A brief update of what I’ve been up to: Been busy working (all the stars have come out – I see and talk to people ALL THE TIME!), been busy with church (I really like my Power Pack kids), been busy writing (it turns out, I’m really funny) and been busy watching sci-fi tv shows (Star Trek Voyager, Stargate SG-1, Battlestar Galactica). Basically, I’ve been busy. Have you guys been busy, too?
My Day Of Thinking
I did something this morning that I have never done: I wrote down the dream I’d just woken up from. My dream was awesome. A bit scary, but that’s the way I like them. Seriously, I woke up almost believing I’d just watched an episode of Supernatural on tv. It was that real, and that awesome. And it’ll make a great drama spec script. (A spec script, just fyi, is a script that you write “on spec.” Meaning, you’re not gonna get paid for it, but it’s a demonstration to others that you can write -and finish- a script, imitate the tone and voice of an already-established show, and you can -most importantly- tell a good story.)
And then something else out of the ordinary happened today. Read about it after the jump.
I was reading the news (okay, entertainment news) and something I read actually made me think. In fact, I’ve been thinking all day.
I read a short interview with director/producer Barry Sonnenfeld (Men In Black, Pushing Daisies, Enchanted) in which he talked about how much the Internet scares him. I thought he was going to talk about new media, online streaming, etc (basically what the recent WGA strike was about), but no, he’s scared of the Internet in general.
He said (quoting from IMDb.com), “The net is so pervasive that kids are on it all day.” He fears that children today will grow up with “no concept of the right to privacy and in fact do not understand the need for it. Because the Facebook [and MySpace] generation is not concerned with what people know about them… they will have no problem with additional governmental supervision, spying and intervention. They will be thrilled that the internet will be able to follow their every move.” He ended the brief interview by saying “I suspect we are probably looking at the last generation of Americans that exist in a democracy.”
This really hit home for me. Here I was, hadn’t even had my breakfast yet, and I’d already checked my email, changed my Facebook status, read recaps of a show I’d watched last night, and engaged in a few online discussions with people (or androids, for that matter) I don’t know.
Am I a child of this new generation, or am I old enough to remember my life before the internet? I’m a little afraid that I’m part of this new generation, but now aware of this fact, I think I can slow my descent into this cyber-future we seem to be heading to.
But I think Sonnenfeld is right when he said that our obsession with the Internet will lead to greater (if not total) government supervision, invasion of privacy, and (ultimately) control. It was not so long ago that my great-grandfathers were fighting in World War I & II, fighting for the basic rights of freedom. Freedom for every human being to be an individual, to be independent.
With the Internet, however, we just seem to hand over those civil liberties. We join chatrooms, online discussion boards, assign ourselves to groups dedicated to our favorite sports teams, television shows, movies, and celebrities. We willingly give out information about ourselves that we would never tell our mothers, let alone a stranger on a first date.
And then today at work, we were having discussions in the break room about culture and the progression of American society. Hilary Clinton was on tv, going on about the elections and even daring to admit that Barak Obama can win the White House, and that got us all talking about the elections and whether or not America is ready for a female or black president.
Luckily, Robin Williams, in the form of my colleague Fed Eguez, knew the right answer.
He (Fed, quoting Robin Williams) said that if women ran the world there’d be no more wars, only intense negotiations every 28 days.
Ultimately, I wonder if we even really have a choice or the ability to change our society. People always look out their own window, and thus can only see the view of their own yard.
I’m thinking we should get outside a little more, and see if we can’t change our world.
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