Throughout history Western civilization has looked back upon itself and named certain eras. There was the Hellenistic Period, (which has nothing to do with Helen of Troy but a lot to do with Alexander the Great who was a Macedonian), followed of course by the Roman Empire. We went downhill for a while after that with the Dark Ages and the Middle Ages, but started to perk up with the Renaissance.
Almost every major European power had a "Golden Age" somewhere between the 1500s and the 1700s, although never simultaneously. There was the Age of Reason, which by our standards probably wasn't very reasonable, but relatively speaking it was the best the West had achieved to that point. After that things got a little confusing as we started going in quite a few directions at once so it was hard to give a title that would encompass everybody at once.
There was the age of Nationalism, which began with Napoleon and pretty much has been ongoing since, but really peaked at the end of the 19th century, when Germany united for the first time and Italy threw off the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After World War one of course we had a lot of the small countries of Eastern Europe and the Balkans being carved out of various former Empires: Latvia, Estonia, Poland, what was then Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia.
Of course the 19th century also marked the beginning of the end of us being a mainly rural, agrarian-based society with the onset of the Industrial Revolution and the need for a large labour force to work in the factories. Although never recognized with the honorific of an age, nothing has had more influence on making us in the West what we are today, for better and worse, than the Industrial Revolution.
It allowed for the rise of a merchant class, Capitalism, Socialism, Communism, the stock market, free markets, and any of the other isms we all love to label things with. But there has been a dearth of Ages in that time. The only one that caught on at all was the so-called Age of Aquarius that was being preached about in the 1960s by folk who had serious hallucinogen habits.
But I think that we here in North America have finally done what no others have been able to accomplish in almost a century; establish a way of life that is so ubiquitous as to deserve the title of Age. Ladies and Gentleman I would like to welcome you to the Age of Avoidance.
No age before us has proven so adept at turning a blind eye to the realities of life as we have. No matter how glaringly obvious an issue is we have perfected the ability to not see what is right in front of our faces. From our governments on down to individuals we have devised more and more ingenious methods of not dealing with our own shit.
Can you think of anything else that would explain the proliferation of New Age religions? What better thing to offer people if their lives are going down a sewer than a guarantee of peace and harmony? Come to the light and avoid the reality of what is causing you to have nervous breakdowns and to chew anti depressants like Smarties.
Article comments
1 - Christopher Rose
Nice work, Richard.
2 - Angeni Wyanet
Richard " while I agree with your assessment of reality shows, (I never wasted my time) I don’t agree with much else of what you’ve said. For starters, I think your reality is viewed through a very jaundiced and somewhat prejudicial eye.
Beginning with “the most recent”; turning to New Age religion for help. How is this any different than people praying for their lives to change and sitting back and waiting for it to happen for the last 2000 years? How is this any different than people going and speaking with their priest, their minister or a rabbi?
We have long looked to some divine intervention to change things we ourselves thought we couldn’t. Or a lot of times, were afraid to attempt or just too lazy to. It was so much easier to pray to something than actually take assertive action to change things for ourselves.
‘Too much debt? I’ll just pray that something will eventually come along to clear up that debt.’ It never occurs to us to go out and aggressively seek employment or find ways of doing that. Cut up those credit cards and use some self discipline to change our lives. Nah, just pray to god that it’ll go away.
My brother in law, (once removed), is a Methodist minister. He tells his parish that ‘the lord helps those that help themselves’. In other words, do it yourself. How many people do?
Also, how is buying a personal guardian angel any different than buying a St. Christopher metal to wear or carrying a fetish of some sort to protect you? Or any other amulets or talismans to guard us from bad things? These aren’t recent habits; these are ancient practices so are they valid simply because they're time tested?
You also unfairly characterize the person being hurt by high gas prices as a polluting, gas guzzling driver when in fact, there's a much better chance it’s a young mother who has to drive her children to daycare so she can get to her job. You know the one. The mother who’s family will suffer if she doesn’t work for that second income because taxes are so high?
She needs to pay her taxes so the government is able to pay out all that money keeping the people who are free loading off the system.
This mother can’t afford a new hybrid electric vehicle, and is stuck with driving her old Saturn and hopes, dare I say prays it won’t break down before they can afford a new one. Which is getting further and further into her future because gas prices continue to rise and suck up all her wage.
As for Ages. There were worse ‘ages’ in history than the one you’ve dubbed the Age of Avoidance.
How about two great European ages -
The Age of Empires " conquering and killing everything in your path.
The Age of Discovery " see above
Personally, while I totally disagree with your summation, if it were so, I would still rather be known as “one who avoids” rather than one who plunders, kills, steals, infects, and annihilates entire cultures and civilizations.