The New Normal

March 28, 2020

Robert Rauschenberg's Coca Cola Plan / MoCA

Some very thoughtful and intelligent folks are having an actual conversation on Facebook regarding the shift in the social paradigm in our society that may or may not be the result of this plague. 

There are some highly educated people using terms like 'node' and refer to the psychological impact of social structure as it's been changed over the past several years by E communication and social distancing by the 'convenience' of texting, tweeting and other impersonal means of connecting.  Now, with the plague, we must rely on it even more.

It's a really important time for intelligent folks to come to the fore to find ways to use agreeable communication to quell our fears rising daily and then.. when we feel safe to see one another again.. to touch.. Touch is vital..
The Human Touch. 

We may return to the land of the "Love In?" The 'Be In': A gathering of a tribe of folks who subscribe to the idea that sharing our humanity may be the answer to the issue of distance and missed understandings because of E communication. 

I hope the following makes sense. It's my reaction to the thoughtful back and forth on Facebook today, March 28, 2020. 

This is what I wrote in the FB discussion a few minutes ago: 

The basics of human interaction have been usurped by the burgeoning advance of E communication: email, texts, tweets, etc. We are more and more divorced from voice and personal interaction.. now dictated by this plague. Even with Skype and other visual aids, as the cell phone became our essential mobile connection to the world, our reliance on personal connections has faded. 

This is not Armageddon..yet.. But as we allow ourselves in the healthy world: the healthy world to come...  to abandon Personal Connections.. our 'nodes' (personal self contained spaces) become isolated. 

 I review Live Theatre. No more for now. Art galleries, concerts, gatherings of families and friends. Dining  out. A walk on the beach or in the park. On hold.

Losing art in a very personal way reminds me of a line from a Joni Mitchell song.. "They paved Paradise and put up a Parking Lot!". .Joni's lyrics are horribly prescient. 

 (Please do a search for the lyrics.) 

 The day when an open forum will take my ideas and those of folks who are psychologically much better educated than I am to discuss how to restore our society in the face of what we shall have survived.. hopefully.. is a day, perhaps, that  community leaders: political representatives, social influencers, contemporary movers and shakers? .. the artists, philosophers, scientists and folks with questions to ask and answers to share may gather in the outdoors and share food and ideas and Art. 

Art, to me, is essential: it is fundamental and  absolutely vital. 
 

ART may save us in the end.  

michael sheehan

3/28/20  

4:55 PM  PDT 

Glendale, California