Facetious Complaints of the 21st Century

Captain's Log. Stardate 6497something...

The year (in AD) is 2011 and war spreads across nations like wildfire uncontrolled and with an insatiable appetite for destruction. People starve and die en masse. Families are torn apart by the warfare and various other manmade problems. On other parts of the world, people are gorging themselves and consuming the precious little resources available.

Fucked up, isn't it?

It's not fiction but it does bother me. It's 2011 and it's "the future". There are a lot of things that television and literature (and just about every other "creative" medium) have set expectations for but have not been met. Not even close. Or we've made advances in areas that aren't really our priorities.

Well, let's get started.

Among my facetious complaints are: robots, flying cars, space travel that the average person can access (even with some degree of saving up money).

These are somewhat joking complaints because all the sci-fi future related stuff I grew up on prepared me to expect stuff like this by now. So whenever I look at the sky and see no flying cars, I'm disappointed. Even more so when I realize that they won't be around in my lifetime. Or I'll be old and brittle by the time they're available even in their prototype stages.

I'm annoyed that there aren't any robots for the same reason- high expectations. Or more accurately, overly optimistic estimates.

Space travel same reason.

I say facetious because I like to joke around with a specific topic I'm focused on. This has gotten me in trouble several times in the past yet I persist on trying to find humor.

"Men of humor are always in some degree men of genius." or so says Coleridge, one of my favorite writers. Of all time.

And I take that personally because I like to believe the best about myself. And as such I'll think of myself as a funny person and a genius... to some degree. A heads-up: looking for that quote online will yield a variation that is meant to be more... universal: replace "men" with "people".

Those are my complaints because I grew up on television and a great deal of interest in science fiction- namely in stuff like Star Wars and the concept of outer space, interplanetary travel, and good ol' time travel which if reached would unravel everything we know. As I got older my interest in that particular area expanded, though I still like Star Wars. The original trilogy, not so much the prequels- wasted potential and poor execution. Which is why whenever I think future, I think of robots and flying cars.

While I try to find myself funny with my complaints, they hold no substance.