Here is an interesting article about all the crap the future never gave us that we wanted, like jet packs and equality.
http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2007/05/12/jetpack/index.html
Reading this article in salon got me a'thinkin' bout my childhood and what I thought the future would bring. I secretly thought the Russians were totally going to out do us and that we were screwed (but not really screwed). This also reminded me of when various adults, usually teachers, would tell us kids about the horrible communists and how they forced children into jobs. There was no freedom. No choice to grow up to be anything you wanted. America was so great because we could grow up to be ANYTHING we wanted. Not like the poor Russian kids. They would have some group of communist government people come to their school and they would tell little Jimmy, "You will be a cosmonaut," and little Mary, "You will be a prima ballerina," and little Boris, "You will be a janitor." Some kid might ask the teacher how these horribile communist would decide who got which job. And the teacher, probably making this up as she went along, would tell us that the future jobs of the Russian children would be determined by a series of aptitude and personality tests and sometimes it would just be a matter of who you know, you know, higher up. Scandelous! Imagine! Little children having their futures decided by perfect strangers. And nepotism! Cronyism! SOOOO much different then us American kids who could be anything we wanted and just took aptitude and personality tests for fun. Anyway, this always seemed like some kind of fairytale life because I always imagined myself in Russia, being analyzed by men in very drab suits and women in babushkas, being weighed, measured, and having my worth determined and coming out ahead of all the other kids. No peer pressure. No school yard system of hierarchy. Highly intelligent and discerning adults saying, this one is something special. This one can be a prima ballerina. This one can become chairwoman of our nuclear war head rocket scientist division. It still sounds like heaven to me.
May 14, 2007
But Really, Where Is My Jet Pack?
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2 comments:
1) when I first read the title, I thought it said "where is my Pet Jack?" and I thought that was very cute.
2) I apologize for telling you when you were 5 that Ronald Reagan was going to blow up the world. He didn't. I feel bad for scaring you. Of course, your parents scared you more by making you watch Wizard of Oz 85 times a week.
3) Thank you for not making me put those stupid letters that I can't ever read in the box.
I know, those letters! If sometimes I can't read them does that mean that sometimes I am a robot? Don't worry about ronald reagan, I was more traumatized by the kids who called me Mandy Moondale after I cast a fake kids ballot for him in the 1984 election. Although I probably wouldn't have cast that ballot had you not told me reagan was going to blow up the world. So I guess that's your fault too.
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