With the gulf spill, the economy, the politics, the volcanoes, the earthquakes, the pollution, the weather, and 2012, the fear of newness takes on whole new cavities of decay what with movies (general audience, bring your kids to see the end of the world on the big screen), tv shows, Life After People, History Channel, Aftermath, National Geographic Channel, movies like Armageddon and Deep Impact. And with the host of copycats, we seem bent on seeing our destruction on celluloid.
To me, the fear of newness relates to Marshall McLuhan who coined the phrase, the medium is the message. The lightbulb that allows you to read is the message. Those thoughts of that time brought a new fear, that of the future. Would it be like 1984 with the thought police? Mandatory vaccinations? Rfid chips in everybody? The brave new world order?
Fear of newness used to represent a feeling of wanting everything modern yet living in Bonanza days riding horses and seeing beautiful vistas and sunsets. Drinking pure water and breakfast cereal you made yourself. No chemicals, no preservatives, no electricity and no stress from fear of a big bomb. The only fear of newness then was that beast of a belching vehicle called the automobile. And the fears were realized as horse power became mechanized. And horses became sidelined. And now, elephants, huge beasts that used to do the heavy lifting, now relegated to amusing entertainment as they dance for your purchased pack of bananas.
The fear of newness used to represent a hesitation to go forward on something new and good for fear of losing something old and good. At this writing, today’s fear of newness is the journey to total devastation.
Yet there is a window that points to a new source of energy, one that could save us all, before whatever happens in 2012.
I still can’t believe that the movie, 2012, was classified for General Audiences.
Right, get em thinking oblivion before they’re even five.
But if 2012 is really oblivion then we still have some time to think of how to get around it. And if you follow the 25-26 thousand year cycle, if we succeed, we will be the first.
