A few days ago was Mick Jagger's 70th birthday and yes, he still has the moves. By reflection I see the salt and pepper signs on my temples and beard and I find inspiration in his success as a musician, a man, and survivor against death.
I’m roughly a month away from the "big six ohh" and it takes a truly dull mind not to pay heed and reflect on what has been and is yet to come. I think often of late about the world I was born into, the world I live in, and the world yet coming into existence. However it is not the world as a whole that is most important to my reflections, but my place in it. Am I the person I set out to be six decades ago?
Yes I still dance. I even sing and play in bands. Music helps keep the mind fresh in many ways the body nevertheless feels the ravages of time, regardless of the fact that I am in good health. Arthritis now slows my playing, causing pain in my fingers, wrists and back; pain that I live with, which I never felt when younger. More reason to feel the music and dance.
I was born into an age of exploration and discovery, an era like few before and never, at the breakneck pace into which I grew. Some of my earliest memories are of the returning war fleets of aircraft and ships. Little did I know it was to their destruction as scrap metal. I was astounded by the magnitude and glory of squadron after squadron of returning bombers, naval vessels and even dirigibles as they passed in the sky over the Hudson. Little did I understand at the time that they were only a small fraction of the gargantuan fleets of the Second World War and Korean conflict, and soon they would become the future detritus of the great Commercial Age of Post Industrialism.
I was born into a worldwide population 1/3rd of today’s; a child of the Greatest Generation. I knew progress to be its own reward. The Atomic Bomb put the “boom” in the Boomer Generation and my sky was no limit. However, I also saw an age of industrialism disappear and an age of commercialism make subsequent generations serve. Service has its rewards. Six decades later I still wonder if the Service Economy runs too high a risk of servitude in the menial sense, more like serfdom in a gilded plastic cage.
To you millennials we hand over the tools of discovery too. Genes, computers, deep space exploration, undersea development, subatomic physics, planetary engineering, and most problematically and potentially powerful: memetic engineering, although very few if any, fully comprehend even the meaning of that concept yet. Memetic engineering is where economics as real science meets evolution as collective intent, making practical tools of politics, religion and consumer culture. If you thought radioactive material was difficult to handle wait till the practicalities of memes is put to the test.
Memgeneers should begin social experiments by following the medical adage of: “First do no harm”.
Second, they should remember that the “Road to Hell is paved with good intention”. In other words, Murphy’s Law is a direct corollary to the Law of Unintended Consequence.
And third, never forget that ends do not justify means. The problem here is that memes are all about means, and meanings. Are we having fun yet?
Let’s dance.
It is nice to be in relatively good health and have the perspective of age. It lends meaning to life to never stop learning and be able to adapt the knowledge and experience to one’s goals. If Mick Jagger is inspiration; what is Keith Richards?
Even he tends to call his a “cautionary tale” but the beating he took, though often self-inflicted, was as shield bearer to Mick and together they are a rock hard team, still alive and kicking.
I have to say the Stones are inspiring not just because they are alive but because they do it so well.
My my, my generation.
Who?
Edited by Lazarus Long, 30 July 2013 - 05:35 PM.
