Future, Tense

What’s on my mind? Progress.

“And then I go ’n’ spoil it all by sayin’ somethin’ stupid like I love you …” Catchy song! Frank Sinatra. Release date, 1967. Fifty-two years ago. 

Somethin’ Stupid has been re-recorded many times, by many artists. As far as I know, the original Sinatra version is the only one the radio station in our village plays.

I’m stretching the truth. Our “village” designated itself a town 41 years after its village incorporation. Even some town councillors still call it a “village.” One of the highway signposts to this place says the same thing. It’s been estimated that 50 years from now, our population could hit 12,000. Now that’s progress! 

Yesterday is tucked away in our museum. So will today be, tomorrow.

Despite the new townhouses and the large new retirement home under construction, I’ll always consider this place a village. The streets have no parking meters. There’s just one traffic light uptown. There’s another, I think, three blocks away, at the far end of town. I’ve never seen a reason for that second light. Maybe it was installed to assuage the fears of jittery tourists unaccustomed to quiet streets.

I don’t like that big machines with big teeth have started chewing up the forest and displacing the wildlife that makes this place special, but I don’t like many “progressive” things - something that qualifies me as a full-fledged fuddy-duddy. The very use of the word cements the label. Guilty as charged.

Progress! Where does anyone start? Hooped skirts? Home computers? Microwave ovens in home kitchens? Or, depending on your age, GMO foods? AI? AGW? 

At what point did “progress” become a dirty word? Combine harvesting? Robotic assembly lines? Self-serve checkouts? Why are “progressive” Democrats demonized? Isn’t the thrust and parry of different views what democracy’s all about? Isn’t polite but otherwise unfettered discussion a healthy thing?

Progress is generally good - but here’s the point. It’s my impression that societies have become less “civil” over time. In fact, they’re deeply fractured. The equality of “creeds” now includes spreading openly dangerous beliefs by mass emails, texts, bots, trolls, tweets, fake news, social media, and “dog whistles” that say one thing and mean another.

I love our little village. Almost everyone is friendly. Almost everyone looks out for everyone else. The town is shuttered by 8 o’clock, when the very old and the very young snuggle into their beds. 

Is the future always better than the past? I don’t think so. It’s not a good thing when a troubled present considers the past disposable. 

When that happens, Holocaust deniers proliferate; kids die and anti-vaxxers prevail; civil societies stand on the brink of civil war; the intensity of dog whistles increases; and unstable Presidents swagger onto the world stage. Dangerous times. 

© Nicole Parton, 2019