest & greatest” novelties in our little sliver of history.

tradition just makes sense, when it comes to a new communications medium ((the computer/internet)): weigh the meaningfulness of the cream of the cream from the last 6000 years of written work, with a recent decade’s cultural works — say the 1980’s — there’s little comparison: the cream of the cream coming out of the last 6000 years of cultural works hangs huge in its meaningfulness, juxtaposed with 50 years or so of admittedly fun, american elation & celebration — as fun as it is . . .

now don’t get me wrong – i was just dancing to a ’60s pop hit this morning — & i hope  you’re doing all that too, because it’s fun.

but it’s simply a numbers game. 6000 years of cultural works will have more superstars, more actual bearers of cultural mantles, than 50 or 60 years.

we need to learn from the whole of the past, what traditions we should guide the seeds of this current culture toward — the Information Age’s culture — & use these ideals like navigational stars — especially with the seminal role it is shaping up to play;

we need to build our culture on the tried & true foundations of all-time; timeless, time-tested, proven ideas.

go out there & find some classics. read The Bible, read Plato, sit at the feet of Ralph Waldo Emerson for a spell.

& still get those Hippy Hippy Shakes tho =)

*insert hippy hippy shakes*

– joe

July 2015: The continuation of this is Follow-Up To “Re: Computers”: Cultural Subsidization Helps Our Civilization Grow, Culturally – Let’s.