I used to be a fairly nice guy.
Image: deadspin.com
You know the type. Well-spoken, kind to children and animals, seldom shot anyone. Like that.
But, here’s the deal.
Today is the first full day of my “vacation” in Las Vegas. Leaving step-son, grandson, and attack-cat, Lamont Cranston behind to mind the homestead, I’ve driven the 570 or so miles from homestead to condo, only to find myself on the famous Las Vegas Strip… and in the midst of what feels like millions of people who have lost their compasses.
Perhaps it is because I’ve been here many times in the past. Maybe it has to do with my advancing age and growing lack of tolerance (yeah, yeah, I know)… but I am becoming crowd-shy. No, don’t get me wrong. I’m not afraid of the masses, or embarrassed to be seen by them (although I probably should be). No, it’s just that I find that once you put a gaggle of people together in a place which is already a sensorium overload, that brains, in general, cease to function properly.
Where else will you find a chain of people five or six wide walking slowly down an aisle way designed for four? And this barely touches on the texting drivers, people walking off off sidewalks and into on-coming traffic, aggressive street-hawkers, and time-share shock-troops.
I’ve been waiting for the future all of my life. And, while I’m not seeing any flying cars here, there are plenty of monorails and skyways. And people. Lots and lots of people. Harry Harrison (Make Room! Make Room!) made planetary over-crowding a visceral reality, but I never really thought it consist of fairly well-to-do people who have unplugged their ability to think and move.
And the point of this?
I still love people, just not so many all at once. Observe, I will. Interact, as I must. But really… all at once?
I guess I’m not such a nice guy, after all.
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There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio... and isn't it time you experienced some of them?
Hate to have to tell you how much like me you are in just about everything you noted. The last year or so of reading the daily rundown on what’s happening all over the world has me convinced that the human race has finally lost it — and isn’t going to get it back. Too many people? Too much noise coming in from everywhere? I was going to write “Too much information,” but most of it isn’t really information because it hits too fast and too heavy to assimilate.
These days we often mistake data for information. Good call.
I love this post. No, you are not alone. This is an apt description of what the world looks like sometimes: crowded, disoriented and difficult for a thinking person to negotiate. People say “whatever”, and lying is no longer occasional. You say the sidewalks of Las Vegas are crowded with lost souls? No, I see them weekly holding their cellphones to their ear as they accelerate onto the highway at speeds in excess of 65 mph, or strolling with their baby and dog while chatting on the phone. The future is here, just not the improved model you anticipated.