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Illusion of the Instant Society

We live in an instant society: smart phones, next day delivery, hundreds of channels and websites, Siri, Google, Alexis, Face Time, instant voting on American Idol, fast food, credit cards, pay check loans, Love at First Sight (tv show where you meet your spouse at your wedding), Twitter, instant replays, and on and on and on...
This is not the creation of the Millennials and Generation Z. They are the products of such a society that we have built. A society where we don't want people to think, but just react to whatever is new, whatever can catch our eye, whatever slogan we want to agree with. Many leaders, politicians, and corporations (including media) have pushed this so we don't have time to realize we were heading down the wrong path. AND, too many us of bought right into it, because it offered the promise of a better life, or a good escape from the world in which we live.
We are now confronted with a problem, a pandemic, that cannot be instantly solved or defeated. So some just want to rip off the band-aid and bleed some more, so that they can get back to their instant society, fully acknowledging this will mean more deaths, but their deaths are worth the cost of getting back to busyness. Thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, what price is too high? We have done this for a long time. Raising the speed limit on the interstate highways increases the number of traffic deaths, but it does get (most of) us there sooner. Rather than take the time to save our planet from the extremes of global climate change, we will just hope they can figure it out sometime in the future, quickly. We know that smoking cigarettes causes lung cancer, but we allow it anyway (yes, we are making headway on this one). We have been talking about our ailing and failing infrastructure in the US for a couple of decades and still have yet to act in any meaningful way.
Let's take the time to get this one right. It will be hard, but aren't we, as Americans, saying we are a hardy people and we can overcome any challenge. If we do this right, maybe, just maybe, that will inspire us to tackle some of these other challenges, stopping our instant society illusion and create something that is better for us today and for generations to come.
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Location: Aberdeen, SD 57401, USA

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