This week I’ve been watching a lot of old movies on my very new, very high-tech computer. I suspect I’m seeing more pristine images with more clarity than directors Preston Sturges or William Wyler ever imagined possible. I’m admiring and enjoying the movies, despite periodically cringing at the racist images and appalling stereotypes and even animal abuse (lovely Audrey Hepburn terrorizing a poor cat in Breakfast at Tiffany’s). After all, such things were believed to be acceptable in the twentieth century. Since a new decade is around the corner, it seems fitting to contemplate that which is considered acceptable today that may someday cause us to cringe or laugh in horror. What common practices will seem primitive? What will cause future generations to shake their heads in shame? Although I am not a professional psychic or a historian or particularly smart, I do live in the age when every thought can be publically published, ergo, here are mine (feel free to contribute your own in “comments”):
1. One day it will be unthinkable to use animals as props or a commodity, and all forms of bigotry will have disappeared.
2. As a byproduct of our expanded awareness, telepathy will be the norm, and we will laugh at all the gadgets we once used to communicate. “Cell phones!” the kids will cackle. “Mom, did you guys really carry around all that junk?” And then they’ll make a date with a friend by thinking and “clicking” in their heads. To decide on the meeting place, they’ll search the cybersphere via contemplation and “confirm” with an eye-blink.
3. Since we will be a species of expanded consciousness that uses 99.9 percent of its brain, lots of things will become obsolete:
o The words “mystical” and “supernatural” and “paranormal” — because the events and perceptions referred to will be commonplace.
o Littering and pollution — because it’ll be like throwing up in your own mouth.
o Our present “modern” medicine — because doctors will be those who perceive the light body, a template for all things physical. Amputated limbs and parts will be regenerated, and disease will be prevented by genetic means.
o Dishonesty — because it will be impossible to be dishonest without everyone knowing. With our expanded perspective, we’ll know others as we know ourselves, and attempts at manipulation or deceit will look like babies playing peek-a-boo and imagining that they’re invisible when they cover their own eyes.
o Secrets — see above.
o Privacy — ditto.
o The notion that metaphor and reality are mutually exclusive — because we’ll understand and perceive that there is a much larger reality, and in it, everything is a metaphor and everything is real.
I envision a future when a time traveler from today will think he’s landed on Planet of the Apes. It will be a time when the much-demeaned indigenous wisdom that we “dream the world” (or vice versa) is a known fact. Cruelty and unkindness will be seen as primitive, and people who are stuck in such behaviors will be cared for as we care for those with disabilities that preclude them from functioning or taking care of themselves.
Sometimes I feel nostalgic for this future. But we all know it's necessary to stay present. Happy New Year.