The Curse of Abundance

     We are a blessed land. We have an abundance of resources, an abundance of technology, an abundance of information, an abundance of freedom, and an abundance of choice. Abundance is a two-sided coin, blessing, and curse. Because of our abundances, we now have an abundance of obesity, an abundance of divorce, an abundance of promiscuity, and an abundance of self-indulgance. It is no wonder that we have time on our hands to create mischief. A century ago, a days work was still a hard days work. The industrial revolution hadn't quite permeated our culture with its effects, and the electronic revolution was a dream. Farms and Factorys were the mainstay of American life. Now, it's the Internet, Laptops, PDAs, Cell Phones, Robotics, and Outsourcing. Instead of going to the office, we've brought the office home. Wireless, VPN, B2B, and Infrared. Remote Desktops and Cubicles. Downsizing and Rightsizing. Databases, Spreadsheets, and Interactive Presentations. At the end of the day, we've accomplished less, but in so much more complicated and flashy a manner.
     The simplicity of a hard day's work, of muscle ache and the satisfaction of doing things the right way, it's all going, going, gone. Soon, even the master craftsman will be controlling his tools via a cerebral link to a robotic system. Think, and it will be made. Creation by thought. Technology will bring us closer to God, and closer to godhood. Abundance is our blessing, and our curse, for to all the abundance with which we've been blessed, we have responded with an abundance of hubris, each leap forward spawning exponential growth, an ego accelerated. Some day soon, someone will say, "We can be as gods."