Sitting in a restaurant in Thailand, eating lunch, I see a group of 4 young people come in and sit down. They immediately take out their phones and begin scrolling. The waitress comes over, takes their order, and when she leaves, they go back to their phones. The food comes, they eat with one hand and scroll with the other. At the end of the meal, they pay the bill, stand up, phones in hand and walk out. Other than giving their order, not a word was spoken.
A Few weeks ago, one of our daughters and her husband, both in their late 30s, went to supper at a restaurant with us. As soon as we sat down, they took out their phones and began scrolling. After supper, I asked my wife, "Why did they want to go to supper with us?"
I'd rather spend my time alone or with my wife rather than with others who have cell phones.
Thank you so much, Arthur. Really appreciate your kind words. I'm announcing this next week, but I thought you'd like to know that....drum roll.....I've started working an official Horace Silver documentary. A very exciting project as you can well imagine.
Hell yeah! Do you have a background with Horace Silver? I missed him completely in the waves of musicians coming out of the era. I look forward to seeing it. Bret,, you occupy a unique spot in the jazz world. It's often said that Jazz is "musicians' music". To an extent that's true but jazz couldn't survive ONLY on the musicians. That's why I love Dave Brubeck. He appeals to everyone and he's f.....ing good!
I've been a Horace Silver fan for sixty years and met him several times.
I feel lucky to have seen Dave Brubeck when was fourteen, when the Quartet with Paul Desmond and Joe Morello came to my high school school.
And then, thirty five years later, I produced a live webcast from Birdland featuring his Quartet. Dave was a great musiciian and human being. You can tell quite a bit about people from their children and Dave sons are also cool cats.
I don't know about the US, but in France isolation is at its peak. The absurd gap between generations, the inexistant interactions in daily life because of machines doing the petty jobs humans were doing, the gentrification of urban centres, the morbid dictatorship instituted by the DINKs (Dual Income No Kids), the atrocious decline of poor people nowadays and the lack of promise of a better human condition for tomorrow; that and many other things are leading to the ludicrous zombification of society you so precisely depicted.
Part of the problem might be a dislocation of modern human societies, the fact that we are losing our common sense. Mexicans are not good for ideologies, not good for fanatism to be honest, not good for high precision engineering or painting a wall without painting everything around. But, man, are they good for getting along, even for tagging along, for welcoming a foreigner or quickly integrating someone they don't know into their community.
The mystery is why. And it might be that they know how to live in the world as it is, and not as they'd want it to be. We, westerners are intoxicated with doctrines and ideologies. We are sad the world is not as we've been told it should be. This leads us to add a layer to reality.
However, two months ago, I attended a festival for the Seri, a seven hundred people tribe in the State of Sonora. I had a wonderful time talking to them, but I was appalled by the fact that they couldn't drop their phones for a minute; exactly what US teenagers would do. Anyway, I realized there's also a cognitive problem. I've read that it's the urge for a dopamine release that keeps us scrolling to death.
Anyway, I understand distraction is an issue. But I think dealing with a reality that doesn't need us is a bigger issue. You quoted Sartre, I would quote Camus when he said that Sisyphus didn't mind pushing the rock. In fact, he liked the rock, he got used to it, to its coldness, to its uneven surface, to its rough texture. He developed a relationship with the rock that was far more important to him that his absurd condition. "One must imagine Sisyphus happy", he wrote. I think we might have the same relationship with our phone Sisyphus had with the rock. Focusing on the rock to forget our absurd condition. Scrolling to death, time and again, to forget we're doomed anyway.
Question is: Was Holden Caulfield just looking for his cellphone?
This is simply a masterful piece of journalism Bret. No holds barred, no sharp edges softened. My fervent hope is that it is read by and gives food for thought to a great many people for whom hope is currently hard to hold on to.
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on this. The world has gone mad.
One person, one day at a time. It’s all I can do.
I’m just trying to be here now. Not get sidetracked by all the shit going on. It can difficult, but the music always gets me straight. I’ll put on some Lee Morgan, some Coltrane. a little Ben Webster. That’s all I need.
Playing music has been a lifelong journey for me and continues to be so. Music has saved my life more times than I can count and continues to do so, especially on difficult days. A couple of the tunes Eddie Jefferson did with Richie Cole have been resonating today, "Same thing everywhere" and "Waltz for a Rainy Bebop Evening". Probably heading for Coltrane myself by the shank of the evening.
I don't have a "jazz person" in my life, Bret. I"m arranging to record my songs with a great guitarist and bassist who are twenty or more years younger than myself. It's good but not the same as hanging with someone my age who has experienced the upheavals, musical and in matters of Consciousness, of our times. I saw vids of Guanajuato's "hammer festival" and it was so crazy and funny that I wanted to be there and hang with you.
Sitting in a restaurant in Thailand, eating lunch, I see a group of 4 young people come in and sit down. They immediately take out their phones and begin scrolling. The waitress comes over, takes their order, and when she leaves, they go back to their phones. The food comes, they eat with one hand and scroll with the other. At the end of the meal, they pay the bill, stand up, phones in hand and walk out. Other than giving their order, not a word was spoken.
