At
this time, I am 52 and have seen many amazing developments in my life. The PC
that I am typing this on is a Pentium, with a hard disk of 7 GB and a 17”
screen. The chances are, you will only have heard of these in History lessons.
As little as 10 years ago, such computer facilities in the home would have been
a dream to all but the select few who were working on making the architecture a
reality. 20 years ago, PCs were unknown. Now we have the Internet, an expanding
Universe of Information. We also are entering the world of mobile phones that
access the Internet, although why anyone would want to examine such oceans of information
on a screen that is 3.5 cms by 2.5 cms is a puzzle to challenge Zen Philosophers.
31
years ago, man first stepped onto the surface of the moon. That was an amazing
moment. Space travel was in its infancy. We had had Sputniks and Voyagers and
HG Wells describing a very believable War of the Worlds, yet Neil Armstrong
claimed a pioneering first that was hard to believe as we witnessed it and will
be hard to equal as a monumental event.
Incidentally,
there is a Conspiracy Theory argument that says that moon landing was faked by
the Americans to steal a march on the Russians. Through the latter half of this
century there was a great battle between these two mighty nations to show
supremacy in the contest to achieve great things in space. A TV programme examining
the photo evidence of the landing provided all kinds of arguments to suggest
that it was staged in a studio; shadows and lighting where there should have
been no light, depths of footprints in the moon’s dust, an American flag fluttering
which should have been limp due to the absence of breeze. Who knows how much of
this is true?
Conspiracy
Theory is a popular pastime nowadays. The deaths of John F Kennedy, his
assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, Robert Kennedy, his brother, John Lennon and
Princess Diana - all attracted theories of dark deeds by government agencies. I
have no view one way or the other. I don’t suppose the truth of this will ever
come out in my lifetime. I live in a world where secrets are important and many
people believe that secrets can be kept. My view is that the truth will out –
eventually, maybe sooner, maybe later, but it will always come out.
Religious,
political and commercial leaders, go to great lengths to do things for the sake
of appearances, believing that people will be fooled by those appearances.
There is a phrase today – “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and
all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of
the time.”
Unfortunately,
our leaders are not chosen for their ability to lead, nor for their knowledge
of people and how to handle them. They are chosen principally for their
educational achievement and their inclination towards sycophancy on the way up;
something that leaves them badly-prepared for the job of leading. I’m sure the
world will correct this when the time is right.
Pop
music came into being in the late 50s and then took off in the early 60s. A
musical phenomenon known as the Beatles helped to further the cause while
inspiring thousands of aspiring musicians to play instruments, primarily the guitar, and write words and music to thrill
the masses.
The
Berlin Wall was destroyed in 1988 and around that time, dictators that had
known absolute power were deposed by the will of the people. Ceausescu,
Romanescu, Hoeneker, Pinochet, Marcos and lesser leaders, all metamorphosed
from a god-like status to become frail and frightened old men. Although this
was heartening to see, new dictators continue to rise and the process
continues.
Many
political developments have taken place and intriguing new situations arise regularly.
Drugs have come into common use as people seek instant pleasure rather than
examine that which is already around them just waiting to be sampled; conversation,
humour and friendship.
I
will try and give you a little more on each of the historical matters glossed
over above. They are only mentioned in this opening as illustrations. For now,
let’s start with behavioural aspects listed in the previous paragraph.
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