Being an avid anti-luddite and therefore embracing new technology on every level possible, my profession, however, borders on the archaic, admittedly charming, world of an age long gone. Not that this something negative necessarily for in fact I do miss certain practices of the past. I miss having black and white television, 3 channels, no remote, physical encyclopedias on the shelves, cars with steel dashboards (that is another story and the reason I have a scar above my eye!), record players, dial phones on the wall, hymnals, coffee percolating, maps in hand, and a slide rule for calculations. I also miss being "pill-free" but that is again a separate topic!
But the world marches forward and the wind blows freely in spite of our efforts to control it. Harnessing the wind and using it positively is one thing but stopping it is another. Progress cannot be and should not be inhibited, particularly by our individual preferences for that which exists in a previous time. Not that there is anything wrong at all about preferences. After all there is no doubt that preferences shape our personal existence. A person is certainly welcome to prefer riding a horse or studying a Rubens or balancing a checkbook or taking a bath once a month (a practice from earlier centuries), but to thwart the preferences of others through active campaigns against progress is patently unfair and in fact a worthless endeavor.
I will say, however, that in a way I appreciate the Luddites of the world, people who hold on to a past practice or a perceived simpler existence. People who remain suspicious of our technologically driven world. Those are the ones who keep some of us in check and prevent us from going all in on technology. Sometimes I do appreciate someone tapping the brakes and reminding me of the very few benefits of the printed page or the inevitable "lecture" containing facts (facts that incidentally are available with a couple of clicks of a mouse). I always smile at the phrase "the good old days" when life was better without all the technology surrounding us.
Yet I read an article asking the question, do we really want to return to a time without a cell phone or unlimited television stations or computers? Do we really want to make coffee over an outdoor grill everyday? http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/05/andrew-ohagan-technology/. We may have become dependent on the cell phone but, frankly, I am glad and do not wish to return to a previous time without it. Communication is instant and fun. Banking and money management are more accurate. Writing is definitely easier as is shopping. Finding places to eat or even vacation is a snap and even knowing the best roads to avoid traffic problems is amazing.
As Gus McRae says in Lonesome Dove, "yesterday's gone and you can't get it back." While you can learn from yesterday, you cannot return to it, nor would you really want to do so. It is time to be current, contemporary, vital, and progressive. Admittedly this is at times a difficult requirement. I recall teaching a student and I told her she needed to "woodshed" a passage. But as I thought through my suggestion, it occurred to me that she might not have fully understand what I said. I looked at her and asked, "Do you know what woodshed means?" She said no. I then proceeded to explain the history of the woodshed and how it has come to mean hard work or improvement. My words, however, sounded hollow and old-fashioned, even to me. How often do we use archaic language that has little to no meaning to other people? How often do we invoke yesterday to explain today?
I believe we tend to live in the past, reflecting on past mistakes, past successes, old challenges, hurts, joys, and preferences. We carry our history on our sleeve and engage it whenever we don't fully understand the present or exactly how to deal with the current situation. For many that means fighting for the "old days", whereas for others it means refusing to accept a new way. While this is not a problem necessarily by itself, it becomes troublesome when the lack of individual progress impacts the collective need to press forward.
In a way, however, I don't believe it matters in the end for time and progress will happen regardless of what we think or prefer. Entrepreneurship in action mitigates the efforts of the naysayers and those marching forward will eventually crush the efforts of those who only live for yesterday.
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