Thinking Age

I asked myself a question the other day. "Why do people think too little about important matters and too much about the trivial"? The answer is evident to me and I'll tell you in a minute if you don't already know. One can tell this is a non thinking generation by looking at what it treasures. That is, we like the insignificant, the vicarious, the trivial. And those obsession distract us from what is important, things like relating honestly to others, doing our best at work, paying attention to the family etc.
I am not going to start another cell phone tirade today, but I do think the mass hysteria and obsession with cell phone is a microcosm of this slip into thinking about the wrong things too much. We are so connected that being connected to those electronic devices, of which the cell phone is the most intrusive, seduces us into giggling into a phone instead of communicating substantively.
Back to my original question. The answer is that we have too many material objects, particularly electronic ones, to distract us from what we used to do in other generations- to simple thing quietly about matters of importance. There are too many people, too many devices, too many events, too much TV, too much news, too many routine activities to allow us time to just sit quietly and think. We don't think enough anymore an bout all the stimuli that are presented to us. maybe that's why we elect George Bush or we watch mindless TV shows or become infatuated with brainless celebrities like Paris Hilton.
Instead of the society reflecting on what is important, it is distracted by what is not. There isn't time to think and imagine because there is too much of the stupidity to do that takes us away from thinking. One hundred years ago people sat at home, talked to each other about the world in which they lived, and had some conception of what was important to them. Now we just react to the overload of the inconsequential, and we react by escaping into triviality (In hope you are not using a cell phone or ipod while you are reading this!) I do not know how or if we can convince people to start thinking again. They seem happy in their world of reality TV and cell phones.
Surely a government can not legislate "thinking time", though I would vote to approve that. Hehe I wonder what Paris Hilton would think about if she was force to sit alone in her room for an hour each day and reflect. Sigh...like most people. Paris would probably just think about all the silly distractions she was supposed to be forgetting while using her thinking hour. We are of the first generation of the those who think too little about important matters and too little about trivial ones.
Nothing will change in our lifetime, and I wonder what the future will be like. As for me, I refuse to own a cell phone, refuse to worship modern culture and a part from this computer, participate little in the electronic age in which we live. I do have a great deal of time to think, having quit work because I can afford it and because it is not so important to me. My mission is to make sure Jane is grounded in a world of her own choice, not the one being foisted on her. I cant' change what others do but if Jane can think more about real matters she will understand more about what really matters, and she will rise above the unimportant.
Oh well, I guess you are just going to tell me to forget the whole thing, that I "think too much".