Priorities Priorities Priorities . . .
Like a broken record or a mantra, it remains the Lack Of Focus for moi.
BLOG PEE | December 18th, 2009
So, let’s take a look and see how Alexa ranks my blog lately. . .
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Not bad considering I haven’t yet done a few very important things with my blog yet – gotta build the wagon before letting the horse run, ya know?
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Does tek [technology] inadvertently make us stupid or more specifically, does certain technology come about with the intention of making us dumber?
Does Too Much Tech Insulate People From Responsibility?
This pondering come to me today as I was driving around town in crazy Florida December holiday weather. It’s rainy, it’s sunny, it’s windy, it’s frickin’75 degrees – why – am – I – not – at – the – beach – day kind of weather.
I multitask when I drive – like anybody else. Heck, you have to be able to multi task to drive, period. Forget about listening to radio, talking on cell fones [don't do it!], eating, or any other number of distractions people do while driving. But to just drive a car requires a sort of orchestrated coordination of senses and body parts to make car go down road in a hopefully safe manner. Just try not to hit anything else and you’ll be fine.
One thing I notice a lot with other cars on the road is how often the left rear tire is low. Low to the point that it looks partially flat. I compare it to the right rear tire just to be sure it isn’t just the way it looks. This leads me into my question about whether too much tech makes us stupid.
While following a late model [90s] Isuzu SUV, I noticed that its left rear (and front too) tire was low to the point that s/he was driving on the sidewalls a bit too. I think, do they notice that their car doesn’t handle as well as it should? They obviously aren’t the type to maintain their car themselves – like checking tire pressure and oil levels, etc. The basic stuff that you can still do on most cars today.
I always had an interest in cars – not a motor head mind you – I have too many other interests to get too involved in one thing to the point of earning the label. But I do know my way around a car pretty well. Much more than the average joe. I do my own oil changes, I’ve even rotated my own tires once or twice, done brake jobs, replaced alternators, batteries, spark plugs/wires, radiator hoses, shocks, suspension parts, etc. Nothing major like an engine rebuild or anything though. I do have a tendency of thinking, shit, if I know to check my tires/oil, other people should too. I mean, come on, it’s easy simple … DUH!
But back to the low tire pressure on the SUV. Obviously the car isn’t new enough or fancy to have an idiot light feature you find on more expensive and newer cars that’ll tell you your tire is flat, you dumbass.
I can imagine the future of cars if they’re no longer built by driving enthusiasts – the car will drive YOU and if there is a manual override feature, you can be sure that if your oil or tire is low or you dare drive over a line, your car will take over and throw in a nice insult or two telling you why you are better off letting IT do the driving for you because you are obviously an incompetent nitwit.
Is there perhaps an Orwellian 1984, TPTB undertone to all of this? There’s so many other interesting distractions – your cell fone, your iPod, satellite radio, etc… that hey, little problems with your car are not worthy of your attention or proactive action.
You don’t need to bother yourself with learning these basic skills for you have more exciting things to waste your time on.
Here’s an idiot light for you so you don’t have to take responsibility or take the time and effort to learn how to be self reliant and knowledgeable about the workings of your 2 ton automobile.
“Yes, yes, that’s a good little distracted idiot slave…. Here’s some [bread and circuses] for you to waste your time on while we keep working in the Dark and take away more of your freedoms and work on dumbing you down more and more.”
Ok, maybe I went a little too far there, but that’s why this is BLOG PEE.
The other thing I thought of while noticing the SUV with the flat tires is, gee, there’s a potential accident waiting to happen if road rage were to kick in. I mean, this is Flor-i-duh… the state that has dozens of different driving styles (no comment on Michigan drivers, ya) and combine that with some odd inferiority complex like Oklahoma has with Texas, and you get this fucked up driving mentality of complete rudeness and insanity.
Most people don’t use their turn signals in Florida because that’s an invitation to have the other driver speed up and cut you off so you can’t execute a lane change. It’s like Cold war Russia at the supermarket. 200 people and 2 loaves of bread – a lot of panicked pushing and shoving goes on. I say send me back to California where we may drive fast, but we show courtesy and respect a lot more than I see here.
Ahhh, that was a fun rant… good blog pee… now I go make pee. . . Ahhhh…..
December 20, 2009
Finishing the thought… so the more we forget how to do things for ourselves, the more fragile our society can become – we become so technologically advanced – at least we think so – that there could be a day where the machines break down, there will be no one to know how to fix them and into a new dark age we would go.
