Call me obsolete

The new American – what is he like? According to the US Census Bureau’s 2007 Statistical Abstract of the United States to be published today, the 21^st Century edition of Homo Sapiens Americanus is taller, fatter and much more likely to be seen sipping like an infant from a bottle: ten times more likely than he was in 1980 according to the New York Times.

The American of today seems more likely to choose prayer than a Chiropractor than he was 25 years ago and more likely to get news and information from the Internet than in previous years; no surprise there or in that we seem to be spending more quality time alone being entertained and informed without human contact.

As a college Freshman in the 1960’s, my objective was to become a cultured man. My choices, a cause of concern to the administration, were a farrago of subjects from Japanese esoteric Buddhism to thermionic devices to structural geology to music theory to Medieval German Literature to aerodynamics to English Romantic poetry. Had I heard the voice ask “quo vadis?” I could not have answered, nor could I today I fear.

Those very few who admitted to being business majors in my day had few friends and little respect. In 1970, a whopping 79% of freshmen gave their educational goal as “developing a meaningful philosophy of life.” Last year, 75% asserted that their objective was to get rich.

Still, the ratio of men to women obtaining professional degrees 35 years ago was about 15 to 1 versus today’s nearly 50:50. The number of woman doctors has doubled. It’s hard for a curmudgeon to see anything but progress in that, but still I wonder about how many of these newly degreed young men and women could tell you the differences between Soka Gakkai and Nichiren Shoshu or describe a beam power tetrode or quote Roswitha von Gandersheim.

And I alone have escaped to tell thee.