"Keith remembered a time, before television and other electronic devices had taken a firm hold, when meetings of one sort or another were deeply ingrained into rural life. His parents were always going to a club meeting, a church meeting, a civic meeting, or something of the sort. And there were sewing bees and quilting groups for the women, and political meetings and the grange meetings for the men... there had been a time when rural people had depended upon themselves for entertainment. But more important, many of the great social movements in the nation, such as abolition and populism, had begun in small country churches."
--from Nelson Demille's Spencerville
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2 comments:
This is very true. I've even been to a few grange meetings, which I know is rare for someone of my generation, but I spent a lot of time with my grandparents!
I really believe that there is a least one generation already that does not know how to relate to other people...in person. Andrew and I comment on it all the time when a waiter or cashier can barely communicate with you. The interpersonal relational conversational skills are almost completely gone because technology has taken over.
When I read a novel by Charles Dickens and compare the conversational style to today's exchanges, I wonder if it's just a style of literature or if conversation has truly decayed to that extent. I don't know the answer. I don't think we are dumber, but our skills have surely faded. Our manners certainly have eroded.
Television has replaced the neighbor and even the friend. It certainly steers us in the direction that the powers intend us to go.
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