Laptops

I like to read books that pull me out of my little world. I've come to treasure books like Roots by Alex Haley, The Good Earth by Pearl Buck, and Life Is So Good by George Dawson and Richard Daubman. They help me think outside of my box.

You would think that I'd know better by now, but I watched 60 Minutes again the other week, and saw a piece on One Laptop Per Child, an organization started by some MIT guy (Nicholas Negroponte) to try to get laptops in the hands of every child in the world, specifically those in third world countries. Initial thought: that's nice. And then they showed a village in remote Cambodia where there was no running water or electricity. There was a shot of a family gathered around the soft glow of a laptop in their dark hut. Next thought: that's ridiculous.

There was a special hut built to house generators to power the laptops and the electronics necessary to connect them with the rest of the world. That's right. This little village with no running water is sporting a satellite dish.

I have come to the conclusion that 'Western Society' is whacked, and we are doing our best to screw up the rest of the world, too. We are trying to send the message that nobody should be content with their lives. We are trying to send the message that the goal in life should be to gain as much knowledge as possible in order to obtain that envied executive desk job where one only has to lift one's fingers so much as to type.

I was struck by a passage in The Good Earth that said, in essence, that when a man is put in a position where is is no longer necessary for him to physically work for his living, it opens him up to a greater danger of corruption. Think about the men with desk jobs who inadvertently have become addicted to Internet porn. The man behind a plow hasn't the time for that.

It seems that there is a message being sent to the world that no one should be content to simply work and survive. The 'American Dream' is the sentiment that we should never be content with what our parents achieved, but that we should 'rise above' and try to get more stuff.

Let me clarify. I am not saying it is wrong to try to 'better yourself' through education and a higher paying job. I am say that we have devalued those who are content with life as it was given them. We are dishonoring those, who by Western standards, are 'poor' (don't have a car, computer, or [gasp] running water) and take pride in wrestling an existence from the earth.

Forget the laptop, Negroponte... If I lived in the bush of Africa, I'd rather have a cow.