Old News: It's what's new again

Middle row, 3rd from left, in fabulous rust, teal and white polyester.




I was born in March, 1968. As a young child in the 70's, until 1974 when full-time school began, I would sit at the kitchen table to eat lunch. The radio that was attached to the underside of the cabinet where the dishes were kept would be on for most of the day, playing either oldies, or pop, or later, when the house was full of teenagers, rock. As I ate my peanut butter & jelly sandwich on white bread with plain Utz potato chips and drank white whole milk, I would hear certain words and phrases again and again and again, until they burned themselves into my memories forever.

Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam. Watergate Watergate Watergate. Middle East Middle East Middle East. Nixon Patty Hearst Nixon Patty Hearst Nixon Patty Hearst. OPEC OPEC OPEC.

As a child of 4, 5 or 6 years old, of course none of this news meant anything to me, but I knew it was news. I attached a sense of importance to it, likely due to the sheer repetition, and probably also because of some of the comments my mom or dad might make- snorts, retorts, chortles, exasperated sighs and sarcastic shouts of agreement, and also maybe because everything on AM radio sounds like important news. I felt an innate sense of trust in the voices I heard; it never would have occurred to me that what I was hearing might be slanted, skewed, distorted to the left or right, incorrect or even a bold-faced lie. It definitely never occurred to me that what I was hearing might have been intended to draw my attention away from something else that was more important.

I think of the kids today and what they hear in the news while they eat their lunches and their ears are hungry for whatever they might pick up.

Iraq Iraq Iraq. US Attorneys US Attorneys US Attorneys. Middle East Middle East Middle East. Bush Paris Hilton Bush Paris Hilton Bush Paris Hilton. Gas prices Gas prices Gas prices.

Can it really be 30 or so years later? How is it possible that the news, even slanted or biased or HDTV or Podcast, can possibly be so identical to what it was back then? And in the 2040's, when I'm in my 70's (if I should tempt fate for that long), could it possibly be much different? Will the trend continue? Richer rich, poorer poor, better houses, more homeless, more fat people, more starving people, more drugs, more diseases, more freedom fighters, more insurgents, more civil wars, more international wars, more control, less stability...

Will the cancer of Globalization finally kill the body? Or is more like a parasite that incapacitates the host just enough to feed hungrily while keeping it alive, chugging on until a new solution to escalate its appetite is found? My guess is yes, all of the above. And 2040 doesn't seem that far away at all.