A Few weeks ago, one of our daughters and her husband, both in their late 30s, went to supper at a restaurant with us. As soon as we sat down, they took out their phones and began scrolling. After supper, I asked my wife, "Why did they want to go to supper with us?"
I'd rather spend my time alone or with my wife rather than with others who have cell phones.
This is so on point!! You captured the Zeitgeist of our times. Thoreau would be impressed “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation”
Thanks David. We’re moving through some very strange times.
BTW, P.S. and all that: You are an excellent writer, cogent, economical and insightful.
Thank you so much, Arthur. Really appreciate your kind words. I'm announcing this next week, but I thought you'd like to know that....drum roll.....I've started working an official Horace Silver documentary. A very exciting project as you can well imagine.
Hell yeah! Do you have a background with Horace Silver? I missed him completely in the waves of musicians coming out of the era. I look forward to seeing it. Bret,, you occupy a unique spot in the jazz world. It's often said that Jazz is "musicians' music". To an extent that's true but jazz couldn't survive ONLY on the musicians. That's why I love Dave Brubeck. He appeals to everyone and he's f.....ing good!
I've been a Horace Silver fan for sixty years and met him several times.
I feel lucky to have seen Dave Brubeck when was fourteen, when the Quartet with Paul Desmond and Joe Morello came to my high school school.
And then, thirty five years later, I produced a live webcast from Birdland featuring his Quartet. Dave was a great musiciian and human being. You can tell quite a bit about people from their children and Dave sons are also cool cats.
I just saw a 2006 Brubeck quartet video and It was stunning! I was such a snob back in my teens.
I don't know about the US, but in France isolation is at its peak. The absurd gap between generations, the inexistant interactions in daily life because of machines doing the petty jobs humans were doing, the gentrification of urban centres, the morbid dictatorship instituted by the DINKs (Dual Income No Kids), the atrocious decline of poor people nowadays and the lack of promise of a better human condition for tomorrow; that and many other things are leading to the ludicrous zombification of society you so precisely depicted.
Part of the problem might be a dislocation of modern human societies, the fact that we are losing our common sense. Mexicans are not good for ideologies, not good for fanatism to be honest, not good for high precision engineering or painting a wall without painting everything around. But, man, are they good for getting along, even for tagging along, for welcoming a foreigner or quickly integrating someone they don't know into their community.
The mystery is why. And it might be that they know how to live in the world as it is, and not as they'd want it to be. We, westerners are intoxicated with doctrines and ideologies. We are sad the world is not as we've been told it should be. This leads us to add a layer to reality.
However, two months ago, I attended a festival for the Seri, a seven hundred people tribe in the State of Sonora. I had a wonderful time talking to them, but I was appalled by the fact that they couldn't drop their phones for a minute; exactly what US teenagers would do. Anyway, I realized there's also a cognitive problem. I've read that it's the urge for a dopamine release that keeps us scrolling to death.
Anyway, I understand distraction is an issue. But I think dealing with a reality that doesn't need us is a bigger issue. You quoted Sartre, I would quote Camus when he said that Sisyphus didn't mind pushing the rock. In fact, he liked the rock, he got used to it, to its coldness, to its uneven surface, to its rough texture. He developed a relationship with the rock that was far more important to him that his absurd condition. "One must imagine Sisyphus happy", he wrote. I think we might have the same relationship with our phone Sisyphus had with the rock. Focusing on the rock to forget our absurd condition. Scrolling to death, time and again, to forget we're doomed anyway.
Question is: Was Holden Caulfield just looking for his cellphone?
"They know how to live in the world as it is, and not as they'd want it to be." Ram Das: Be Here Now.
"a reality that doesn't need us"...this phrase says it all.
This is simply a masterful piece of journalism Bret. No holds barred, no sharp edges softened. My fervent hope is that it is read by and gives food for thought to a great many people for whom hope is currently hard to hold on to.
Tashi Delek Man.
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on this. The world has gone mad.
One person, one day at a time. It’s all I can do.
I’m just trying to be here now. Not get sidetracked by all the shit going on. It can difficult, but the music always gets me straight. I’ll put on some Lee Morgan, some Coltrane. a little Ben Webster. That’s all I need.
I totally understand.
Playing music has been a lifelong journey for me and continues to be so. Music has saved my life more times than I can count and continues to do so, especially on difficult days. A couple of the tunes Eddie Jefferson did with Richie Cole have been resonating today, "Same thing everywhere" and "Waltz for a Rainy Bebop Evening". Probably heading for Coltrane myself by the shank of the evening.
I don't have a "jazz person" in my life, Bret. I"m arranging to record my songs with a great guitarist and bassist who are twenty or more years younger than myself. It's good but not the same as hanging with someone my age who has experienced the upheavals, musical and in matters of Consciousness, of our times. I saw vids of Guanajuato's "hammer festival" and it was so crazy and funny that I wanted to be there and hang with you.