I’m no longer sure that evolution works.
My argument is slightly tenuous, but after returning from Spain I had to fix my car, I went to a restaurant to order lamb shank for £12 and it came microwaved, and the school I work in moved into a £5 million building that has a tin roof – which leaks – and has a shelf life of 28 years. Oh, and is a garish green. Considering I saw churches and cathedrals still standing after hundreds of years, resplendent and awesome despite the wear of centuries, I therefore find our short-term perspective – enhanced by our information age and need for immediate gratification in both work and pleasure – somewhat disappointing. The men who started building these cathedrals died before their work was completed: I won’t even be 60 by the time they tear down my school building.
Add to this the fact that I can pay £12 for a lamb shank and it comes literally five minutes later, you have to question just how much this immediacy has been a good thing for our culture. No-one likes to know that their shank is microwaved; I’d have preferred to wait, safe in the illusion that my food was freshly cooked. (I know Wetherspoon’s microwave their food, but then that’s why I pay under £5 for it.) Sure, washing machines and emails and internet has improved out knowledge and increased our capacity for work, but that in turn has increased the demand for output and, by extension, our stress and has also, to a certain extent, taken the joy out of the simple things. I’m not arguing that we should return to the Middle Ages, but I am saying that the Information Age has taken a certain amount of joy from the simple things. Look at the men who started said cathedrals: they were prepared to die for an idea, an architectural blueprint, content in the knowledge that the building would be finished long after they were dead. Then look at our architects, who build shoddy buildings on the cheap despite the fact they have greater resources and better equipment.
And what about cars? They’re meant to make life easier and stress-free, as well as opening the world up to you, but in reality they consume money with a ferocious fervour, become awkward to deal with when they break down (how do you get your car to the garage if you only have roadside cover and your car won’t start at home?), and destroy the environment in quite a backward fashion, which no-one seems to care about. I lived on trains in Spain and loved it, plus I recently sold our second car to save money, and my life has genuinely been simpler and more enjoyable as a result. Until my first car broke down. Then it became difficult again. Human advancement only seems to bring stress.
I know people have always cut corners in cultures throughout time and transport is so much quicker and easier in our world, and I haven’t even mentioned medicine yet, but you do wonder what will last from our age. The buildings? Well, we’ve already ascertained that that’s a no. The cars? Global warming and lack of coal will answer that one quite emphatically and quite soon. The food? One could argue that there’s little new to our food culture as it is based on centuries of tradition and success.
The internet? Well, it’d be hard to kill it now. That will probably evolve over hundreds of years. Our gift to the next generation is the internet. Just think, all that porn, those scamming websites, and that incorrect information that our children and grandchildren will read over the years to come. I’m exaggerating and playing devil’s advocate, but it’s worth a little think.
Ironically, I’ve thrown this blog together in about half an hour. I practise what I claim to hate, demanding things instantly myself and failing to appreciate the value in waiting. What is that value? I have no idea.
And that is why evolution hasn’t worked. Or at least why it hasn’t quite gone according to plan. Survival of the fittest? Sure. Then why are we building shit?
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