Is there an opposite of an epiphany.... and then a bit of a facebook type post

Sometimes you can talk about things, read information, and just observe what is going on for years and not see what is happening. I have even have blog topics that seems to cover the details of what has been going on. Topics about education declining, people's loss of respect for each other, lack of civility in Congress for example. All this adds up to something that I haven't put together consciously. And others have talked about in the press, current literature, and I just haven't accepted or maybe mentally digested it.

It's like something that you are watching, but don't see until someone smacks you in the back of the head.

It probably started years ago, but came to a head the other night watching youtube. Yeah that strange thing called youtube. I rarely watch it except for an all night walk through 60's rock history with my youngest. Rarely, but I do check it out. I will pull up an old song stuck in my head and play it. This was somewhat the case the other night.

I was looking for something and ran across BBC report on YES from early 1971. Pretty interesting to see YES that early on. It had concert footage and interviews. Near the end Jon Anderson said how he was looking forward to what guitar work and music would be like in fourteen or fifteen years. And that is when it hit me. What happened?  Really who were the big artists in the 80's?  Heavy Metal bands, U2, Journey, an evolved version of Genesis, Country came into is own, Rap, but did music and guitar work evolve from what YES and a few others were doing?

I mentioned this before in another blog about something the good Dr Thompson wrote, but I can't remember now if it came from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas or F. and L. on the campaign trail, but he commented if you look west (from his view point at the time) and look hard you can see the high water mark for the 1960's. A point where everything came to a head and then receded. The timeframe for both books was the early seventies or about the same time as the YES program.

And as we all know the sixties to seventies people (at least in western culture) were experimenting with all sorts of things, some not so good, but others were trying new religions, new ideas, communes, just about anything and everything in an attempt to enlighten themselves. You might say they were trying to broaden culture or our culture.

I don't know what was going on in the Middle East at this time except Israel was growing, and OPEC became a major player on the world stage. Yes and I know OPEC is not all the Middle Eastern members. China and Russia were dominated by socialism so there culture was hampered by government control. Japan even though in Asia, has tended to mimic western culture among their youth.

Overall by the early 70's I fear we as the human race reached a zenith in cultural growth and have been receding ever since. I know the above is not the greatest examples to prove my point, but everywhere you look things have not moved forward. And this goes along with more important factors, education in the United States has been declining since the 1960's, and one real interesting point, the middle class started losing true buying power since the early 70's. Wealth disparity started separating at this time. There is much in the United States that has not happened since then. You would think our education system would be by far the greatest in the world, but instead we became greedy, self centered, and put culture and true growth aside for short term gains in our lives.

Now does this apply individually to everyone, or maybe even the majority, actually no, but for some reason we just hit something in the early 70's and quit trying to move forward. The concept of self became so important that we put aside growing intellectually as a society and country. Now we have a whole host of problems that could have been prevented if we had taken the next step coming out of the sixties and done something with what we learned from both our mistakes and our exploration of the world around us while not losing our traditions of our country and values. Everything including the values seem to have been put aside. And I am curious if anyway can tell me why. I mentioned the me aspect of life earlier, but I think that is a symptom of what we put aside not the root cause.

So my dilemma or my back handed epiphany is our we headed backwards culturally?  I think most everyone probably knows this at one level or another including myself, but the other night it hit me like a ton of bricks, something so obvious, but something so distant from my thinking. And it is more than music, or history, or high brow culture, it seems to be a mind set. Everywhere you look you see problems, but there are answers to them that we ignore or fail to do what we can. And to me that is also part of a strong culture.

Culture and society grow when you tackle problems and move forward. It grows when you include the whole of society, maybe not everyone gets rich or a college education, but the general trend of all moves forward. And that hasn't been happening in the United States or anywhere else on this planet for decades. Maybe in some areas of the world, some pockets exist or a country or two, but the whole world seems to be declining and as time goes on the decline is picking up in speed.

I recently did a post on respect or lack there of being a problem, that is another example of the human race in decline. And I think the loss of respect is one of the true signals how bad things have gotten.

Can we overcome this decline? Of course, but it will take recognition and effort. The human race has had its ups and downs, but with all the technology, the ability more so than ever for all of mankind to communicate with each other, you would think we would be going forward now. For some strange reason we aren't.

In my original headline about what this blog was going to be about, I put I would try to have positive solutions to any problems I discuss and I would still like to do that. I just don't have an answer right now. How does one convince people to look at themselves and ask what can I do? Yes a famous President once said something similar, but it is true, what can we do for the whole of society not just for ourselves.

Since I am writing about the decline of culture it would be nice if I could write eloquently to make my point. Find some extraordinary vocabulary to turn simple thoughts into some grandiose vision that would make an impression upon people. Unfortunately that is not the case today. My hope is that an answer can be found from wherever or whomever so we can put ourselves back on track for the 21st century and beyond.

So like I said it is obvious when you stop and think about it, an opposite of an epiphany where a vision comes to you with the answer, but this decline we don't see it even when the writing is on the wall.



And on a side note... I am (cough cough) years old and had never been on a jet ski, but that changed the other day, got to ride one along with taking one of my grandchildren on it with me. Bit nervous being the first time and having a small child holding onto me, but thoroughly enjoyed it. (and yes we can grow culturally while having a good time) . Nothing like enjoying the outdoors even with toys.


For you sports fans, here we go, the long march to October begins its zenith now that September is here for baseball fans, College and high school football have begun, and the NFL starts next week. (oh yeah could this be a hindrance to cultural growth, I hope not, I still love my teams, but especially since the NFL gets more airtime than what our Congress is doing. Maybe we should spend as much time vetting politicians as we do the NFL draft)  anyway September brings much excitement in the sports world. Honestly I like my sports, but we do need to keep it in perspective to the bigger problems facing our world,,

so next up my thoughts on Syria, Obama, the middle east etc.. speaking of major declines, there are answers, no one has the fortitude to say them

Hope you had a great Labor Day here in the United States