Have We Peaked?

We've all heard people lament that things were better back in the "good old days" or characterize our parents or grandparents as being of the "greatest generation".

There's always a sense of nostalgia for what was, and no longer is.

Many of my automotively-inclined friends think the world ended in roughly 1973 when so-called "muscle cars" suddenly died off like the dinosaurs, thanks to a gas crisis and a crackdown by the insurance industry.

I disagree, as cars actually, eventually, got better built, got better gas mileage, and actually learned how to go around corners without the door handles scraping the road.

But what of other things we judge our societal achievement level by?

Technology? OK, we've got the best cell phones we've ever had; not that if you gave me a dollar, I'd take a hammer to the one I have right now. Computers? Absolutely better. Mine only crashes once or twice a week now, not once an hour as it used to. (Thanks, wifey.)

Airplanes? Tough one. I think we haven't come up with a more revolutionary aircraft than Boeing's 747, or 707, for that matter. The 747 was introduced in the late 60's; the 707 in the mid-fifties. Nothing so hot going on that front.

I can only hope our government is wasting billions of secret money on a spy plane to rival our late, belated SR-71 "Blackbird", which could fly from L.A. to New York in the time it takes your grandma to get through airport security these days.

Our space program hasn't advanced since the Shuttle first launched in 1981. The Shuttle goes out of service in mere months, and then we don't have our own manned spacecraft until 2014 or even later. When we do, it will resemble the capsules that we first launched in 1962.

We're supposed to go to the moon, but we did that already. So we're going backward. I guess we'll have to wait for the Chinese to wave at us as they go by the international space station, on their way to Mars, before we do anything advanced again.

Society shouldn't be judged just on its tech advances. How's the quality of life? Is there peace? Food to eat? Clean water to drink?

Go ask Al Gore those questions and get back to me.

Art? Fashion? Music?

We all know what art is, when we see it. Based on that, I haven't seen much new art at all, much less art that pushed both the creative envelope and my imagination, since the 60's.

Fashion? Have you seen anything truly new since around 1969?

Music? Leaving aside a discussion of popular music, as longtime blog readers already know my feelings on that issue, let's look at the serious stuff for a minute. Heard anything powerful, lyrical, transcendent classical music that was written after WWII? I'm hard pressed to pick more than a handful. That war, having destroyed much of Europe, and with it most of its musicians, left us with a creative gulf that has yet to be filled.

Architecture? What's new there? Anything to rival the greatest of previous generations? Maybe you think Frank Gehry's stuff is cutting edge, but it sure looks like the work of someone who's toys were smashed by his brother, and who is still dealing with latent anger issues.

So, you be the judge. Are we headed forward; stuck in neutral, or sliding down the slippery slope to a new dark ages?

With six billion people to feed on this little ball in the middle of the universe, does it matter?