Stressed out by Modernity? ___ "Beam me up, Scotty!"

It seems that by general consensus and a few opinionated journalists, although life in the 21st century is measurably and quantifiably better than 30 years ago people are more miserable than ever.

Jason Hahn, who writes for 8 days (for what it's worth the opinion pieces in the TV and trends magazine are sometimes quite illuminating!), has this to say:

" I don't know about you, but I'm very stressed with life in the 21st century. Quite frankly, it hasn't quite lived up to all its hype. I grew up watching shows like Space 1999, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek. Everyone on those shows always looked like they were having a ball, zipping around the galaxy, occasionally letting loose a few photon blasts at pesky enemy robots and wearing gorgeous costumes. So you can forgive me for thinking that the New Millenium would have a similar dose of hi-tech glamour."

Well, Jason, you are not forgiven. Whoever measures the quality of life he enjoys against the mediafantasy-utopia of Buck Rogers needs a reality check.

But to be fair, does it strike anyone as interesting how unique the times we are living in is? Never before have we worried less about where our shit goes, and more about who gets to our personal data on the internet.

As fiance and I discovered to our horrified bemusement after installing McAffee Security Software on our smashing new PC (assembled by the loving hands of a Sim Lim Square regular), within the first hour of our modem buzzing to life and plugging us into virtual universe, the firewall detected 15 other PCs either trying to "PING" us (whatever that means) or hack into our personal info bank. The beauty of McAffee is you can even trace the specific locations of the computers - 9 from Singapore, 2 from San Francisco, 4 unidentifiable locations. It felt as though they were out to get us.

Globalization unfolds on a 17" LCD monitor.

Jenadas Devan remarks in his commentary on Sunday 28 March, the real reason why we, the youth of this country, remain unconvinced when our political leaders tell us not to forget how much better off we are compared to our parents' generation is because while "progress may be measurable and quantifiable, it cannot be directly experienced."

(For the full article, click on url )

As for the shit analogy, I'm not being entirely crass. If you lived in London a 150 years ago, you'd be concerned. Quoting Devan's commentary again:

"Just 150 years ago, Londoners were still dumping everything - faeces, rotting vegetables and dead cats, not to mention "the foul and gory liquids from slaughter-houses" and the "purulent abominations from hospitals and dissecting rooms", as one contemporary document put it - into stagnant pools that stood, as eternal as the Styx, between homes."

Hence when Londoners got their sewage system just 100 years ago, it was considered "the greatest achievement of our age."

Try telling that to a Londoner today.

Or a Singaporean, for that matter.

"Unless he was a sewage engineer, he wouldn't have given a moment's notice in his entire life to where his shit would go today after he flushes. Where it didn't go to a hundred years ago would be a matter of profound indifference to him. He can flush now; it disappears, end of story."
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I guess the question is, what then makes us happy, if not progress?

I have a sneaking feeling that the same people who described themselves as happy and content with life 150 years ago are exactly the same people who call themselves happy and content today.

May fiance and I be numbered among them. Internet or no internet.