American Fractured Fairy Tale
By Joseph B Dychala
America presents: A Fractured Fairy Tale – “The Push-a-Button
Generation” or “What Do The Boomers To Us To Gen Z All Have In Common.
Today we can push a button and have it all: streaming music, streaming
video, climate control, food heated in seconds, literally anything
imaginable delivered to our front door.
During our nation’s founding there was no button to push to heat the
dwelling or cook food. Ben Franklin passed up a fortune by giving away
his Franklin Stove design.
During the Civil War there was no button to push to administer pain
medicines to the wounded. Men were held down, limbs sawed off to
prevent infection.
During the Westward expansion there was no button to push for GPS.
Families left the relative comfort of those days for uncertain
journeys with nothing but Faith to guide them.
During the World Wars there were no buttons to push, no drones to fly.
Combat was hand to hand and very brutal. But our Every Man beat their
Super Man and delivered the world from tyranny. Peace and Prosperity
were the fruits of our Greatest Generation’s struggles, sacrifices and
blood shed.
But soon we had buttons. Buttons on the television, the car radio, the
microwave oven. Buttons to heat our homes, to wash our clothes. Soon
after we began to lose our way. Things became too easy.
We can press a button today and bring the entire globe to our
fingertips yet many people have never experienced such isolation, such
disconnect from their fellow humans, from their own humanity.
So we seek out more buttons and frantically push them hoping to feel
something or to fill some perceived void. We push a button and gamble
away a life savings rather than become entrepreneurs. We push a button
and invite all kinds of depravity into our homes rather than seek out
meaningful relationships. We push a button to escape into a virtual
world “farming” or “building” while allowing our food supply to be
genetically modified and our jobs to be outsourced.
The United States is at a cross roads in 2021. Will we continue to
demand instant gratification (that inevitably led to so called cancel
culture and will lead to much, much worse if left unchecked) or will
we with temperance, master technology and regain our own humanity in
the process.
This is our moment in history. Will you define the moment or let the
moment define you. You still have a choice, for now. Choose wisely.
Joseph B Dychala is a resident of Aston, Pa.
